"It is impossible to filter out the entire world. Threats, more restrictions and fear-mongering will not elevate our avodas Hashem.” - Rav Moshe Weinberger
You know that awesome feeling a yeshiva boy has when he thinks up something new and original all on his own, a chiddush, or sometimes even a kasha (question), and then the Rebbi tells him he was michaven to a rabbi akiva eiger or maybe even a rishon and it makes him feel only better.
Why would a child be so excited that he is repeating the same thing as someone over one thousand years ago? Because, the boy is taking pride in the feeling of having had that same insight that another great person had and moreover it proves to the boy that he grasps the sugya at hand, well enough to be bothered by the same question a great talmudic scholar was millenniums ago. It’s like discovering the world is round all on your own.
Listening to Rabbi Weinberger’s shiur made me feel like that boy.
“Internet in the Jewish Home is a discussion of critical information every Orthodox Jew needs to know about the Internet. It provides a comprehensive worldview as well as specific technologies and detailed tips to enable safer Internet usage. Featuring Rabbi Gil Student and organized together with Dovid Teitelbaum, this lecture gives you the ability to take control of your and your children’s Internet experience.”
For the past few weeks, I have been helping and assisting on the creation of this new website, InternetinJewishHome.com, and I’m excited to let my friends know that it is finally ready for launch. This project is going to be a work in progress, and I’m open for suggestions and constructive criticism.
After writing my first article about the Internet and my view on educating rather than filtering as the method of choice, I received such positive feedback. I counted over 30 websites that picked up my article, including one blog that translated every word into Yiddish with his own notes. 95 percent of the comments were positive. I had mechanchim and Roshei Yeshiva call me to tell me what a beautiful article I wrote. I really believed I was on to something and that people were beginning to realize the futility of banning something we all use daily. However, not one asifa has yet to even acknowledge any other solution besides filtering, and not one of my ideas was even discussed in a public forum. They kept repeating the “filters” mantra over and over.
