{"id":420,"date":"2012-01-27T13:46:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/leviticus-301-verily-shalt-thou-shun-the-internet.html"},"modified":"2012-01-27T13:46:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T13:46:00","slug":"leviticus-301-verily-shalt-thou-shun-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/leviticus-301-verily-shalt-thou-shun-the-internet.html","title":{"rendered":"Leviticus 30:1: Verily Shalt Thou Shun The Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Israeli Sephardic leader Rav Ovadia Yosef, patron of the Shas Party, has joined with others, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, in calling for religious Jews to disconnect from the internet.\u00a0 With this he joins the ranks of the many Ashkenazi rabbis who long ago forbade access to the internet (or, for that matter, secular education).<\/p>\n

From Ynet<\/a> (Hebrew only):<\/p>\n

In a \u201choly call\u201d to the wider community, the rabbis warned about technological developments:\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve arrived at a situation where within a telephone found in anyone\u2019s hand people can be taken to images that are difficult and dangerous to a person\u2019s soul, that the viewing of them is forbidden by the Torah without doubt, and their results are extremely destructive.\u00a0 And it is known that many have failed and their world has been lost, God forbid.\u00a0 And there are those who arrive there out of curiosity about the world and with no evil intention, God forbid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026According to Rav Yosef and the rabbis who signed [the statement], disconnection from the internet is an obligation from the Torah.\u00a0 Rav Moshe Shapir added that the internet is \u201can evil satan\u201d endangering its users with very serious religious sins which every Jew is commanded \u201cto die rather than transgress them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve read the Torah many times and I can\u2019t recall anything in there about the internet.<\/p>\n

Also, could someone please explain to me why, if it\u2019s so bad and so forbidden there are so many religious Jews on the internet?\u00a0 Shas, of course, has its own website:\u00a0 www.shasnet.org.il<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the many Israeli talkbacks rightly pointed out, this isn\u2019t about the really sketchy stuff on the internet.\u00a0 This is about closing down avenues to secular knowledge.\u00a0 No wonder so many Israelis call these rabbis the Jewish ayatollahs.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli Sephardic leader Rav Ovadia Yosef, patron of the Shas Party, has joined with others, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, in calling for religious Jews to disconnect from the internet.\u00a0 With this he joins the ranks of the many Ashkenazi rabbis who long ago forbade access to the internet (or, for that matter, secular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,20,31],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-haredim","tag-israel","tag-orthodox-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nLeviticus 30:1: Verily Shalt Thou Shun The Internet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Israeli Sephardic leader Rav Ovadia Yosef, patron of the Shas Party, has joined with others, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, in calling for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/leviticus-301-verily-shalt-thou-shun-the-internet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leviticus 30:1: Verily Shalt Thou Shun The Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israeli Sephardic leader Rav Ovadia Yosef, patron of the Shas Party, has joined with others, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, in calling for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/leviticus-301-verily-shalt-thou-shun-the-internet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-27T13:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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