What is the Real Fear?

If the poor yidden in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslavia, were equipped with cell phones, radios and/or internet and email DURING WORLD WAR II, maybe more people would have learned what was happening all around them and MAYBE could have gotten as far away as they could, as soon as they realized what was happening.

Was anyone 'in the know' able to tell them to escape?

Without such personal and individual COMMUNICATION they were surely trapped and doomed.

The 'Will' needs to be strengthened

There is a war in Yerushalayim going on right now

.... Rabbis against the Internet

"the Sunday morning HaMevaser continues to carry the cry against the internet and chareidi websites; mosdos should not accept children from homes with internet connectivity, even if they only see “chareidi sites” they should not be accepted ..."

Some are saying:

“What do the rabbis expect?” ...

“Don’t fly, don’t have a cellular phone, don’t travel on a bus."

“Undoubtedly, the rabbonim who signed are indeed respected individuals but it is hard ... to believe that a 96-year-old person ever entered the internet at all, or worked with a computer. He accepts what is told to him. If an askan who is in his court says “Rav, the internet is bad” then he accepts it and signs [the kol korei]”.

"Under a blitz attack by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, the people behind the country's ultra-Orthodox Web sites are attempting to return fire. The campaign has already led to the closure of one major ultra-Orthodox public Internet site and the resignation of key figures from others....The letter ... targets not the estimated hundreds of thousands of Haredim who use the Internet, but rather the operators of the Haredi sites.... The undersigned rabbis called on the Haredi community not only to avoid looking at the sites but also not to cooperate with them in any way and not to advertise on them as individuals, organizations or companies. "

The allegation:

"Recently, 'Haredi' Internet channels have been sending forth all sorts of reports and gossip and slander against the Haredi public... The rabbis further stated that it is the ultra-Orthodox websites 'which impeach a public tempted to (surf) the vilest of places, which have already caused so many in Israel to breach Torah laws about things best kept private.' "

A response:

"...the CEO of Global Networks, the Internet media company whose Web portals include the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim ... is threatening a million-shekel lawsuit against Rabbi ... the behind-the-scenes leader of the three-week-old campaign against the sites.

Sources: various Hareidi news sites

Commentary

There are some 'delicate situations' which have existed for a long time in the religious community, but because they were not publicly known they have continued to exist without being challenged; however, because of being made public presumably on the religious web sites, more and more people became aware, and have been trying to administer antibiotics to quell the diseases. This 'open to public scruitiny' is what seems to be bothering the Rabbis (as stated in 'the letter'). This is not to make light of the bittul Torah and destruction to some undisciplined neshomas.

There are problems that need to be eradicated, and usually when they become public, there is heightened awareness to fight against those things that ruin a community from within; however, it might not be the internet per se. The internet is an information highway that one can make a left or right turn at will.

When discussing a very sensitive situation earlier this week, Meshi-Zahav explained: "... others involved in this kind of work [askanus Zaka] are aware that in the chareidi community, some of the urgent issues, the problems that no one wishes to discuss, are not addressed appropriately - the issues that are ignored in the hope they may disappear, or at the very least, escape the scrutiny of the public eye" and "a “cheshbon nefesh” as he puts it, the need for the chareidi community to finally come to terms with some harsh realities, realities that we prefer not to admit to ourselves."

It's the 'Will' that needs to be strengthened.

This could actually be a blessing in disguise,

one that could rectify the transgression of Adam HaRishon.

The internet seems to be here to stay, incorporated into businesses, college courses, accounting procedures, IRS tax filings, recipe databases, hospital record-keeping, state and city multitudinous records, government offices processing procedures, traffic light controls, and the list goes on and on, not to mention Torah shiurim, college class research & long-distance learning, participation in scientific and medical research, educational material, historical records, Gemara, Chumash, SHAS, and Aggadah sources.

The muslims want the clock turned back to the Medieval 7th Century, with control over every facet of one's breathability. Time marches on, as the cliché goes.

As the Lubavitcher Rebbe always taught, it is man's responsibility to bring the holiness down and infuse it into our world.

Parshas Kedoshim begins with

“You shall be holy, because I, G-d, am holy.”

"The Sages discuss the practical implications of this statement. Rashi says it means the self restraint necessary in order to keep the rules of the Torah concerning boundaries in human relations. Ramban says it means self-restraint in general, even concerning permitted things. He quotes the Sages who tell us "Sanctify yourself in that which is permitted", meaning "restrain yourself." Just because the food is permitted, it does not mean that one has to be a glutton.

"Why? Why all this self-restraint? Why not just enjoy oneself, especially if it is permitted? What is the problem?

"The aim of the Torah and its teachings is not to make a person leave the world, ascending towards holiness and all that is beyond, but the reverse: to reveal holiness and G-dliness in this physical world. Hence the many laws of the Torah which almost all concern some aspect of our physical lives. By keeping those laws we are drawing the Divine and the sacred into our physical domain, into our kitchen, office and bedroom. ..."

From Turning Holiness Upside Down