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Jewish World Review Jan. 25, 2000 /18 Shevat, 5760
Fervently-Orthodox Jews are neither Luddites nor
Amish, who eschew modern machinery; they seek to
remain masters of technology, not its slaves
LONG-TIME SYMPATHIZERS with the fervently-Orthodox Jewish community are
concerned. Shahar Ilan, writing in Ha'aretz about the
proclamation signed by most leading haredi rabbis
warning of the danger of Internet in the home, worries
that the ban will prevent fervently-Orthodox Jews from earning a
computer-related livelihood.
He needn't worry. The edict, as he notes, explicitly
recognizes the central role of computer technology in the
modern workplace. It applies only to the home. And a
rabbinic committee was established to advise where
workplace and home overlap.
As a consequence of the rabbinic proclamation, Beis
Yaakov Seminaries did not remove computer training
from the curriculum. Nor have the rapidly proliferating
technical institutes providing computer education to haredi
men and women close their doors.
Fervently-Orthodox Jews are neither Luddites nor Amish, who eschew
modern technology. Computers have proven to be the
economic salvation of large segments of haredi Jewry in
the United States, and that trend is being repeated in
Israel.
Fervently-Orthodox Jews were quick to seize on the remarkable potential
of the Internet for outreach work. The Internet removes
all entry barriers to Jewish learning. "Ask the Rabbi" sites
established by the leading outreach yeshivot draw
hundreds of queries a day. Project Genesis's web site
receives hundreds of thousands of hits a month. These
programs will be unaffected by the ban.
Though fervently-Orthodox Jews don't reject modern technology, they
don't subscribe to the cult of the new, according to which
life without the most up-to-date technology is considered
not worth living. They seek to remain masters of
technology, not its slaves.
On a more general level, they walk the same tightrope
Jews have always walked. They function - often very
successfully - within modern society, while rejecting many
key values of society. They do not accept modernity's
elevation of unbridled freedom as the supreme human
value, nor its emphasis on the pursuit of material pleasure.
Our Sages describe shame as one of the defining values
of the Jewish people, and it is precisely that sense of
shame which modern society lacks.
The Torah teaches us that every visual image to which
we are exposed leaves its impact, and that impact is in
some way permanent. Twice a day, we repeat in the
Shema prayer the commandment not to "follow after your eyes."
Much of what surrounds us today is, by the standards of
the Torah, simply moral pollution.
As First Amendment scholar Daniel Lowenthal wrote
recently: "Never before in the history of mankind have the
moral restraints and aspirations necessary to the fullness
of our nature, and to our civilization itself, been subjected
to so ubiquitous and persistent an assault."
As Lowenthal demonstrates, one need not be haredi to
fear for the sensory assault to which our youth are
exposed. In a recent study of school violence in Israel,
50% of teachers reported being verbally or physically
assaulted by students in the preceding year. When
teachers, parents, and students were asked to explain the
high rates of student violence, the most frequently named
factor among all three groups was the media - that is, the
visual messages to which children are exposed.
What distinguishes the fervently-Orthodox Jewsis that having identified a
problem, they are willing to do something about it. Much
of the ridicule heaped on the haredi ban on home Internet
use can be attributed to the jealousy of parents who can
no longer say no to their children.
A recent poll in America found that a majority of parents
believe their children are entering inappropriate sites on
the Internet. (If any confirmation were needed, consider
that the second highest traffic on Israel's largest
pornography site is 3 p.m., when many children are home
by themselves.)
But most of those parents claim to be convinced that the
benefits of the Internet outweigh the costs. For fervently-Orthodox Jews,
no such balancing is possible. Damage to the holiness of
one's soul cannot be compensated for later, any more
than a dieter can compensate for a chocolate mousse by
eating a fruit salad afterwards.
Few parents who claim to believe the Internet is on the
whole positive have any real evidence. They have to
believe that in order to avoid confronting ornery teenagers
by depriving them of their toys.
For the same reason, it took hundreds of studies showing
a link between violent images on TV and behavior before
the message began to sink in. And it is unlikely that most
parents today will heed the warnings of some
psychologists that prolonged exposure to computers may
alter brain physiology in young viewers and lead to a
higher incidence of attention deficit disorder and youthful
depression.
Almost 65% of American homes possess interactive
computer games. Of the market for such games,
approximately 70% is composed of the most violent type.
Players of Vigilance, for instance, are encouraged to put
their "violent nature to good use." The game is advertised
with a shot of a high schooler, shotgun at his side and two
dead classmates at his feet.
To reach the highest level of Carmageddon, players are
required to run over 33,000 pedestrians. Soon interactive
technology will allow participants to experience the recoil
of a gun, to feel the sensation of stabbing someone, to
hear the pleading of victims and their screams of pain.
Do parents whose children play such games also believe
that on the whole they are salutary?
As someone who recently trashed his Internet browser, I
may strike some as a caveman. But those who conjure up
idyllic images of their children sitting at the computer with
warm milk and a plate of cookies while exploring the
furthest reaches of human knowledge strike me as
ostriches hiding their heads in the sand.
I'd rather be a
Of ostriches and cavemen
By Jonathan Rosenblum
JWR contributor Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He can be reached by clicking here.
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