[Avodah] Sending Unsolicited Bulk Emails

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, January 27, 2008 2:11 pm, Richard Wolberg wrote:
: The question was asked:
:> Have any poskim addressed the question of whether sending unsolicited
:> bulk emails is assur?

: There are poskim who say that having a television is assur. I think
: that question is just as absurd.  However, sending them on Shabbos is
: assur; however, I've heard respected O. rabbonim who say that watching
: television on Shabbos is technically not being m'chalel Shabbos
: although it is certainly against the spirit of Shabbos.

Then there's the case (BM 83a) where Raba's barrels were broken by his
workmen and he went to Rav for adjudication. Rav required he return
the mashkon and in the end pay the workers (who were poor) to boot!
Each time "is this din?" and Rav first answered "lema'an teileikh
bederekh tzadiqim" and thus he had to return their clothers and the
second time "uve'orkhos tzadiqim tishmor" (Mishlei 2:20) and they must
be paid.

According to Rav, the ikar hadin goes beyond the ikar hadin. Rabba may
have agreed, or may have only followed Rav because he chose Rav to
adjudicate.

Along these lines... There is no question to my mind that by Rav's
definition of halakhah, spamming would be assur.

But the question of the line between mechlachkeit and din is still
unclear to me.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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