Torah & Technology

Feature Image courtesy of Yitzchok MoullyI am a Technology embracing/utilizing/consuming/applying Rabbi, and a Chassidic one at that. A Chassidic Jew is someone who lives life above and beyond the normal limitations of Torah. This means that I strive to be more stringent in all areas of life including how I dress, what I eat, and what I do socially. I am a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe who is the leader of the Chabad Chassidic movement. Chassidic Judaism from its inception was a very progressive movement that was met with a great deal of opposition. It sought to uproot the Aristocratic societal structure that was dominant across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The movement began to spread a message of equality that all should have the opportunity to learn and that everyone is important and uniquely special regardless of their social standing or what school they learned in. Now of course this was Jewish specific, but the message is not limited as such. Today unfortunately most of the Chassidic groups have abandoned this outlook and have created very insular communities.

Being insular is OK!

There I said it. These insular communities are generally warm and friendly places that have amazing societal structures and the majority of the members of these groups live happy fruitful lives. Not everyone is meant to connect with the entire world through social media! ::GASP::Now while I understand their views and respect them even to the point that I think they are healthy, they are not my views. Around a year ago most of these groups got together and decided to do something drastic...they decided to...

Ban the internet!

Courtesy of the Verge

While these groups sold out Met Stadium at around 80,000 seats, there was one group not invited....

Chabad

Chabad.org has been up and running since 1993.

Technology is a tool just like anything else, and the internet specifically has an amazing ability to be such a tool, as well as a weapon, and a dark, dangerous, and very harmful at that. The negative properties of any tool must be weighed, and every individual needs proper training to use the tool properly.

If we were to ban the Printing Press

because of what could be printed then where would we be today as a society? We are not limited by the potential destruction of something, or by any probability that it can occur,

because we are in charge of our own destiny.

There is no contradiction between Torah and Technology as both enhance and compliment the other.

Finally, the best part?

Shabbos

25 golden hours without my face slumped over an ipad, iphone, macbook, desktop, app, or any electrically charged object for that matter.