In June 2015, a group of rabbis launched a service called Shailatext [shaila means “question”]. It is operated by the Federation of Synagogues and allows people to text queries about Jewish law to a group of experts and receive a rapid answer.
The following year it received more than 8,000 questions. Last year, it received over 11,000.
Shailatext says that it attempts to answer questions “within four working hours”, but it takes just half an hour for me to receive mine.
“Remove the fly and any visible residue from it,” it says.
“Everything else is fine.”
To date, the service has received over 25,000 halachic questions.
Rabbi Dovid Tugendhaft, one of the people behind the service, explains that it was set up in the memory of Dayan Gershon Lopian, the former rabbi of Edgware Yeshurun synagogue, who had been a prominent halachic authority in North London.
“Dayan Lopian was a real mentor to young rabbis in the area and people would call him from all over the world to ask him their shailos,” Rabbi Tugendhaft said.
When Dayan Lopian died, Rabbi Tugendhaft added, the rabbis realised that there was “a big void” in terms of people being able to ask questions of a rabbi “in a non-judgemental way.” They decided to try to fill that gap.
Rabbi Tugendhaft said the service has been designed to be “totally anonymous — people send their texts to a number and that text goes to an app, developed specifically for Shailatext.
“We have no way of knowing who is asking the question, unless they actually write their name.
“A lot of people specifically want a confidential service. Their question could be something they’re embarrassed to speak about to their own Rabbi. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to ask.”
Moshe Winegarten, a trustee of the Federation, was a key figure in the development of the Shailatext system.
“We built a custom-made back-end admin app to remove as much manual administration as possible,” he says.
“The Rabbis have a dedicated app on their phones where the Shailas come to. They can communicate — there’s consensus checking, so each answer is double checked. Two Rabbis sign off on it. A lot of thought and development has gone into that. We’re very proud of it. We’ve had an absolutely phenomenal response.”
There are currently five Federation rabbis manning the service but, as Rabbi Tugendhaft says, with questions about “every possible thing, whether it’s kashrut, monetary issues, Shabbat issues”, there are others on hand to help.
“If there’s a shaila where we feel a certain expertise is needed, we have our own little groups, where we have some doctors if there’s some medical information that we need, or people who are experts in Kashrut and food technology,” Rabbi Tugendhaft says. “If it’s monetary law, we might send it to one our Federation Dayanim and discuss it with him.”
Dayan Yaakov Lichtenstein, the head of the Federation’s Beit Din, said the rabbis behind Shailatext refer a particularly tricky issue to him “almost every day”.
He described the questions as being “quite a window into what’s really going on in the community. There are a very wide variety of shailos – a lot which I never would have thought so many people are asking about.
“For example, certain shailos like mix-ups in the kitchen are common. But I’m impressed by how many people are asking detailed questions on yichud [laws relating to morality] or tzedaka [charity].”
The Federation confirmed that most of the questions come from the UK, “but we know that we also have users who have texted from Belgium, Germany, Gibraltar, Israel, Netherlands and Austria.”
Rabbi Tugendhaft stresses, however, that the service is not intended to “take over the role of the relationship between a person and their Rabbi.
“It says in Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers], “Asei L’cha Rav” — you’re meant to have a Rabbi.
“We believe it’s a really core part of Judaism to have a Rabbinic authority who knows you and who you can go discuss your Halachic situation with.
“Different people have different circumstances, and it’s important that you have a Rabbi who understands your situation and who you, ideally, have an existing relationship with.
Shailatext is for all those who fall between the cracks and either don’t have a Rabbi currently can’t get hold of their Rabbi, who could be very busy, or away — it is only to fill that gap.”
The Shailatext hotline can be messaged on 07403 939 613.
