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Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: Religion online: I want to find out about what rabbis have to say about it. Is it good or bad, does it change Judaism? Does it change their role in practicing Judaism? Hadas |
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A: I think it would be relevant to note that last year, for Jewish Web Week, I had to invent an appropriate question ("Do ten Jews in a chat room form a minyan?"). This year, I was very happy to get this real question from a reader in Israel! One more little illustration of the growth of the Jewish web and of our site. Is religion online good or bad? Yes. Just like religion off-line! It's good because it increases Jewish knowledge and access. Got a Jewish question, just ask Reb on the Web or, if you want an Orthodox answer, WebReb or WebbaRebba (really -- they exist!). It doesn't matter if there's no Jewish library within a hundred kilometres, you can find out who the oldest man in the Bible was and what he did with all those years or how to celebrate holidays. Or maybe your local resources don't include the type of Judaism that's most attractive to you. You've got the heart of a Breslaver Hassid and are stuck in a town with only a Reconstructionist shul. Or you're interested in some funky Jewish Renewal and every place in town, from Reform to Orthodox, is as straight as a pin. Get on the web. (Of course, you may find yourself moving to a new town, eventually!) Even if there is a good Jewish library nearby, and you're a member of a congregation with a knowledgeable rabbi, you still might go to the web for your answers, because you're too intimidated or embarrassed to ask the rabbi. I've gotten several questions from people in that situation. (But shame on their rabbis!) Jews with doubts may not be able to get themselves into a Jewish building, but feel there's less to lose entering Jewish cyberspace. I sometimes get questions from people that really need to see a live rabbi, and I tell them so. But they may have never found that live rabbi if they didn't have the option of starting with low-risk correspondence with a cyber-rabbi like me. So increased access to Jewish resources and knowledge is good. There are two ways, though, in which the benefits of Jewish cyberspace are less clear-cut. One is that increased access also means increased access to nonsense and junk. But you know what? So what? I'm a democrat: let the people read and learn and argue and something good will come in the end. But that's only if they have the tools to analyze what they read and the psycho-spiritual freedom to think for themselves. Unfortunately, I'm not sure most Jews have those tools and that freedom. That's part of my job as a liberal Jewish educator. Second, I'm not sure about the net effect of online religion on community. Neither Judaism nor humanity can survive without community. And while the global connections that can be formed online are wonderful, they don't take the place of studying face to face with a live study partner, or singing with a minyan, or bringing a lasagne over to the neighbour who's just returned from the hospital, or rejoicing with brides and grooms, or any of the real human contacts that form both Jewish community and community in general. Maybe all of our Jewish websites should conclude with a banner that says:
written by Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz |
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