There was a time, not terribly long ago, when disturbed individuals bent on broadcasting angry fantasies had only soapboxes in public parks from which to rant. And respectable people knew, if only from the ranters’ appearance, to keep well out of spittle’s range. Today, though, the very means of mass communication that enables so much worthy information to reach such large numbers of people at the speed of light – the Internet – has also been harnessed to spread madness, hatred, lies and (not a word to be used lightly but here entirely appropriate) evil. And so, close on the heels of the swindlers and pornographers who have colonized so much of cyberspace, have come the gaggle of electronic soapboxes known as weblogs, or blogs.
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Blogistan
29 comments:
Maybe it wasn't you who made the "bad" list but the unsavory cast of characters who come here and lambast you day after day....
You consider yourself on the bad list?
If so, maybe it's time for a new & improved, kinder sweeter, Hirshel?
Is he decrying the electronic soapbox ...or does he want it all to himself????
he wants "Koved HaTorah and for us to refrain from speaking Loshen Horah & Motzee Shem Ra.....
It's a tough society we live in. Very suffocating of dissent and individual expression /actualization. Stalin YM"S had Gulags for those who didn't toe the party line. We are not so violent. We have kharomim and social ostracization. Maybe THAT'S why blogs are so popular. They give a voice to the voiceless (who shall remain name and faceless :))
I think he's worried about his job. Think about it, every major scandal that hits somehow blows up on the Agudah's doorstep.
Kolko (40 years)-- Camp Agudah
CB (30 years)--Agudah Moetzes
Remember Rav Matistyahu's teretz on the kolko scandal. We try to sweep these things under the carpet. I assume when the CB thing gets out were going to here similar terutzim.
Are these people for real. Is this why we give them our money -- to cover up for heimeshe wrongdoers so they can preserve the veneer of respectability and superiority of the Heimeshe oilam.
I believe that this is exactly what Avi Shafran percieves his job to be. Keep up the facade that by us everything is gevaldig. Its those other guys with the problems. The MO the Conservative the reform -- but us we are terrific and problem free. This way those donations come pouring in. as everybody feels so good about themselves.
The bloggers are an existential threat to the hegemony of Agudah over orthodox jewish life as they speak about the emes. That's the dirtiest of dirty words in the Agudah vernacular. They will therefore fight the internet and bloggers with all their might.
They are counting on the fact that the oilam is a groisa goilam and will blindly follow wahtever they say. The problem is people are not quite as stupid as they think. Many people are fed up with all their garbage and they are ripe for a collapse under their own weight.
The Bray of Fundie said...
Is he decrying the electronic soapbox ...or does he want it all to himself????
I'm with you on this one.
blogs are a symptoms of how people feel, shutting them down or stifling them won't change the reality.
But blogs share those symptoms with others...
I am promoting my new Takanah, HaIssur LeHotzi Neies al yedei Bloggim, Dibbur BeMikveh VeSichas Chulin BeBais HaKneses.
I expected a little more from Shafran. These people are not extremists, they understand what goes on in the world, and they usually try and deal with the problems, at least where molestation is not involved. Why then would they have this approach of stifling bloggers?
Oh wait, I get it now.
Enquiring,
Please stop talking idiocy. CB is not a "major scandal that blew up". No-one on Earth cares about, aside from a few batlanim reading this blog.
who you calling a batlan?
maybe the jewsih observer should have a blog?
That would be a pretty boring blog. No comments, just editorials, more of the same. We don't need that.
Forgive me Hirshel, but whats wrong with what Shafran wrote; maybe he meant the truly evil malicious blogs? I am serious?
"There was a time, not terribly long ago, when disturbed individuals bent on broadcasting angry fantasies had only soapboxes in public parks from which to rant. And respectable people knew, if only from the ranters’ appearance, to keep well out of spittle’s range. Today, though....."
---------------------
…they have the Jewish Observer, Yated and most importantly, the Agudah's annual convention (and speaking of spittle, watch out for Wachsman).
That this mental midget has the temerity to lecture others after the public statements he made about his former co-worker Kolko shortly before he was indicted and arrested speaks volumes of the moral vacuum in which he exists.
The day has come when the self appointed spokesmen of our community have sunk so low that simple natural law eludes them. Sadly, they need to look up and strive to the morality of the world at large.
Oilem hepach roisi.
who is cb
Michoel:
First of all be careful who you call batlanim. Tzig sounds very erudite to me.
But all jesting aside, If your right, which I'm not sure you are, don't you think it should be. And does it really matter. I mean what about R' Moshe Feinstein, the Yoshev Rosh of the Moetzes Gedolei hador. Shouldn't his psak din mean something to Agudas Yisroek whose whole mantra is that we do everything al pi daas torah.
I mean thats why Shafran claims the bloggers are evil because they undermine daas torah. Shouldn't Rabbi Shafran be publishing articles in his Jewish Observer against Yeshiva Chaim berlin and Rav Ahron Schechter and Avraham Fruchthandler for perhaps being the greatest underminers of Daas Torah in our times. And this is not something amorphous like the internet and bloggers. This is a clear witten Psak of the Godol Hador.
Why don't you break down Shafran's door (figuratively of course) and demand that he throw these people out of the Agudah immediately for being mevazeh perhaps one of the greatest Poskim in klal Yisroel in the last few hundred years.
Shouldn't we all be doing that. I'm not sure why not. As long as Agudah continues to cover for the Kolko's and Chaim Berlins of this world, who are/were really just using Agudah to cover their problems, they shouldn't be lecturing us about anything. Go clean your own dirty house then tell me to clean mine.
It must be a slow news day. How ironic that Shafran came to your rescue.
Friendly
contrary to popular belief this blog doesn't just HAPPEN. Some threads take days to write, while other take minutes. I no longer feel the need to have something new every day, (although it can't hurt to have daily material) since a hot topic could do better if left alone to be really worked on and commented on.
So, no, Shafran didn't come to my rescue, I just put it up ther because I thought it was an appropriate post.
I thought that Shafran's post was stupid. It's like saying don't go to supermarkets because they all have inappropriate literature by the checkout aisle; just shop by your overpriced local frum bodega
some do stay away, you know? from malls too for that reason.
Even if you can stay away, your kids are within a five-minute drive of a supermarket. You are safe till they turn 18, but what then?
"If so, maybe it's time for a new & improved, kinder sweeter, Hirshel?"
Absolutely not!!!!
We love our Tzig just like he is....cranky, cantakerous, spittin' fire!!
Go get 'em Hirshel!!
you like cranky? then you ain't seen nothing yet!
btw, what means cantakerous?
Dictionary.com.
yeah, yeah, I know.
It's cantankerous with an 'n'.
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