Page 60 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

GENERAL INTEREST SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Rabbi Chaim Navon

Being a No-Man

ne of the greatest messages the And the third claim the Torah refutes is Because of the dominance of internet
Torah has brought to the world that everything new and groundbreak- technology, it’s impossible to reject it
Ois that not everything that can ing is good. The Torah illustrates this completely, as the Chareidim did with
be done is allowed, not everything that in Parshat Noach, when the advanced television. But it is important to limit
exists is good, and sometimes it’s per- technology of Migdal Bavel casts disas- it, exactly for this reason. The computer
mitted to forbid. This is what the Eitz ter upon humanity. Technology can cer- and the internet are excellent servants
HaDa’at, the Tree of Knowledge, teaches tainly be good. Chazal teach us that G-d if you control them, but they are cruel
us: having a shiny, good-looking, tasty gave Adam the gift of fire, which is the masters if they control you.
fruit in front of me does not mean I’m basis of our technology. Human beings “The Social Dilemma” ends with a
allowed to eat it. are called upon to enhance the world call for governments to intervene and
Even today, this lesson still contradicts through good technology and to avoid restrict internet companies. This is a
the pagan intuitions of mankind. It bad technology. disappointing conclusion. It is not the
opposes three common claims. First As Religious Zionists, we sometimes government that eagerly turns on your
of all, the Torah refutes the idea that sneer at the Chareidim’s attempts to iPhone in the morning. We are responsi-
everything natural is good. This is an curb what they see as harmful tech- ble for ourselves, and we are responsible
assumption that modern ecology wor- nology. They seem like King Cnut the for our children. Since our children don’t
ships. For example, look how the food Great, who was so proud he thought he need this sophisticated tool for voca-
giants assume that we too agree that nat- could stop the ocean’s tide, but drowned tional purposes, and since they have a
ural = good, and so they add small bits when the tide refused to be swayed by lesser ability to resist its temptations,
of what was once fruit to their yogurts his decree. Technology is not a stead- the first step is to push off their entry
and sell it as natural food. fast law of nature. It is a human choice. into the world of the internet. Their

However, the Torah teaches us that – Even if we laugh at the Chareidim whose teachers too need to wean themselves
off communicating with students via
as in most things – good is not always children snuck over to the neighbors WhatsApp.
natural, and natural is not always good. to watch television, the average time a
Chareidi child spends watching TV is at Psychologist Jonathan Haidt showed
The second claim the Torah refutes is least 90 percent lower than his Religious that people in our generation who
that everything beautiful is good. The receive a smartphone in middle school
Eitz HaDa’at was a “delight to the eyes,” Zionist. It is possible to discuss whether are more likely to suffer from an extreme
and yet it was prohibited to eat from it. it was necessary to ban this technology, increase in depression and anxiety and a
In 1965, Israel’s Minister of Education, but it’s incorrect to claim it’s impossible. steep decline in healthy social relation-
Zalman Aran, banned the Beatles from Steve Jobs said that computers are like ships. Some smart people have asked me
performing in Israel, so as not to cor- bicycles for the brain. The documentary how I can forbid my child from having
rupt Israeli youth. Shulamit Aloni tried “The Social Dilemma” claims that today’s a smartphone when I use one myself?
to overturn the evil decree, and asked internet technology has completely But we also have driving licenses and
Aran: “How can people who wrote the disrupted this equation. As opposed to our children don’t.
song ‘Yesterday’ be so corrupt?” With- bicycles, the internet responds to you
out relating specifically to the Beatles, and actively tries to entice you to use We love the Torah that tells us to say
she was wrong. Plenty of gifted artists it more and more. Sophisticated algo- “yes” to good and to life, and we are
are less than ideal human beings and, rithms remember every action you ever grateful it teaches us to sometimes say
regretfully, there is no connection what- made on the internet and bombard you “no.”
soever between beauty and purity in this with tailor-made messages every time Rabbi Chaim Navon is a renowned author
world. you surf the web. and educator.

60 |