Dont get me wrong. The Rabbonim will not pasken a Halacha based on what is written on the web, but unfortunately it has become a barometer to set the agenda and have a feel on where and what the issues are. It forced the Gedolim to play Defense instead of Offense.
Sometimes there is a positive side to it but mostly the stories and issues debated are of negative nature, forcing Rabbonim to then counter and issue a statement on the so called topic.
B"h there was an ending to the Weiss-Dodelsohn Get saga
and we wish everyone continued hatzlacha. Nevertheless the Bloggers who champion lashon hora and rechilus are taking credit for it, patting themselves on the back for a campaign of taking klal yisraels tzarahs and advertising it airing our dirty laundry for all the world to see.
Many of the frum bloggers spending their time online, blogging, twittering etc.. don't get the real picture or feel the pulse of klal yisrael. You get caught up in the negativity and formulate a unrealistic pulse of the frum torah community. The picture of klal yisrael painted online is bleak and black. Issues of molestation, abuse, kids at risk, shidduch crisis, bizuy gedolim dominate the conversations. One gets the impression that everything out there is bad, that we are doomed and the Rabbanim are not doing enough.
Yiddishkeit, is not live or trending online. It is vibrant, in the families raising children al derech hatorah. It is in the yeshivos hakedoshos, its in the shuls, in the hearts and minds of klal yisrael.
To get the real feel of klal yisrael you will not find or capture it online. Go outside look around at the thousands of yeshiva bochurim learning in their respected yeshivos. Witness and partake in the many simchos that are taking place as young couples begin the journey of building their bayis neeman. That's where klal yisrael is alive. Yes there are issues and challenges to be dealt with and they are being dealt with.
If there's general discontent in "the community", manifesting itself online, doesn't that say something? People are disguntled about something. Perhaps it's something justified and requires action?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this positive post.
ReplyDeleteWHile I agree that the credit-taking for Weiss's giving a gett is absurd, I think the picture you're painting is *overly* rorsy. Every community has its roving packs of kids off the derekh, smoking pot. And when that mars your Shabbos afternoon walk, or if you're one of their parents' -- your shabbos table, you wouldn't agree that our community is vibrant and healthy. While that's all the leitzanim in the j-blogosphere talk about, it's not like the community would be all "sunshine and rainbows" if we just looked more honestly.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for that matter, there is plenty of talk about "the tuition crisis", "the shidduch crisis" the "kids at risk crisis" without the internet too. There is a feel that we're in a state of crisis without the people who are using those problems to massage their egos with hit counts and comment chain lengths. As a friend of mine often says, "Rolls Royce never offers 0% down or 0% financing." If we had a product that was obviously the quality choice, would we need a marketing arm for kiruv and be talking about dropout rates? There is a reason why we have a community that has an incredible level of chesed, but when it comes to business or sexual ethics, end up in the newspaper with regularity. We teach mitzvos, but do not relay the tools or sufficient motivation to live up to the moment of challenge. It's halakhah without mussar or hashkafah.
It's in all the things you say. It ALSO in: The young men and women who are having a hard time getting married. The girls (and boys) developing anorexia. The couples getting divorced. The children being abused. The families in financial need.
ReplyDeleteNONE of these are inventions, or even exaggerations of the internet or bloggers. And the more you stuff your ears and try to drown out any discussion of the problems by stomping your feet and shouting that all is well and nothing is wrong and none of these problems is real of of significant magnitude, the more people on the internet WILL talk about out it, and the more harshly they will do so, and the more harshly they will criticize those who you claim are leaders who say nothing should be done about these supposedly non-existent problems.
The internet has not assumed the position of posek but of community organizer.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time a dissatisfied person might feel he was all alone. After all he didn't know anyone else with the same issues. No one ever mentioned them in conversation. Maybe he was wrong or maybe he should just keep quiet. The leadership played along too, assuring everyone that everything was just grand.
Now the internet has changed all that. People who have had problems with Torah Judaism now know they are not alone, not in the least. Pick your issue and there's a huge group which exists because they found each other on the internet. It's just that the leadership hasn't quite grasped this yet and still thinks that a dismissive wave of the hand can make it all go back to how it was.