I would like to digress from the parsha today, and speak about a concern that is of utmost importance, and that is to address the question:  How do we, as religious people, incorporate the internet into our lives and our homes?

We all know that there are some people find this to be absolutely impossible, and completely ban the internet from their homes in order to preserve their religion.  To be sure, this notion is foreign or even absurd to many of us, who access internet on our bodies, in our pockets and on screens that face us for hours a day.  It would seem that at the heart of Modern Orthodoxy lies the belief that we can live religiously meaningful lives, committed to halacha, while at the same time living as part of the world, engaging society and its culture….and the internet is a huge part of that.

So we all use the internet, we are sophisticated and engage the new technologies.  We familiarize ourselves with all sorts of ways to use it, on handheld devices, creating our own webpages, use Myspace, Facebook, we create blogs, write on blogs, read blogs….we use it at work and we use it at home.  We download shiurim and learn from the enormous amounts of knowledge that are now just a click away.  We use it to socialize: to connect with friends and keep in touch with family.  We teach our kids how to use it and to take advantage of all of its resources.  Teachers use it in classrooms and as parents, we are careful to provide safety and security and appropriate supervision from the known dangers on the internet.

So we “paskin that it is mutar” and take advantage of all of the good that it has to offer, at work and in our personal lives.  However, I believe that the issue is more complicated and subtle.  Our attitude towards such a complex and all-encompassing entity as the internet cannot possibly be summed up so simply and succinctly in one word: assur or mutar.  Modern Orthodoxy is really about achieving a profound understanding of new innovations and then integrating them with the values of our Torah.  In this way we evaluate the value of every new experience that we encounter, and then take a nuanced approach to filtering everything that gets integrated into our homes and lives.

The Torah says:

יַפְתְּ אֱלֹהִים לְיֶפֶת וְיִשְׁכֹּן בְּאָהֳלֵי שֵׁם וִיהִי כְנַעַן עֶבֶד לָמוֹ:  (בראשית פרק ט כז)

God enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant.

And the midrash interprets:

ילקוט שמעוני תורה רמז סא

ר"ש בן גמליאל אומר אף הספרים התירו שיכתבו יונית

שנאמר "יפת אלהים ליפת"-דברים של יפת יהו באהלי שם.

אי הכי גומר ומגוג נמי?       הכי קאמר: יפיותו של יפת יהיה באהלי שם:

The beauty of the foreign cultures should be incorporated into our religious lives, the אהלי שם, but that which lacks beauty should remain outside.  We must carefully and examine what is really יפיפותו של יפת.

          In our case too, we need to carefully consider everything that is included in the experience of the internet, and to determine what should be embraced and what should not.  There is a lot of talk about internet safety, and about protection for children from cyber-bullying, abuse and pornography.  And that is very important.  But another extremely important lesson to teach children is how to be thoughtful and discriminate in terms of what we accept from the outside.  And they will see how we act, and copy us, for better or for worse.  To begin, I would like to raise a few points to consider:

1.                                         Most significantly, the internet has transformed communication, quantitatively and qualitatively. 

Judaism considers words to be extremely powerful.  The Torah describes the process of creation through the metaphor of speech, בעשרה מאמרות נבראו שמים וארץ, teaching us that words have the capacity to create a world.  Moshe says his ability to speak as the primary tool through which the redemption would occur.  His ערל שפתים was a central focus, as he was called upon time and time again to communicate with Pharoah.  The Chafetz Chaim lists dozens of mitzvos that relate to lashon hara.  The power and importance of words are recognized by the Torah as well as by the Constitution of the United States.

And as powerful as spoken words are, the written word often create even more of in impact, in that they are perceived as more thought out, and they are certainly more eternal, as nothing is ever erased from the memory of Google.  So we need to be even extra careful in choosing our words and in deciding which ideas should be said and written, and which should not.

Specifically, communication is no longer defined by something that we do with “each other”, implying one on one; now it is more commonly conducted in groups, of various sizes, or even unknown sizes.  We “post” on our pages or on our blogs or on our status for anyone to see.  We do not even always realize who it is with whom we are communicating when we express our words.  We therefore need to think about all of the potential recipients of our communications and about what should or shouldn’t be said.

And, we must realize that the impact of negative words about other people; lashon hara has a far greater impact than spoken lashon hara.  Our words on the internet can be accessed by many more people, for very, very long, and can be read and re-read by a victim.  Words about others can ultimately be read by future would-be employers, clients, friends and spouses years into the future.  We all know how commonplace it is to look up potential dates or employees on Google, Facebook, Only Simchas, etc. etc. And any impact that our words will have, forever, are ultimately our responsibility, as is the immediate impact on an intended or unintended victim-reader.   That is a lot to think about.

2.                                         Another thing that has been completely transformed is the way that we think of “Privacy”.  Things that were once considered to be personal issues are now shared with the general public.  Is this good?  Maybe.  Sometimes.  But I suggest that this should be a conscious decision, not just something that is done because it is done.  What would we want our children to share on the internet?  Are there things that we want them to keep privately?  How about us?  I think that we should rethink the value of privacy and consider which things are shared with the world, or even with friends or “Facebook-friends”?

3.                                         Blogging is another innovation of internet.  Personally, I think that there is a lot of good in blogs.  It provides people with an unprecedented opportunity to share ideas, to debate and to discuss.  Actually, in a way, the Talmud itself is basically a blog!

·                                            Then there is Anonymous Blogging.  It used to be that people had to take responsibility for their words.  If you would not put your name to your thoughts, they were not deserving of an audience, and a quality news publication would generally not give it any credibility.  Now, there is an enormous forum for anonymous comments on blogs.

The thing to consider is: do anonymous statements deserve a forum?  I know what you will say: sure, why not?  And it is up to the reader to decide if credit should be given to the statements.  But we also need to face the reality that once you read something on a blog, even though we know what that it deserves limited credibility, we generally sort of assume that it is basically true.  So we have to really think first about this entire idea of anonymous blogging before reading them.  Of course I am not speaking about a victim of abuse or something who is searching for help but is scared of the consequences of reveal his/her identity.  But in general, freedom if speech is ensured in our lives; shouldn’t a person but his/her name to their views?  Should we demand that people take responsibility for their words before we create a forum for them?  There are things that really need to be thought about.

These questions:  how do we communicate on the internet?  What do I keep private?  And how do I relate to blogs and to anonymous blogging? -  is just the beginning of the list of moral, halachik and ethical questions that we have to ask ourselves and think about when using the internet.  It is much easier to just say that it is “muttar” and that religion has nothing to do with the internet.  It may even be easier to say “assur”.  But the true challenge of the Modern Orthodox Jew is to grapple with all of these questions, to seek advice when needed, and to find honest answers for ourselves, and then to limit our use so that only the יפיפותו של יפת, only the positive of this incredible technology, will enter into our homes and hearts.

And if we will embrace this challenge, then we will have uplifted ourselves as Jews and as people, and we will have taught our children the most valuable lesson about internet safety and about life in general.