Question:
Is it Mutar to:
- Check/respond to emails or text messages before davening Shachris?
- Is it Mutar to buy/sell stocks before Shachris?
- Is there a difference if it’s before Alos?
Answer:
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- It is permitted to check your e-mail in a superficial way, but you shouldn’t respond to them, unless it is an e-mail regarding a mitzva.
- We are not allowed to do business after the zman for davening starts. Buying and selling stocks is considered doing business.
- Before alos it is permitted to do business, however during the half hour before alos, it is preferred that one say brachos before engaging in any business.
Best wishes
Sources:
- In O:CH siman 89 (2-7) it lists several things that we don’t do before davening. Going to greet another person, eating, taking care of personal business, (however mitzva things are permitted), doing things that will sidetrack us and we might forget to daven on time. R’ Y. Berkowitz shlit”a holds that writing an e-mail is similar to going to another to greet him, and therefore should not be done before davening. (As a side point, see Oz Nidberu 14-34 regarding making a phone call before shacharis.) Also see Toras Chaim (Sofer) 46-2 that one shouldn’t write personal letters before davening shacharis. Regarding reading e-mails, it is permitted, but only if it is done in a superficial way, and not in a way that he may get stuck on it before davening, (see Halichos Shlomo -tefillah 2 ftnt. 7, Zera Shmuel siman 80)
- O:CH 89-3, M: 89-17.
- M:B 89-17 in the name of Eliyahu Rabba.
