Does a Jewish magazine need a rabbi?

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  • #1461682
    Oceanview
    Participant

    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?

    #1461695
    Joseph
    Participant

    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.

    #1461698
    Takes2-2tango
    Participant

    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?

    #1461699
    Samantha101
    Participant

    Obviously its not the same thing but like any organization it is important to have a rabbi!

    #1461700
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    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.

    #1461733
    yrca
    Participant

    yes of course it needs a rav

    #1461755
    Jersey Jew
    Participant

    Joseph,

    So sorry but you are incorrect. Hamodea has Rabbinic advisory and it seems yated has as well.

    #1461758

    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.

    #1461759

    ALSO, any projects I create, I always get rabinical backing and involvement. I personally think that’s not only necessary but vital.

    #1461748
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    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.

    #1461786
    Joseph
    Participant

    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.

    #1461790
    yudel
    Participant

    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.

    #1461820
    ubiquitin
    Participant

    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.

    #1461821
    ubiquitin
    Participant

    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?

    #1461964
    Oceanview
    Participant

    I noticed that Zman had but doesn’t anymore

    #1462088
    Oceanview
    Participant

    IMHO, treif words are much more subtle to detect than treife food ingredients.

    #1462087
    Oceanview
    Participant

    Please be respectful. If having a Rav on a magazine does not ensure the kashrus of its words, then certainly if there is no Rav isn’t it virtually bound to have treif? No?

    #1462086
    Oceanview
    Participant

    So because a mashgiach might cost money let the restaurant operate without rabbinic supervision?

    #1462075
    Jersey Jew
    Participant

    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.

    #1462102
    Joseph
    Participant

    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?

    #1462117
    Oceanview
    Participant

    Zman STILL has a prominent Monsey Rov as their Rabbinic Advisor.

    Rabbi Veiner used to be the Rav but he is no longer. They don’t have one it seems.

    #1462183
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    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.

    #1462186
    smerel
    Participant

    It is way more important for a website to have a rav that it answers to.

    #1462193
    Joseph
    Participant

    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.

    #1462623
    Oceanview
    Participant

    “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.”

    I don’t know if a Rav is needed to approve every word. But I think one is needed to answer macro questions like the concept of an article or the direction of a publication. E.g. ownership might want an article because it will sell, but a Rav thinks there are negatives, and the negatives outweigh the positives. That’s what you need a Rav for. And that’s why ownership might not want a Rav. An ehrlich owner/publication will have a Rav. Otherwise, the public may be consuming treif without even knowing it.

    #1462670
    Joseph
    Participant

    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.

    #1462750
    Oceanview
    Participant

    Joseph: If that’s the case, then no publication should exist. But I don’t know if I agree with you. Does every restaurant have to have a talmid chochom chef who pours in every ingredient? Or at least looking over the should of every single movement every single cook in the kitchen does?

    #1462773
    M
    Participant

    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!

    #1462780
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    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.

    #1463220
    Oceanview
    Participant

    “Zman STILL has a prominent Monsey Rov as their Rabbinic Advisor.”

    I just confirmed that Zman has not had a rav for over a year.

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