When Yeshivish Isn't Yeshivish

I believe that about the greatest religious and spiritual question is modern technology and how the Torah Jew relates to it. This post will focus on the Internet.

First I will lay down the ground rules. Just about everybody who reads this blog is a committed Jew so you will understand where I am coming from. My starting point is both the strict halacha and the spirit of the law. The halacha is clear that it is forbidden for a male to see, even for a moment, a part of a woman's body that should be covered such as above her elbows or knees. It is also forbidden to look at a woman for the sake of pleasure, even if she is dressed properly. Reading material containing explicit sexual content is also a serious no-no. In addition, it is strictly forbidden to read lashon hara or words of spiritual blasphemy. [I can provide sources for those interested but I assume that what I write is axiomatic to all].

On the Internet it seems virtually [pun intended] impossible to avoid inappropriate pictures. If it is not the website itself there will be advertisements there with lewd pictures. This is all well known. What is so bothersome to me are the so-called "religious" websites. Let me take one of the most popular websites as an example: They have great, inspiring articles on a variety of topics. How odd it is that a website run by people who wear black velvet yarmulkes with white shirts and black pants [read: Charedi garb] consistently features very large color pictures of extremely attractive [by Western standards] women. It is not necessary and has nothing to do with their subject matter. Shame on them for being מכשיל so many men. I once saw a video that they featured. A guy was giving one of these four minute inspirational talks with picutes in the background to illustrate his point. One of the pictures was of an woman wearing a sleeveless outfit. I wonder - doesn't this person know that he is causing thousand of people to sin??? What about the director of the site? Kosher food in a treif kli is treif. Here the food is also treif. If they are trying to spread Torah and Judaism - why don't they do it according to halacha?  A mystery...

A very popular blog has a daily feature where they link the latest news stories. Just about every single link sends you to sites that are both irreligious and anti-religious. That of course means: Pritzus-dike pictures and stories [recently a detailed description of the various behaviors of a pedophile. Arghhhhhh! Why do they have to go into such minute detail? It is nauseating at best, unbearably painful at worst], lashon hara and general anti-Torah sentiment. Yes, he once wrote a disclaimer saying that he is not responsible for the links but  - please. One cannot link one to a place where it is forbidden to go and then claim that he is not responsible for the content. The person who directs this blog is both religious and religiously knowledgeable which makes it all the more surprising. If I link a site with inappropriate content and cause people to go there I am in the category of מחטיא את הרבים. See the Rambam hilchos tshuva 3/6. וגדול המחטיאו יותר מן ההורגו. Scary.

Recently I was at a very "yeshivish" new site which spoke about and linked further to a story detailing the sexual perversions of a famous politician [his wife forgives him so it's OK:)]. Why did they have to drag my mind together with thousands of others into the gutter. I purposely don't go to non-Jewish news sites in order to avoid reading such filth but I discovered that I can't escape by staying in the range of "religious" sites. [I remember being a young yeshiva bochur and seeing secular newspapers in the homes of one of my rabbeim and role models, which in Israel are nothing less than pornographic - like the New York Post. Made me wonder back then - still does...]

I am very careful on this blog not to name names or be overly specific. I have no personal vendettas or axes to grind. My only intention is to preserve your spiritual purity which is corrupted when innocently going to "kosher sites".

My suggestion. If you don't need Internet - avoid it completely. If you do, get a filter, make sure others are in the room when you use it, do what you have to do and then get off as soon as possible.

As always, I am eager to hear from others showing me where I am wrong so I can correct myself...:-)

Love and blessings.