Is Blogging Maase Uman or Maase Hedyot?

We are currently learning mesechet moed katan in daf yomi. The premise of the mesechet deals with the often-overlooked laws of what is allowed and what is not allowed during hol hamoed. There are several factors into determining what is allowed, most notably the "davar ha'aveid" concept, which, in a nutshell says, that one can perform any melacha to avoid financial loss. but throughout the mesechet, we also see other concepts, such as whether the action is considered "maase uman" (an artisan's work) or "maase hedyot" (a layman's work). This concept essentially allows me to (try) to hem my pants during hol hamoed (if necessary), but would not allow "avremileh the shnaider" (tailor) to do so since he is a pro. finally, we learn the concept of tircha yeteirah, which sets parameters of "extranious effort" that should be avoided during hol hamoed.

the end of the mishna on 18b (we're a little behind!) lists among documents that can be written on hol hamoed, the "igeret reshut", which acc to Rashi, is a govt bill or proclomation. According to other rishonim, however, it is referring to a letter to a friend, and that would be mutar. So, where does blogging fall?

first and foremost, you will notice that i do not have Google's AdWords on this page, so i stand to gain and/or lose nothing by not blogging. so there goes the heter of davar ha'aveid (btw, those that do have AdWords, it would only be a profit and not a loss of what you already have). so, moving on to tircha, i find the HARDEST part of blogging is the thinking of what to write. and thinking, as we know, is not a melacha at all. once i get past that stage, the blogging itself is by no means a tircha (just look how long this post has gone on so far!). finally, we will consider uman vs. hedyot. well, if you consider that prior to the 1999 launch of blogger (and a few other fancy blog sites), push button publishing was unHEARD of. no artisan in the world could get the desired exposure he can get now with blogs. on the other hand, the term "push-button publishing" gives you reason to have the exact opposite shitah, all i do is click a button, that sounds like hedyot if you ask me.

well, to sum it up, it's not time for purim torah, but rather hol hamoed torah. i don't have a conclusion. i didn't ask a rav; i don't plan on it (at least not until next hol hamoed). as all you avid readers have noticed, i haven't blogged much more than once a week as it is, so i'll take a little break from blogging just in case it really is maaseh uman (although i can hear my nay-sayers thinking, "you think your blog is uman? yeah right"). but i do invite ya'll back following pesach. maybe i'll have something to write about by then. anyway, i wanted to take this chance to wish a pesach kasher v'sameach.