The Internet: Threat or Menace?
As the J-blogsphere is awash with the fallout from the Monsey Internet "conference", I thought I would chime in. I've been running this over in my head all morning and it keeps on boiling down to this:
They're right. They're also wrong.
No I'm not letting my Liberal Democrat upbringing show through. Let me explain by way of a story.
Reuven is hammering a nail into a wall so he can hang a picture. His friend Shimon comes up to him.
"Hey Reuven. What'cha doing?"
"Hammering this nail."
"Wow. Oh hey, be careful!"
"Why?"
"That hammer is dangerous. If you hit someone with it, you could really hurt him."
"Well, I don't plan on hitting anyone with it, so we're okay. I'm just using it to hang this picture."
"But you could!"
"But I won't."
"But you could if you wanted to!"
"But I don't want to!"
This goes on and on until a frustrated Reuven dashes Shimon's skull open with the hammer just to shut him up.
Too subtle a point?
The internet is a tool. It can be used for good or for bad. You can use it to glorify HaKadosh BaruchHu or use it to make the world's largest Chilul Hashem.
HaShem gifted us with Free Will. He also gifted us with the ability to make tools and shape our environment. The car, the telephone, the television� all inventions that have fundamentally altered the world. Also all inventions that can be used for assur purposes. They can also be used for Mitzvot.
The key is the people using those tools. What sort of children are we raising? Are we raising children who cannot be exposed to the potential for evil? Are we raising children who know the difference between right and wrong on their own? Further, what kind of parents do we want to be? Do we want to actually parent, or do we want the community/government/television to do it for us? Do we want our child to know what is right and proper and understand it, or do we want them to be blindly obedient robots?
In Bereishit, when HaShem commands Adam and Chava not to eat of the fruit, it is they who add a Chumrah and say to the Nachash "we were warned not to even touch it." When the Nachash caused Chava to touch the Tree and nothing bad happened, that opened the door for them to ignore the actual command.
Every parent and teacher needs to learn from that lesson. Being Machmar can be a good and wonderful thing. For adults. However, if we tell our children "If you look out of Tatie's Talit during duchining you will go blind" and it doesn't happen, the child will begin to wonder what else the father has exaggerated.
I have more to say on the topic of the internet and will, Im Yertza HaShem, say more soon.
As the J-blogsphere is awash with the fallout from the Monsey Internet "conference", I thought I would chime in. I've been running this over in my head all morning and it keeps on boiling down to this:
They're right. They're also wrong.
No I'm not letting my Liberal Democrat upbringing show through. Let me explain by way of a story.
Reuven is hammering a nail into a wall so he can hang a picture. His friend Shimon comes up to him.
"Hey Reuven. What'cha doing?"
"Hammering this nail."
"Wow. Oh hey, be careful!"
"Why?"
"That hammer is dangerous. If you hit someone with it, you could really hurt him."
"Well, I don't plan on hitting anyone with it, so we're okay. I'm just using it to hang this picture."
"But you could!"
"But I won't."
"But you could if you wanted to!"
"But I don't want to!"
This goes on and on until a frustrated Reuven dashes Shimon's skull open with the hammer just to shut him up.
Too subtle a point?
The internet is a tool. It can be used for good or for bad. You can use it to glorify HaKadosh BaruchHu or use it to make the world's largest Chilul Hashem.
HaShem gifted us with Free Will. He also gifted us with the ability to make tools and shape our environment. The car, the telephone, the television� all inventions that have fundamentally altered the world. Also all inventions that can be used for assur purposes. They can also be used for Mitzvot.
The key is the people using those tools. What sort of children are we raising? Are we raising children who cannot be exposed to the potential for evil? Are we raising children who know the difference between right and wrong on their own? Further, what kind of parents do we want to be? Do we want to actually parent, or do we want the community/government/television to do it for us? Do we want our child to know what is right and proper and understand it, or do we want them to be blindly obedient robots?
In Bereishit, when HaShem commands Adam and Chava not to eat of the fruit, it is they who add a Chumrah and say to the Nachash "we were warned not to even touch it." When the Nachash caused Chava to touch the Tree and nothing bad happened, that opened the door for them to ignore the actual command.
Every parent and teacher needs to learn from that lesson. Being Machmar can be a good and wonderful thing. For adults. However, if we tell our children "If you look out of Tatie's Talit during duchining you will go blind" and it doesn't happen, the child will begin to wonder what else the father has exaggerated.
I have more to say on the topic of the internet and will, Im Yertza HaShem, say more soon.
posted by - Typo Lad | 5:55 AM
3 Comments:
What I find depressing is the idea that Orthodox Judaism is so fragile that it would be threatened by the internet, or by scientific knowledge.
Very good post. Now, the question remains: Are you trying to say we should smash computers over the heads of certain people?!
Ezzie,
By blogging about it, we're essentially doing just that,a aren't we?
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