Juuuust behind the times

July 31, 2008 - 4:50 PM by

Haredim walk the streetsIsrael’s Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community values tradition over progress, believing that anything new is inherently suspect. With the community’s impoverished state, the internet age has opened many avenues of telecommuting income for Haredi families, so the rabbinical leadership has treated computers and telecommunications with kid gloves. The result is a grey area for a sector of Israel’s population not known for being allowed much room for individual thought.

Sure, many Haredim have secret TVs behind closed doors (even if they decide for themselves that it’s okay, their neighbors might not understand), and even more watch moving images on their computers. There’s a mega-earning Haredi film industry, with CD-ROMs containing movies that have zero actresses and Torah-friendly messages:

The plots are usually convoluted melodramas, most of them tear-jerkers that are loaded with edifying messages and Haredi cliches: There will always be a goy (or a secular Jew) who discovers his Judaism; and twins separated at birth, one of whom grew up with goyim (or secular Jews) and returns to his origins. And an ancient copy of Psalms will always find its way to its owner.

But even this scene is banned by many rabbis, its key players operating semi-secretly – even though it’s known that families often own computers just to watch these productions.

During a recent visit to a used cellphone retailer near Jerusalem’s Davidka Square, a corner that’s situated on the border between the super-black Makor Baruch neighborhood and the spaghetti-strapped downtown, I overheard a Haredi man asking the salesman which of the phones he offers are “kosher.” Puzzled, I asked him if he intended to eat his phone, whereupon it was explained to me that some phones allow for streaming video (which might be lewd) and some do not (rendering them kosher).

Video is clearly a point of contention. A recent Haredi ban differentiates between mp3 players (good, because they can be used for Torah study) and mp4 players (evil, because, they are capable of displaying video, which may lead to sin):

Even though MP4s are sold at several stores in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Geula neighborhood, the anger was directed at this particular store because it dared advertise its wares in a Haredi newspaper. Unsigned posters reading “Prepare for the great campaign to stop the corruption” have appeared throughout the neighborhood in recent weeks, denouncing the store for openly advertising “reviled devices that drag all who touch them toward danger.”

These types of verdicts are strangely almost keeping up with the times, only confirming their reactive grounding – simply not based on any guiding doctrines, but rather trying to maintain control over the ever-elusive buffer zone between mankind and our temptations.

The old adage that “guns don’t kill people; people do” comes to mind: Technology doesn’t unto itself cause people to enjoy sinful modes of entertainment, but it makes it a whole lot easier. In these parts of Israeli society, morality isn’t meant to be a matter of individual but rather what’s pronounced from above – in public anyway.

Flickr photo by whodisan215.

Tags: , , , , • Category: Pop Culture, Religion 

Comments

6 Comments on Juuuust behind the times

  1. Harvey Sinclair on Thu, Jul 31st 2008 6:52 PM

    2. Hi, I looked at your site for the first time, and loved it, untill I read this!!!!
    What a lot of racist, bigoted claptrap indeed.
    We are a small persecuted minority in the world, and this site freely endorses this author’s predjudices. I am not frum, but realise that with Nazi Jews like this one around, we can’t be a light to the nations if we propagate hatred towards one another.

  2. Harry on Fri, Aug 1st 2008 8:51 AM

    3. Harvey, please reread the piece. You will notice that the entire thing is observation – not opinion. At the every end, I venture into philosophical observation, but still, no opinion and no hate. And when I acknowledged that “Technology doesn’t unto itself cause people to enjoy sinful modes of entertainment, but it makes it a whole lot easier,” I was even nodding at the potential wisdom of these types of decrees. To refer to me as a Nazi is uncalled for.

  3. Gliker on Fri, Aug 1st 2008 12:06 PM

    4. Oh for heaven’s sake, Harvey.

  4. Benji on Sun, Aug 3rd 2008 11:18 PM

    5. With friends like Harvey, who needs enemies? Seriously, calling another Jew a Nazi for this??? There was nothing inflammatory or hateful here, period. The Israeli newspapers run stories just like this all the time.

  5. Maskil on Wed, Aug 6th 2008 9:39 PM

    6. Anyone who uses the term “Nazi” to describe another Jew should be permanently banned from commenting on that website. And all that because he fails to pick up the gist of what the writer is commenting on! It’s not a wonder the term “Nazi” has ceased to have any real meaning.

  6. Yoga puts religious Israelis in an uncomfortable position | ISRAELITY on Thu, Apr 16th 2009 9:43 PM

    7. [...] whatever floats your boat. We’ve heard of kosher cell phones and kosher sex, so kosher yoga? Why [...]

Leave a Comment





© 2012 ISRAELITY | Sitemap