December 2, 2005--Fanaticisms XI--oyBay
You would think that the Hassidic community, which owns the single largest and most successful electronics business in New York City (B&H), would be friendly to things electronic, including the Internet. After all, if it weren’t for TVs, computers, video cameras, and such, how would they make a living? To appreciate that they are indeed making quite a good living at this, you have only to stand outside their store in midtown Manhattan any Friday at about 12:00 to see the lineup of buses waiting to schlep the black-clad sales staff and managers in their fur hats back to Boro Park in Brooklyn before sundown so they can begin to observe Shabbos.
Well think again. As reported in the NY Times, the Hassids are of mixed mind about the new media (see link below for full story). They are so concerned that young people might, through the Internet, gain access to disruptive ideas that they have “built a fence” (as they would put it) around the Torah so as to prevent this from happening. In fact, some yeshivas will expel students if it becomes known that they watch TV. And parents frequently will not allow their children to enroll in college lest they should be exposed to modern thought much less meet someone of the opposite (or same??) sex. You see, they still have their rebbies arrange appropriate marriages for their sons and daughters.
But as with so many orthodoxies, things are always a little more complicated than they seem. To illustrate, let me direct you to that very same forbidden Internet to a few sites that the Hassidim use for their own purposes—inside the fence so to speak. And there are even a few sites where Hassids, using fictitious names, air some dirty Tefillin and on occasion raise some heretical thoughts.
Talmud knowledge is spread through dafyomi.org; gossip about marriages and births within the Hassidic community can be found at www.onlysimachas.com; and for a sample of some heretical thinking, in which the pseudonymous Hasid Shtreimel opines about his lack of belief in God and how he sneaks away on Yom Kippur for a Big Mac or two, see www.conartistic.blogspot.com.
But my single favorite Hassid website is www.ashi.com. I encourage you, actually urge you to visit it and when there to click on “Western Wall.” It offers live streaming video around-the-clock of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I confess to watching it for hours. I even caught a glimpse of Hillary Clinton’s recent visit!
It took me quite a while before I realized what the Western Wall site reminded me of—the Yule Log video that used to be broadcast all day long every Christmas on a local TV station in New York. Just the log, burning away through the night.
So inventive these People of the Book!
Well think again. As reported in the NY Times, the Hassids are of mixed mind about the new media (see link below for full story). They are so concerned that young people might, through the Internet, gain access to disruptive ideas that they have “built a fence” (as they would put it) around the Torah so as to prevent this from happening. In fact, some yeshivas will expel students if it becomes known that they watch TV. And parents frequently will not allow their children to enroll in college lest they should be exposed to modern thought much less meet someone of the opposite (or same??) sex. You see, they still have their rebbies arrange appropriate marriages for their sons and daughters.
But as with so many orthodoxies, things are always a little more complicated than they seem. To illustrate, let me direct you to that very same forbidden Internet to a few sites that the Hassidim use for their own purposes—inside the fence so to speak. And there are even a few sites where Hassids, using fictitious names, air some dirty Tefillin and on occasion raise some heretical thoughts.
Talmud knowledge is spread through dafyomi.org; gossip about marriages and births within the Hassidic community can be found at www.onlysimachas.com; and for a sample of some heretical thinking, in which the pseudonymous Hasid Shtreimel opines about his lack of belief in God and how he sneaks away on Yom Kippur for a Big Mac or two, see www.conartistic.blogspot.com.
But my single favorite Hassid website is www.ashi.com. I encourage you, actually urge you to visit it and when there to click on “Western Wall.” It offers live streaming video around-the-clock of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I confess to watching it for hours. I even caught a glimpse of Hillary Clinton’s recent visit!
It took me quite a while before I realized what the Western Wall site reminded me of—the Yule Log video that used to be broadcast all day long every Christmas on a local TV station in New York. Just the log, burning away through the night.
So inventive these People of the Book!
posted by Steven Zwerling at
9:43 AM
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