May 20, Sunday in the evening, it will be a mass rally against the Internet on Citi Fields in Queens, New York City. When I first saw the news I had a deja-vu feeling: I am familiar with the strong opposition against Internet in many haredi circles. Recently, while I was trying to explain how many opportunities you have nowadays to learn about Judaism through the various online shiurim I was cut short that you cannot have a virtual Rebbe. I was explained that you should follow your Rebbe and be close to him and his way of being and behaving. Perfectly right, I thought, but what you can do when you live somewhere without direct access to a Rebbe and with no possibilities to attend a shul.
I owe at a great extent my baal teshuva process to the resources that I found online and to the possibilities to connect with Orthodox people that were nowhere to find where I was living at the time. I know there are many people, including in the world of yeshiva bochurs misusing the Internet, but in my opinion you do not need to forbid Internet in order to eradicate the evil in the world. You better think about how to teach people how to fish their yetzer hara tendencies and win over their animal soul. This discussion has many common points with the debate about how a man survive in a world where there are women otherwise than by isolating themselves by huge walls. If one cannot control himself do not accuse the women. Very often, one of the reasons I prefer to daven in an Orthodox shul is that I have the mechitzas preventing men to start at women while davening. It is human nature and whether it is manifested online or in the cave, we humans are no much different from an epoch to another.
It would have been better to invest the money used for organizing the rally in more educational programs, eventually an online program.
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