Asking A Jew To Download For Me [#14093] [עברית: #13881]

August 1, 2021

Question:

I left internet and e-mail totally. I had been very connected for many years to a certain shiur that was available only on internet and I would pay money to get the shiurim and I still pay for it, through a private use of YooTube. Here there’s a sefarim store with a service for downloading music from the internet where you can pay a frum Jew to download music off the internet and pay him for it – am I allowed to pay him to buy the shiurim from the Web for me?

Answer:

If the site he is using is not closed off from the rest of the internet [if it’s not whitelist], no.

Question:

2) As an aside, the one giving these shiurim is involved with kiruv and puts his video shiurim on the internet and he also uses a smartphone so that his shiurim can be viewed on FaceBook.

Answer:

It would be proper to look for a different rav who is more careful about his technology use.

Question:

3) I feel that using the downloading service to get shiurim for me would bring me to my Internet identity and make me feel connected again to it. Is that a sign that I shouldn’t use the downloading service? I don’t want to break my connection with Hashem and become connected again to tumah chas v’shalom.

Answer:

It would be better to search for an alternative route that is purer, and to get your Torah knowledge from a purer source.