NOVEMBER 13, 1998
"The use of the Internet is forbidden even for the purpose of making a living. It should not be seen or found in the homes or businesses of Israel, for it contains a deadly poison and all that enter it will never be wholesome again. Many homes in Israel were already destroyed by it. . . The grave boycott - the global boycott declared by all the great sages of Israel on the destroyer of humanity, the television, applies in its full extent to the computer, which enables the user to watch television. . . All the CDs - including scientific and educational packages, encyclopedias, image collections and graphics, they too constitute a terrible danger. Even if they are in Yiddish, for they contain images of obscenity and idolatry, heresy, bloodshed and its accessories." (page 2)
Comment by Hofesh: This is a public statement of Rabbis; the computer as the enemy of Judaism; ignorance will preserve "loyal Judaism;" see an article on this subject in the articles page on our website.
On how strange is the world:
"A high-school Graduate, who knows how to calculate logarithms, but cannot answer the question: 'what is a red heifer?' is educated and cultured. Whereas a Torah student, an erudite scholar, who can regenerate the profound, dialectic systems on the difficult, complex matters of the Six Orders of the Mishna, with profound understanding and wise, sincere observation on each subject and matter, but who is not well-versed in the cryptic, wondrous reflections of A.B.C. Yehoshua, or in the secrets of integral or differential calculus, is considered to be ignorant, uneducated, and endangering the future of Israeli society." (Yitzhak Roth, Appendix, p. 26.)
This time Yated Neeman is right!
14 AUGUST, 1998
"Lately, a serious breach was noted throughout the country. Physicians who practice as circumcises started to perform the circumcision using a new method: before the circumcision the baby is injected with local anesthesia, supposedly to make the guests feel better, because the baby's crying is not heard during the circumcision. Out masters and sages the great arbiters came out with an agitated plea not to deviate from the manner in which circumcision has been done during all past generations. . .Here is a call to all who are God-fearing who esteem God's name to stand guard so that circumcision is not performed, God forbid, with local anesthesia." (B. Rabinovich, p. 2.)
JUNE 19, 1998
"The personal computer has already caused spiritual disasters and destruction. . . Babes, nourished in wonderful homes fell victims on the altars of the personal computer. . .As long as we do not open up breaches, windows, peepholes or loopholes in the fortified wall of "a people who dwells alone" that surrounds us, protects us and isolates us from the entire sick, plague-stricken, leprous world outside. . .It is not the thickness of the walls which should prevail but their impermeability! And it is particularly the latter that needs repair. . .The dividing screen, which should separate completely between Jews of the Law and its Mitzvoth and of faith and the fear of God - and the mass of creatures chasing the gross pleasures of this world of matter. . .We must lock up these undesirable doors, put out these eyes and blind them, tear out these ears and render them deaf. . .Ensure that even the keyhole is not left open without the proper caulking." (Mordechai Gerlitz, p. 3.)