Poison

A comment on the "asifa":

Others have made similar comments but I articulate it my way with my own additional insight that the chonen li-adam daas has granted me...

ANYTHING negative you say about the internet is true. It is filthy, dirty and disgusting. There is an abundance of gilui arayos, shfichus domim and avoda zara - the three cardinal sins for which one must first die. It is the cause of bittul zman which is merely an elegant form of suicide. It destroys children, breaks up marriages and lowers people to the depths of depravity.

There are also tens of thousands of shiurim, sefarim, articles and videos on Jewish topics and countless aids in Avodas Hashem. We all know that. So it is not fair to characterize the internet in a purely negative light.

Water. If one drinks too much water he can die. Even water can be dangerous. Nobody would suggest we stop drinking water - just that we monitor how much we drink. Water is VERY important.

Automobiles: They KILL!! And maim. Every day. But we still drive - carefully. Cars do a lot of good. Try getting from Manhattan to Lakewood by horse. BUMPY! Or by foot - TIRING.

The telephone!!! If one speaks lashon hara it is worse than the three cardinal sins [yerushalmi] and the phone is the prime vehicle for lashon hara. Affairs. One can develop a forbidden relationship on the phone - at any place and at any time. And people do. But we still use the telephone. Carefully.

So we have a hadracha for life. Separate the chaff from the wheat, find the good and discard the bad.

Does this mean one should have internet in the home? No!

The internet is poison. But so is floor cleaner. In my house we have floor cleaner [I can't say I personally use it much but that just means that now that I am gone the floor is no more dirty or clean than normal]. So I will tell you how I decided. I have a Rebbe who is a formidable gadol bi-yisrael, Baruch Hashem. I decided that if he nixes it then I will banish it from my life. No more Mevakesh. No more email. No more. But he gave me his approval so I continue. So if you have a Rav you follow ask for a psak and act accordingly. THAT is my suggestion. [Chance are good that he uses it himself so don't worry...]

At the "asifa" they had various rabbonim speak [I didn't hear all of them and don't even know who they were. The part I did hear was ironically from the internet]. I am sure that each Rav is a talmid chochom, tzaddik etc. etc. CERTAINLY much greater than the meager individual typing at this computer now. But they are not the Sanhedrin and I am not sure that there words obligate every individual Jew. Let's say that I am a Belzer Chossid - I am bound by the rulings of the Belzer Rebbe Shlita and nobody else. If I am a talmid of Rav Asher Weiss then I follow him and he wasn't speaking at the asifa. If the asifa gave people chizzuk [as it did] to be more careful then WONDERFUL! But Klal Yisrael is blessed with many great rabbonim and tzaddikim and until the time of the Sanhedrin there is no central binding authority.

MAY HASHEM YISBORACH SAVE US FROM ALL FAILINGS!!!

Would love to hear what people think.
Love and blessings:-)