Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Glatt kosher internet

A new Glatt kosher internet portal is being formed by a team of leading rabbis in Israel. It will start out with 70 torah oriented websites called "glatt net". Although the rabbis banned the use of the web, a new study shows that there are 38,500 charedi households that have computers most of whom are connected to the internet.
The rabbinacle board is led by rabbi Baruch Avrahom Rackowski from Jerusalem and Rabbi Menachem Levi (Ponoviz) Bnei Brak.The portal will have a Kabbalah web site under the direction of Rabbi Chaim Cohen, known to many as the "CHALBAN".
posted by Yeshiva Orthodoxy
at 2:44 PM

11 Comments:

Blogger Boruch said...

While the idea of a "kosher" Internet service is a good one, nobody would pay for the service described here.

People want web access for shopping, maps/directions, finance, etc. If keeping the web safe for frum use means a whitelist rather than a blacklist, so be it. But that list needs to start with those things that cause people to want the Web in the first place.

2:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What company?

3:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"People want web access for shopping, maps/directions, finance, etc."

You tell 'em Boruch! Problem is, the inmates in charge of the asylum think that the reason people get the web is to have access to shmutz.

3:29 PM  
Blogger Boruch said...

If by "inmates", you are referring to our nation's most revered scholars, I take exception to both the characterization and the content of your statement.

I'm quite sure that everyone understands that the primary motivation for Web access is to access permissible content. The concern is over other content that is accessed either unintentionally, or by succumbing to tayvos whose fulfillment is but a click away.

If filters (which are blacklists) are found to be an insufficient safeguard (and I'm not saying whether or not they are), then the solution would be to allow access only to explicitly defined sites (that is a whitelist). That appears to be the idea to which this post is referring.

My only point was that a Torah-only whitelist is rather pointless and doomed to failure since it denies the very reason people want the Web.

4:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I'm quite sure that everyone understands that the primary motivation for Web access is to access permissible content."

I'm not at all sure of that.

4:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"our nation's most revered scholars,"

If by "our nation's most revered scholars," you are referring to R' Elyashiv, then no, I don't mean him. If you are talking about R' Shteinman, I wouldn't say he's one of the most revered scholars, but I don't mean him either. If you're talking about the real movers and shakers among the signers, and about the kanoim behind them, then, yes! that's precisely who I'm talking about.

4:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If these rabonim "our nation's most revered scholars" want to be taken seriously they should disassociate themselves with political parties, and begin to deal with real issues! While they worry about the internet, movies on airlines,(hey, take personal responsibility, conquer that yetzer horo and don't look at sites you shouldn't see) and sheitels (look at any Shu"t from the real rabonim hageonim from 19th century Europe - the peah nochris itself is osur min hatorah) - the majority of toshvei Eretz Yisroel are not observant and raising a generation apathetic if not antagonistic to Torah. If Rabonim are truly the fathers and kings (man malchei - rabonon) of the Jewish people, they should get about the business of raising the spirituality and Torah observance of the masses.

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"hey, take personal responsibility, conquer that yetzer horo and don't look at sites you shouldn't see"

That's not a valid Torah haskafah, period. If you find yourself in a test that you could have avoided, you've already failed.

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Self-control is not a valid Torah hashkafa?

1:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Among the Lakweood rabbonim discussing the process for granting ishurim, there was some discussion of having a "whitelist". As an examle of a website that might be whitelisted, Wal-Mart was suggested. R' Forcheimer objected, since there are advertisements for women's clothing on the website, which would include innapropriate attire (& presumably underwear). My source - one of the rabbonim at the meeting - says that most of the rabbonim were kind of skeptical of this, but R' Forcheimer outranked them, and he carried the day.

So in sum, I don't think the whitelist idea is going anywhere.

1:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are such advertisements in almost every magazine and newspaper. There are ads on buses and trains with such pictures. There are billboards with such pictures. I know that the real frummies would never allow mags and newspapers into their houses, but are they also ready to forbid going on the bus or traveling on the road? As the great Rabbi Matt said: One should be ready to be chozeir al hapesachim rather than have internet. If potential underwear ads is sufficient reason to prohibit even a whitelist net, it should be sufficient to prohibit all the things I mentioned too. That's it: No more traveling to NY for any purpose other than pikuach nefesh.

3:42 PM  

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