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Is a Jewish magazine without a rabbi like a restaurant without a Mashgiach or are words different and we don’t need rabbis to tell us what kosher reading is?
None of the major “frum” dailies, weeklies or monthlies that I know of have any Rov vetting what they print to insure everything going to print is kosher. Most of what they write should be assumed to be Daas Balebatim and has no presumption of being correct.
Will the mashgiach be a paid employee of the the magazine owners or of a hashgacha agency?
Will the mashgiach be the only one to have the keys to the office?
Will thr mashgiach have the passwords to the servers?Obviously its not the same thing but like any organization it is important to have a rabbi!
In theory, every business has the potential to encounter issues of halacha but that doesn’t mean you need to pay some rebbe to set around during business hours in case you have a shaylah. Many food establishments have gone out of business, in part because of the high cost of keep a mashgiach on the payroll.. If a media company has some issue arise, send an email, text or just call your rav/posek and ask if some comment might be construed as lashon haroah or some photo might cross the line on matters of tziniu.
yes of course it needs a rav
Joseph,
So sorry but you are incorrect. Hamodea has Rabbinic advisory and it seems yated has as well.
It should. All the magazines I have written for/write for have a rabinical team. Mainstream stuff.
But, I wouldn’t necessarily take those rabbis to be MY personal rabbi.ALSO, any projects I create, I always get rabinical backing and involvement. I personally think that’s not only necessary but vital.
Joseph….
Sadly, there are many yiddeshe “magazines”, “news outlets” etc. which hav a Rav on their mastheads and still barely rise to the level of “Daas Balebatim”…..having some rebbele on the staff is no guarantee of a higher level of journalistic compliance with shulchan aruch given that so many of the likely questions of lashon horah, mavazeh talmedei chachamims, tzinius,etc are nuanced.
Jersey Jew:
1) Who are they?
2) Do they vet and approve of every word that’s printed every week? Not to mention every advertisement.
It needs a “qualified” Rabbi, one that is versed in all areas. For example all of the magazines, newspapers print recipes with questionable ingredients and or ingredients that require proper bedikas for infestation, The home consumer is unqualified and untrained for those bedikas.
To answer the OP’s quetion
no.
“Is a Jewish magazine without a rabbi like a restaurant without a Mashgiach”
Yes both arent automatically assur. Both depend on the content produced. Now with restaurant you may not know what ingredients are being used so you may want a mashgiach to look out for you. But with a magazine you do know.“we don’t need rabbis to tell us what kosher reading is?”
A mashgiach n a restaurant doesnt tell you what kosher eating is. the shulchan aruch does. All the mashgiach tells you i if the food produced follows the rules laid out. If you have anoher way of ascertaining it, say the restaurant is owned by person you trust, or the ingredient are all innocuous like bread from a goyish bakery centuries ago, or some products (beer, bourbon ) today then you dont need a mashgiach.If you are not sure “what kosher reading is” then by all means bring a magazine to a mashgiach and have him inspect it.
Jersey, Joseph
“So sorry but you are incorrect. Hamodea has Rabbinic advisory and it seems yated has as well.”
Ami does as well. ITs masthead lists Rabbi Moshe Taub as its Rabbinic advisor.Yudel
“For example all of the magazines, newspapers print recipes with questionable ingredients and or ingredients that require proper bedikas for infestation,”
You think thats bad?! My supermarket lets people shop and then cook at home without a mashgiach. what if people mix basar vechalav? what if they cook on Shabbos. ITs time we demand a mashgiach accompanying every consumer, we cant trust these unqaulified people.I know of a blog that bills itself as “the rest of the story” that just posts have verified lashon harah mxed in with motzei shem ra. The proprietor of that blog is “unqualified and untrained” to deccide fact from fiction, let alone mutar speeech from assur. Does it have a mashgiach?
Zman STILL has a prominent Monsey Rov as their Rabbinic Advisor. In addition. the editor, Yaakov Astor, is a ben torah who uses his saychil and knows quite well what his line in the sand is.
Jersey Jew: You didn’t answer my two questions. Is it because there is no answer? Are the supposed rabbis approving of Hamodia and Yated anonymous or non-existant? Do they not approve every word printed every week?
IMHO, all these magazines and newspapers may have a Rov as an adviser but I don’t believe they run every single article in front of him for his approval.
It is way more important for a website to have a rav that it answers to.
If the weeklies don’t have a Rov approving every word printed, I’m not sure how they are any different than the Coffee Room or many websites.
Oceanview: All it takes is “one word” to print kefira. And if it isn’t actual kefira it still only takes one word or a few words to print halachicly and/or hashkafically destructive content. So, yes, unless a big Talmid Chochom is approving every word then people need to regard anything printed in the paper as being potentially wrong from a halachic and hashkafic view.
That’s just about the articles. The same point applies to the advertisements as well.
Every Jewish organization and store MUST have a rav. A yeshiva, a shul, a magazine, a restaurant, a store, etc. For example, even a a store that “just” sells office supplies must have a rav. There are just so many shaylose that come up all the time. Without a rav, how can the store owner know whether it’s ok to sell certain smartphones? How would thy ever know how late they’re allowed to stay open on erev shabbos? How would they know whether they can put up an advertisement with a woman’s face on it? These are very serious shaylose. The same is true for every business, including mortgage brokers, doctor’s offices, food stores, etc, etc. So many shaylose in chosehn mishpat and yoreh dei’ah, I can’t at all see how someone would think of opening such a business without a rav!
M: While every businessman or businesswoman must have a Rav, not every question you listed needs a Rav to answer. Some questions just need common sense. For example, “How would thy ever know how late they’re allowed to stay open on erev shabbos? ” I don’t know about you but I don’t need a Rav to tell me I have to leave my office 2 -3 hours before Shabbbos.
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