I. Preface
Many years ago, when the internet (and yours truly) were relatively young, I felt that this useful development (the 'net) would help us chareidim more easily separate the wheat from the chaff of today's world.
For example, one could read articles (sometimes using print mode) without viewing the provocative advertisements. One could even check out something relevant or urgent in a paper like the NY Post (which I do not recommend) without being forced to flip through the Page 6 entertainment section , which is never appropriate. One could watch the 5% (or 1%) of television that most intelligent people agree is worthwhile without being ground down by the lowering of standards in the secular universe. I was therefore surprised and disappointed at the movement to prohibit the net in our community which started about 9 or 10 years ago, but gained momentum about 5 years ago, and I've been talking (or bloviating, depending on your perspective) about it ever since.
I am now taking 'pen' in hand, however, due an accelerating phenomenon which shows a serious defect in our educational system. Moreover, this phenomenon will injure us and our children in our ability to utilize the internet and still raise our families with the chinuch we prefer.
The phenomenon is the (largely chassidic) proliferation of blogs expressing attempting to discredit Torah and Halacha, and simultaneously detailing the blogger's flagrant violations of Jewish law.
II. History
By and large, our chinuch system in the chareidi world germinated from the shock and tragedy of the Second World War. Moreover, I think in our heart, we all realize that our chinuch has created a frum 'Fiddler on the Roof' version of European Ashkenazic Jewish history which is factually incorrect.
Judging by the photographs I have seen, my own family, farbrente chassidim who sacrificed to spend Yom Tovim bei der Rebbe (an elderly aunt once confessed to me that until my uncle became weak in his 90's, she had never spent a Shavuos with him and didn't know what menu to cook on Shavuos) nevertheless were mostly clean shaven. Statistically, Jewish election results in prewar Europe certainly do not show the predominance of religious parties that the 90%+ of shomrei shabbos would suggest. Everyone understood that progress is good for the Jews and for Judaism.
However, after the terrible destruction and tragedy of World War II, Daas Torah, from Litvishe right through Hungarian Jewry, compensated for the loss, each hewing to his own view of what was the most important principle, and then driving that principle ahead pedal to the metal to try and reconstitute what was lost.
Rav Aharon Kotler and the Chazon Ish stressed sacrificing all involvement in the world for Torah. The Satmar Ruv stressed the evil of Zionism, and not sacrificing the clothing and customs of der heim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe attempted to roll back 100 years of assimilation in the new home(s) of the Jews, and the Bais Yisroel looked into the future and preempted the temptations of today's world.
III. Results
In retrospect, it is clear that Hashem sent us very special individuals, most of whom had few or no children, to aid the Jewish People in recovering from the trauma of WWII.
However, in our generation, lacking perhaps the type of leadership, or the historical clean slate which enables leaders to set a new course, we are basically reinforcing, reinforcing, and re-reinvorcing what the last generation emphasized - sometimes without rhyme or reason. It stands to reason, and there are hints from that first generation of leaders as well, that the course on which they placed us was not to be followed either ad infinitum or ad nauseam.
The result of this misplaced emphasis is that our generations become punching bags - being constantly instilled with mantras and ideologies which, unlike our Torah itself which is eternal, were ad hoc remedies for specific historical contexts.
This leads to an inner conviction that, rather than the educational milieu being misplaced, the Torah and yiddishkeit which the education claims to represent is untrue. A tragedy.
And the tragedy deepens. When people are taught ideologies which they don't believe but must obey, an inner pressure borne of frustration and cognitive dissonance seeks release. The pressure eventually becomes unbearable, and blows up .
IV. Blogosphere Now we have reached a point where every week there are one or two new blogs from Williamsburg, Kiryas Joel, Stamford Hill, and the like. These blogs are well written, the writers intelligent, but they are almost boring because the posts pretty much fall into two categories:1. The superstitious nature of the Jewish people, and the lack of scientific validity for Chazol and Torah Sh'biksav, not to mention minhagim.2. The exciting (and comical) adventures of eating bacon, going to nightclubs, and conversation with goyim and goytas. First of all, both chazal and common sense dictate that there is a deep logic to the fact that the theological and experiential are pinned together. Logic would indicate that point 1 leads to point 2, but experience as well as Chazal would indicate that point 2 is the ignition for point 1.
But why now?
Why are all these free spirited shtreimel heretics deciding to vent all at once - especially since some excellent blogs espousing the same points have been around for years, and newbies can post on them whenever?
Leapa's take is that the boiling point has been reached, and the whistle is starting to blow.
The more philosphically minded might feel that spiritual development has peaked, in line with the historical paradigm of the Or Someach summarized here. There may be some truth to that.
But a repressive education plus a repressive community in a permissive society is a balloon in a vacuum.
What has changed in the last ten to twenty years?
1. The 'vacuum' has increased (society is more permissive in an 'in-your-face' way) leading to more feeling of deprivation
2. Our society has built much higher walls to try to shut out the outside world (just look at the rule list for your child's cheder), again leading to a feeling of repression and deprivation.
3. Our success and the nature of our leadership has obviated the postwar drive to rebuild and create.
V. Suggestions
1. Chinuch is more than information, and certainly more than prohibitions. Even though the last sixty years of success involved building higher and higher walls against the outside world, the at-risk youth phenomenon and what we see on the internet indicate that we have reached the point of diminishing returns with wall building. Now the time has come to teach and delineate how to cope with, and if necessary battle with, the yetzer hora, and not just deny it or try to tiptoe around it. The fact is that most if not all young adults will encounter goyim and/or newspapers, and increasingly the internet. Not giving our children the tools to deal with it is a cop-out and a scam. For those who pin the cause of the holocaust on declining levels of observance in pre-war Europe, this argument for saving America's (and Israel's) youth should hold even more water.2. Melamdim can not just teach. In fact, they can not just take responsibility for what they consider the ruchnius of the talmid without dealing with the interface of the student and the outside world. Melamdim incapable of dealing with this should either bring themselves up to speed by familiarizing themselves with the future world of their students, or retreat back to kolel.3. Melamdim should also be responsible for teaching the rudiments of science which seemingly contradict Judaism and our answer to science without poking fun at science. (Hat tip to R' Hershel Fried)If we are as committed to continuity as the previous generation, this is the true route to preserving the legacy of our fathers and earlier Gedolim and following the trail they blazed to protecting and rebuilding yiddishkeit.
Note: Due to Yom Tov I am posting this as a first draft so that those who have internet access at work can view it, and I may still change it or add to it.
Labels: chassidic education, jewish education, modernity and judaism
