Sunday, October 11, 2009
Vizhnitz rabbi warns followers: We won't teach children who have Internet at home
Ultra-Orthodox Web sites continue to spring up on the Internet and surveys have found that increasing numbers of ultra-Orthodox Israelis are installing home Internet connections despite rabbinical opposition in the Haredi sector. Two annual sermons by leading Haredi rabbis on Saturday were dedicated to the subject of the Internet.
In one sermon, followers of the Vizhnitz Hasidic movement in Israel and abroad, were told if they installed an Internet connection, which was called "an instrument of impurity" in the sermon, into their homes they would not be entitled to have their children educated in Hasidic institutions.
As in the past, the sermons sparked a lively debate on Haredi Web sites. The remarks are also expected to find their way to the front pages of the ultra-Orthodox press today.
"Boys and girls whose homes have the instrument of impurity called the Internet cannot receive a Vizhnitz education in any shape or form," leading Vizhnitz rabbi Yisroel Hager told followers Saturday in Bnei Brak.
According to one of the thousands in attendance for the annual sermon marking the end of the holiday season, Hager added that insider connections will not matter in this regard.
"Every day," he said, "I hear stories about young people, both boys and girls, who have gone downhill via this horrible instrument to the edge of the abyss. This epidemic must be stopped."
The sermon, which was delivered in Yiddish, is considered the annual address to followers of the Vizhnitz movement. Hager is one of two sons of the leader of the movement, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, who is ill.
Followers of another major Hasidic movement, the Belz Hasidim, heard the head of their movement, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, speak out against the Internet in his sermon in Jerusalem on Saturday, as he had already done in the past. In his remarks Saturday he called the Internet a "great danger", but he tempered his comments by adding, according to the ultra-Orthodox Web site haredim.co.il, that anyone who needs the Internet can use a filtered service referred to as the kosher Internet.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120408.html
In one sermon, followers of the Vizhnitz Hasidic movement in Israel and abroad, were told if they installed an Internet connection, which was called "an instrument of impurity" in the sermon, into their homes they would not be entitled to have their children educated in Hasidic institutions.
As in the past, the sermons sparked a lively debate on Haredi Web sites. The remarks are also expected to find their way to the front pages of the ultra-Orthodox press today.
"Boys and girls whose homes have the instrument of impurity called the Internet cannot receive a Vizhnitz education in any shape or form," leading Vizhnitz rabbi Yisroel Hager told followers Saturday in Bnei Brak.
According to one of the thousands in attendance for the annual sermon marking the end of the holiday season, Hager added that insider connections will not matter in this regard.
"Every day," he said, "I hear stories about young people, both boys and girls, who have gone downhill via this horrible instrument to the edge of the abyss. This epidemic must be stopped."
The sermon, which was delivered in Yiddish, is considered the annual address to followers of the Vizhnitz movement. Hager is one of two sons of the leader of the movement, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, who is ill.
Followers of another major Hasidic movement, the Belz Hasidim, heard the head of their movement, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, speak out against the Internet in his sermon in Jerusalem on Saturday, as he had already done in the past. In his remarks Saturday he called the Internet a "great danger", but he tempered his comments by adding, according to the ultra-Orthodox Web site haredim.co.il, that anyone who needs the Internet can use a filtered service referred to as the kosher Internet.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120408.html
Comments:
just curious. If the internet is destroying boys and girls how is it that the millions who have it and not going off the derech, how can this be explained?
When will Rabanim stop blaming everything under the sun for problems instead of looking in the mirror ans realizing chinuch stinks and THEY HAVE TO CHANGE so there wont be an internet problem?
Every time there is an issue they blame the internet, concerts and many other things and this is pure stupidity. I am not advocating anyone to getting internet or using internet but to make a blanket statement is ridiculous.
When someone is caught selling treif do we outlaw eating meat or do we make hashgocha better and more responsible?
When someone slips on a sidewalk and breaks a leg do we ban people from walking on sidewalks?
When young bochurim are driving and get into an accident do we ban everyone from driving a car?
I would pledge a million dollars to any mosod that can prove that in 5 years from now that the ones who did not have internet are ALL on the derech and yirei shomayim.
Until internet free can be proven to be the direct cause of kids going off the derech people who ban the internet as a whole will be laughed at.
After interviewing hundreds of kids off the derech i never heard of one teenager telling me that they are the way they are because of the itnernet. Most of the reasoning i heard was yeshivos and parenting as the problem.
When will Rabanim stop blaming everything under the sun for problems instead of looking in the mirror ans realizing chinuch stinks and THEY HAVE TO CHANGE so there wont be an internet problem?
Every time there is an issue they blame the internet, concerts and many other things and this is pure stupidity. I am not advocating anyone to getting internet or using internet but to make a blanket statement is ridiculous.
When someone is caught selling treif do we outlaw eating meat or do we make hashgocha better and more responsible?
When someone slips on a sidewalk and breaks a leg do we ban people from walking on sidewalks?
When young bochurim are driving and get into an accident do we ban everyone from driving a car?
I would pledge a million dollars to any mosod that can prove that in 5 years from now that the ones who did not have internet are ALL on the derech and yirei shomayim.
Until internet free can be proven to be the direct cause of kids going off the derech people who ban the internet as a whole will be laughed at.
After interviewing hundreds of kids off the derech i never heard of one teenager telling me that they are the way they are because of the itnernet. Most of the reasoning i heard was yeshivos and parenting as the problem.
atleast they will learn something with the internet!!!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: October 12, 2009 6:58 AM
: October 12, 2009 6:58 AM
it is our greatest challenge of our time i say if you install it in your home you are being shofech dam
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Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 13, 2009 6:58 PM
: October 13, 2009 6:58 PM
