Monday, August 30, 2021

Tales Of The Twitter Generation

…has the ArtScroll Shas remained exactly as it was when first published, or have changes taken place over the years?”

Rabbi Yechezkel Danziger…One of the things I would like to do someday is go over some of the masechtos, especially ones used by younger students, and just lighten up the language, which is over the heads of many people today. The young generation today doesn’t speak English at that level.

Rabbi Eli Herzka: Even in the secular world, you can open up any secular publication and compare the writing with that of the same publication from 20 years ago, and it’s a completely different level of English. You don’t notice it because it’s happening so slowly and it’s subtle, but if you make the comparison, you see it’s not the same at all.

Rabbi Zev Meisels: It’s not just a matter of which words you use, it’s also the style of writing. It’s about keeping the sentences shorter, and not making sentences with 14 clauses.

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How many people learn Rav Gustman's sfarim or similar tomes? Almost nobody. Why? Long, heavy, complex and thorough. People today like short, simple, easy and light.

A big yerida!!!!

But YOU can be the exception and strive to learn things that are difficult and require  a great investment of time and energy!!!   

People love twitter b/c everybody makes their point in a sentence or two with maybe an emoji or 3 thrown in. This engenders superficiality. 

Music videos. People LOVE music videos. Easy to watch. No intellectual toil necessary. A new music video goes up from a Jewish "superstar" - BOOM, 20k views in no time. Let's say shiurim of Rav Asher Arieli would go on you tube. Like - the most popular maggid shiur alive. Let us just say that it would not garner anywhere near the same popularity as a guy lip synching while walking down the street or driving his car or other even greater stupidities even though it is 1000 million times more intellectually stimulating. Not to mention that to listen is the greatest mitzva in the world [ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם]. So is our generation. דור השטחיות. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaddd!! 

The bright side - There ARE people looking for depth. אשריהם ואשרי חלקם!!!!!!