Rabbi Ovadia Yosef And Sefardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar Ban Internet

Senior Sephardic religious leaders, including Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, have published a harsh letter against the Internet, stating that every person must save his relatives and others from the "spiritual dangers" of the Web.

Former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of israel Ovadia Yosef, left, and current Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar, right

Rabbis: Stay away from Internet
Sephardic religious leaders sign letter calling on every person to save relatives, other people from Web, its 'dangerous' content
Kobi Nahshoni • Ynet

Senior Sephardic religious leaders, including Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, have published a harsh letter against the Internet, stating that every person must save his relatives and others from the "spiritual dangers" of the Web.

According to the rabbis, this is a superior religious duty – from the Torah.

In their public call, the rabbis warn against technological developments: "We have reached a situation that a telephone device, which every person possesses, can lead to difficult and dangerous sights which are undoubtedly forbidden by the Torah and have extremely destructive results.

"It is known that many have failed and lost everything, God forbid. And there are those who reach this situation out of mere curiosity and without any bad intentions, God forbid."

The rabbis rule in the letter that "the evil aspects of these matters is definite and difficult" and say that "homes and families have collapsed and been brought down because of these evils."
 
They quote from the Talmud, explaining that "one must save the oppressed from its persecutor and from all other lurking dangers. Those ignoring this situation are violating the 'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life' command."

As for those whose livelihood depends on the Internet, the rabbis say "it should be used only through filtering software which can tell right from wrong, and asked experienced people… In any case, they must be extremely careful."
 
'Internet equals the devil'

The rabbinical supplement of the Shas newspaper "Yom Leyom" reported that according to Rabbi Yosef and the other religious leaders who signed the letter, disconnecting from the Internet is a Torah obligation.
 
The newspaper's editor, Rabbi Moshe Shafir, added that the Internet was "a bad devil" subjecting its users to the worst religious sins a Jew could ever commit.
 
The writer compared the current experience to the Jewish people's harsh in the Diaspora. "It's clear that there are those for whom this is as hard as the Exodus.

"As Jews, who had the courage to jump into the fire of the inquisition, the courage to slaughter their sons and wives and children after the 'Shehecheyanu' blessing, will have the strength now to make a firm decision and unequivocally rise up, throw away this device of impurity and abomination and obey the outstanding rabbis of the generation."

Comments

[rabbichaplain]

So I guess this means no more posts from either one's followers on Facebook?

[Mike]

So a bunch of Haredi rabbis are banning the internet huh...

What else is new?

[shlomo as always with bad english]

in bneybrak eshivos pay to special investigator, and if they found, that bochur have facebook account they throw him away (read this in israeli news)

[Lemon]

I have this vague recollection of someone blogging a few years ago how he was able to get a Wifi connection from R. Ovadya Yosef's residence. Anyone remember this?

[Yaakov]

The Internet is certainly a challenge to rabbinic authority. I suspect that this is the true reason for the ban.

As for the stated reason, I do think that naïve religious Jews can cause themselves a great deal of harm with the combination of (presumptive) anonymity and an outlet for sexuality. The reason this is dangerous, though, is the false purity and isolation that the selfsame rabbinic authority created.

Nothing practical in the world is pure. Even gold must be alloyed to be useful. Pretending that purity is a demand of the Torah is what got these people into this spot. It's time to let the world in, and to accommodate it. This ban is silly, it will only cause people who do use the 'net to hide it even more.

[KJ]

Ho Hum, how many times have we heard the rabayim ban the Internet. It is getting rather tiresome.

[seymour]

So a bunch of Haredi rabbis are banning the internet huh...

What else is new?

Posted by: Mike | January 29, 2012 at 03:07 PM

I hope they posted it on their home page

never here them banning fraud, scam, lying to get welfare or other subsidies

I find that interesting

[seymour]

Posted by: Yaakov | January 29, 2012 at 03:32 PM

easy access to all type of information is always a challenge to people in power

it was the church who opposed the printing press

and we see history repeating itself

[Mike]

Yaakov- I think you really struck a point with the part about the internet being a challenge to authority.

I think many of the chumras and bans that have come out in the last several years are to isolate and neutralize any attempt at letting in others perspectives and ideals. This particualr ban of the internet has been going on for many years, even before the whole "porno problem." The idea is that the internet is an expose to a wide variety of beliefs and opinions, and that the only way to keep the masses under rabbinic control is a blanket ban of it.

[ruthie]

1. frum women here hide little tvs in their closets. some do.
if the community finds out they have tvs they cannot be buried in the local frum frum part the cemetery.
2. some children will hide it even more...their desire to use the computer or their actual use of one.
it's not like they can't walk into the local apple store and not log on.
or have a friend who has access to one.
3. my question is.....if a young person attends university anywhere on the planet....they need to be computer literate.
so is this also an attempt to keep them out of university which they consider "unpure" and makes them slaves to the rabbis?
4. i asked my best friend about ovadia yosef. before i mentioned this article. he said he was a good guy.
5. i understand the ban.....but doesn't he know that's impossible today. people can choose not to use the internet. but then they will remain in the dark ages. no university, no job, no skills...

[Isa]

Does this mean no more trolls ?

ha! ha! ha!

[Eli]

Didn't we see this article before? Wasn't this a lead story in the Tehran Times last week, only "chief rabbi" was "ayatollah" and "rabbi" was "imam"?
Oh, and does anyone know where I can find this "filtering software which can tell right from wrong"? I've been meaning to acquire a sense of morality, but it would be a heck of a lot easier if I coud just download the app.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

Kol ha kavod to these 'gedolim':they never miss an opportunity of making total fools of themselves!

[Sarek]

"...the Internet was ' bad devil'..."

Since when do we have a devil? Save that for Christianity.

Eli: I'm sure the rabbis would sell a morality app if they could and force their followers to use it.

And Yaacov is right in that the rabbis are afraid that if someone looked at the real world outside their cults, then their flock would see that the emperors have no clothes.

[Bad Devil]

A God-given Torah on a mountain in the desert is a belief that couldn't survive a single hour's worth of unfettered internet navigation even if it were performed by the very rabbis behind the ban.

And that's what they're worried about.

[Bas Melech]

And Yaacov is right in that the rabbis are afraid that if someone looked at the real world outside their cults, then their flock would see that the emperors have no clothes.

Posted by: Sarek | January 29, 2012 at 04:09 PM

Yaakov stated the real reason for the bans.

Why do yeshivos have websites? What about all those online businesses? What about all online classes frum people take?

Some of these rabbis should go in disguise and mingle with the people of the world for 3 months and see what life is really about these days.

[seymour]

"We have reached a situation that a telephone device, which every person possesses, can lead to difficult and dangerous sights which are undoubtedly forbidden by the Torah and have extremely destructive results.

the same can be said of a car,
maybe they should ban that too

[seymour]

maybe instead of telling people not to use the INTERNET

they should lead by action

shut down their own web site

http://www.shasnet.org.il/Front/NewsNet/newspaper.asp

[ruthie]

seymour,
that's funny.
do they really expect total control? i guess so.
these people are losing grasp on real torah life.
just be a jew.
why all these laws???

[Mike]

The rabbis themselves can do whatever they want- just don't call me an evil scumbag for doing it myself. Actually maybe it's better the rabbis are not on the net. Imagine these guys poking each other on Facebook?

Just the thought gives me nightmares.

[jancsipista]

If we cant trust ourselfs whom can we trust our holier then thou rabbis? no way hoze

[Yosef ben Matitya]

i don't think they meant to 'ban' the net in the sense we are made to understand!
I still receive "halakha yomit" הלכה יומית מפי מרן שליט"א
http://maran1.com/ is still running
naturally, other aspects of the net could be problematic lekhulei alma.

[seymour]

Posted by: ruthie | January 29, 2012 at 05:03 PM

a long long time ago in a distant land it was easy (maybe not that easy) to be a religious Jew, a few rules so making sense some not.

then rabbinical Judaism came and killed the goose that laid the egg.

with all there rules and regulation they have lost the true meaning of Torah Jew
whether god or man/woman wrote it.

today many things are gezarhas (gates) built around gates build around gate s build around gates.
there are so many gates most cannot and do not know what the original prohibition was.
they consider the previous gate an original prohibition that must have a gate around it. and of course after a few year that becomes an original prohibition that needs a gate and the process never ends.

actions become dogma and are done just because, with no real meaning and or spirituality attached to it

[WoolSilkCotton]

++Bad Devil | January 29, 2012 at 04:43 PM++

The frumma philosophy and their version of Judaism could not withstand even a visit to the local public library, and so the holy rabbis ban visiting the public library, too.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

@jancsipista,btw where were your Hungarian ancestors from?Mine were from Jàszapàti and had surnames like Brodi,Breuer,Loewi and Weinberg.

[seymour]

and so the holy rabbis ban visiting the public library, too.

Posted by: WoolSilkCotton | January 29, 2012 at 05:15 PM

is that so

maybe I should not walk in the street I can then walk to a movie house or worse yet pass a ice cream store that does not have separate lines

that argument was presented to me why i should not go to a Met game since maybe I will forget or get caught up in the action and buy a treif hot dog

Yeah sure like i am stupid enough to buy a cheap hot dog for 10x times the real price

[WoolSilkCotton]

Seymour,

Actually, the holy rabbis do want you to pay 10x what a hot dog is worth, but in a frumma restaurant, and that is called 'glatt kosher chasiddishe shechita'.

[SkepticalYid]

@Abu Jihad. You have relatives with the last name Loewi? Are any of them from the Nagybanya area?

[ids]

I can see why they want to ban internet, just like tv, radio, and newspapers from non-Haredi media are banned. I don't agree with it but I can somewhat understand that as consistent. However, to compare throwing away the internet to the Inquisition or the Crusades is the height of absurdity, especially coming from a sephardi rav--or does he not know how many sephardim became Christian to try to escape the Inquisition? No one jumped into the fire of the Inquisition anymore than anyone jumped into ovens in the Shoah. The comparison taints his entire argument.

[western jew]

Can I as a physician ban these types of rabbis?

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

@SkepticalYid Some of my ancestors were indeed from that part of Hungary (which now is under Romanian rule),but I don't know who.If you look up in the Yad va Shem web-site the names of the Jews who were deported from Jàszapàti,you'll see that all those with those surnames were relatives of mine;and there is also their place of birth.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

This was my great-grand mother:

http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_2KE/.cmd/acd/.ar/sa.portlet.VictimDetailsSubmitAction/.c/6_0_1L5/.ce/7_0_2KI/.p/5_0_2E6?victim_details_id=5790449&victim_details_name=Loewy+Vilma&q1=ngVN7T5tWsE%3D&q2=h5TEqLemId3KgdHFRCbaV3ZV9v1zSnz9&q3=qQdF%2FRzCjIM%3D&q4=qQdF%2FRzCjIM%3D&q5=QVgKp8bVU8g%3D&q6=YoVjMVKrEsQ%3D&q7=gtWYVLne2ZdP8AsBC2MpBcmCXDlhY5My&frm1_npage=6

[jomadar]

SkepticalYid-nagybanya is called baia mare in romanian and satu mare means big city satu means city mare means big i went 4 years to romanian school

[Bas Melech]

seymour | January 29, 2012 at 05:14 PM

Seymour,
I always say that few people know the actual halacha. They confuse gate with law and expect us to do the gate, gate...

[Korbendallas72]

We have met the enemy, and he is partially right.

[Litvish]

Let them ban the internet.

Let them ban college, mathematics, Ivrit, English, anything they damn well please.

Next step:

They must forgo receiving medical services, state services and monies, repairs to their homes, virtually anything that another Jew was forced to receive secular training in.

I want to see this scum survive without the rest of us doing their heavy lifting.

Ban them from our hospitals, from all secular based services.

Let them totally rely on their fucking Torah as they say we must.

Then we shall all see what happens.

What pathetic excuses for human beings.

[Robert Wisler]

They substitute oppressive dictums and bans for true knowledge of Torah. These men are ignoramouses.

[danny]

danny declares ban on halitosis, alarm clocks, and X-tian rock music.

who is more likely to be succesful -- danny, ovadia, or shlomo?

[seymour]

Can I as a physician ban these types of rabbis?

Posted by: western jew | January 29, 2012 at 05:55 PM

if you would be on the starship enterprise you could just ask sarek

[danny]

These rabbis spend too much time worrying about other people masturbating.

[jomadar]

seymour-the klingons are right we fight to the death and the borgs would say resistance is futile,whoever resists those rabbis will get a klingon beating:)

[shlomo as always with bad english]

if text message is banned for years in kosher phones, and kosher sims, so why no internet???

[danny]

Okay... This is NUCKING FUTS:

"As Jews, who had the courage to jump into the fire of the inquisition, the courage to slaughter their sons and wives and children after the 'Shehecheyanu' blessing, will have the strength now to make a firm decision and unequivocally rise up, throw away this device of impurity and abomination and obey the outstanding rabbis of the generation."

This is praising suicide and murder! I honestly can't believe I'm reading this. These extremist assholes should be shunned and rebuked. I am so pissed to see these words: COURAGE TO SLAUGHTER THEIR SONS AND WIVES AND CHILDREN

Lock up these crazy motherfuckers!

[danny]

I'm sorry to keep posting like this. But these fuckers not only act like Ayotolahs, they look like Ayotolahs.

[KJ]

I think this is musser talk. We have heard this call for an internet ban time and time again. At first we thought this was something big, then it was quite clear that after a while it is nothing but background noise. The people who subscribed to this did it a long time ago the rest let it go in one ear and out the next. It does sound good for a shabbos drasha topic but news? Give me a break.

I don't know why but I think that the internet providers phones did not ring off the hook with cancellation orders.

[Al Gore]

Wait, are they only banning one of the internets? Does that mean the other one is still OK?

[Waiting4Moshiach]

So why not a compromise? Kids and the Yungerman should not have access for obvious reasons, and neither should women of child bearing age or who are in the company of children. A grown man who needs it to make a living can have it at work but not at home. Cell phones should just be for telephone and nothing else. Otherwise, what is so wrong here? Goyishe librarys have filters, China uses filters, public schools must use them so why not Yidden? And for those of you who think this is a big joke I know Yidden from good families who fell off the derech because of the internet. And among the MO there is much worse going on that I wont talk about. the bottom line is that we were a lot better off before this invaded our homes!

[bmg coffe room]

Waiting for moshiach. If u wanna copy the chinese maybe we should kill babies born after our 2nd because even the chinese do it. The chinese are known to be the biggest ganovim should we copy them too/?

[Steven W]

How come they never banned telephones?

In the old days, there was no dialing. You picked up the phone and it connected to the central station and an operator answered. They would have to hear a woman's voice and actually conduct business with her.

And then we got dial phones which means combinations of numbers. I think I better get a gematria calculator to check my all of my phone numbers and anyone I call because who knows what terrible things I might be doing.

[A. Nuran]

There is nothing more dangerous to a slavemaster than the idea of freedom.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

'Internet equals the devil'

Devil's Food Cake is far more decadent.

[andre]

Is this ban only for the sepharadim or are they trying to increase their influence over the ashkanazim also?

[Kenji]

Same people that separate women and men during services, same people that ban internet, and I can go on and on.

I suppose they find abominable sending humans to outer space, having women engineers, women pilots, women surgeons, etc etc.

It is very amusing to see these folks attempting to impose a lifestyle dating back a couple thousand years. I suppose they will also ban reading glasses because you may use them to read pornographic material.

They are no different from their fellow cousins, Hard core Muslims. They should get together for a good all macho hookah smoke session.

[Eli]

It all started with Gutenberg and his damn books. Now everyone can have access to knowledge and can read and think for themselves.
Fortunately the yeshivas are taking care of that latter part....

[Malka Gittel]

There is such a thing as a good devil? I want to hear some exposition on this point from OY.

Looking at the photo I can only conclude that the point of the ban is so that the faithful cultists shouldn't know that the emperor may have clothes but his tailor has rotten taste. His court looks like a convention either of South American dictators or hotel bellhops.

[KENJI]

Malka...i thought you were gonna say Muammar Gaddafi

[KENJI]

correction Malka, I thought you were gonna say a convention of Muammar Gaddafi look alikes

[western jew]

Wait until the year 2084 when the Rabbis ban all robots. You will have to find some service station to pump your own gas and then you wont be able to go out since at that time, all the service stations will be run by robots. So in 2084, as a "orthodox" jew you wont be able to go out anymore either! Wow.
No internet. Wait until 2015 when 95% of your business, banking and all other important things require an internet hookup. We will have to revise the world and declare war against Tomorrow!
Rabbi I'm coming to serve you !

[BeenThereDoneThat]

The way that they dress proves that they are not humble tzadikim.

[danny]

One week they're dressed like marching band drum majors... the next week they're dressed up like Shriners... the next week they're dressed up like Karnak the Invincible.

[seymour]

me think they are afraid that if their followers have access to the Internet they will see that their rebbies cloth has nothing to do with holiness and the same can be said about the dress code of Hasidim.

they just copies the dress of their oppressors

and that will open up a can of worms

what they are admitting is that their believes cannot survive scrutiny

[Beth Frank-Backman]

You've got to be joking. Filtering software that can tell right from wrong?
Excerpt: --As for those whose livelihood depends on the Internet, the rabbis say "it should be used only through filtering software which can tell right from wrong, and asked experienced people… In any case, they must be extremely careful." --

[rebeljew]

"filtering software that can tell right from wrong"

That comment is utterly shocking. We spend countless years and dollars on chinuch. We all our days learning. In the end, their analysis is that each person needs software to tell right from wrong, and presumably force them to do the right thing. Are they admitting publicly that the chinuch and kiruv that they provide is woefully lacking? Are they admitting that after 40 years of their training, the average baal habayis is incapable of telling right from wrong and acting upon it?

[rebeljew]

Do these men understand what it means to "ban the internet"? That would be like banning the telephone or banning automobiles, though my Rav did so. http://rebeljew.blogspot.com/2008/12/bans-from-rav.html

Seriously, how do you ban the main shopping and communication vehicle? How do you ban something that I use daily to learn Torah? This reminds of a guy I worked for in the 90s. He refused to use computer spreadsheets to do the books because he just "doesn't trust it". He used green bar journals and ledgers instead, and committed full days of work to something that could have been done automatically and had a minute fraction of the error potential. What do you do when you must apply to a job online? Oh yeah, apply to a job? What am I even saying. Never mind.

[Eli]

Folks, stop knocking this software and just tell me where I can buy it! As a non-religious, I have no idea what is right or wrong. Is it ok to steal? Can I covet? What about wearing black socks with blue pants? Or reading in the bathroom?
Does the software say it's ok to harrass, spit, and dump bleach on people who don't dress the way you like?

[Why Ask Why]

These foolish 'rabbis' should make this announcement on the internet - this blog is a good place as any to start.

[Steven W]

In the same on-line issue of Ynetnews, there is an article that Israel is rolling out fiber optic internet to run the 'big dogs' technologically.

'Nuff said.

[Malka Gittel]

Amazing that their devoted yeshiva bochers can't tell right and wrong for themselves. They need software to figure it out for them. Doesn't a thorough grounding in Halacha do that without extra help? My, my.

[Working4Moshiach]

My local Kollel just had internet installed, for research and skype hookups.

Internet is one of the best tools for Torah learning for those who are enlightened.

[KJ]

I just received an email from Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, Kollel Ner Dovid, for their Chinese Auction. The subject of the email was "A Free Amazon Gift Card??? Wow". Amazon is an on-line retailer! One of the items being auctioned is a "Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 laptop with a second-generation i7-2670QM 2.2GHz Sandy Bridge quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM. 15.6" LED-backlit widescreen, 750GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit."

http://www.kollelauction.org/
http://www.kollelauction.org/proddetail.php?prod=6

This crap about banning the internet is without merit and is simple musser talk to keep people vigilant about its pitfall. No one is dropping it if they have it no matter what any rabbi says. Whoever bought in on the idea that the only way to protect oneself is by dropping it did so a long time ago. This is shabbos drasha talk here, not pesak halacha.

So Failedmessaihnites, fear not - the haredim will not abandon the internet. It is here to stay!

[KJ]

All joking aside, the internet if fraught with dangers. Here is an article from today's LI Newsday.

Sixth-graders warned of Internet dangers

The sixth-graders who filled the gym Monday at Eastport Elementary School listened to Suffolk Police Det. Rory Forrestal discuss the dangers of the Internet, and paid as much attention as any 12-year-old does to an adult they don't really know.

Then Forrestal started asking questions. And the students' expressions changed as they began to realize the dangers of cyberspace, even with privacy settings locked in on Facebook or Google.

He talked about an upstate girl whose Facebook page showed where she went to school, and explained just how many other doors that opened -- from someone getting a satellite picture of her school to finding her home address.

Then he talked about playing shared online games, and how someone might ask their first name, which is pretty harmless, then proceed to ask for their cellphone number, to share some cheat codes.

"They're not just looking for girls," Forrestal said, warning boys they are potential targets, too.

For the rest of the story see http://www.newsday.com/business/technology/sixth-graders-warned-of-internet-dangers-1.3491135