BBC NEWS | Middle East | Is that cellphone kosher? - 1 views
-
Kim T on 23 Sep 10The Haredi community limits their access and use of the phone and internet to protect themselves. However, this causes a separation between those who have different views on what extent the limitation should be put up to.
- ...5 more comments...
-
nicholas n on 24 Sep 10This is a very interesting article, I am still shock how religion still influences some people today. It is even more shocking because in the article that I picked, the situation was exactly opposite. People and governments were demanding equality of access. I am shocked at this people are voluntarily limiting themselves from the rest of the world. I wonder in this ever evolving digital age will these traditions last for much longer?
-
Elisavet M on 24 Sep 10This article exemplifies the impact that technological integration has had on the preservation of traditional customs and morality from the Jewish perspective. Interestingly technology in this case also defines a person for the strength of his or her religious commitment, for example: if one does not have a "kosher phone", then he is not to be admitted into Jewish society because he is ultimately characterized as being immodest and immoral. Restraining one's self from the magnetism of the internet and the dangers it also possesses is illustrated once one takes certain measures to signify the act of taking a stand to secure the sacredness of religion and customs. But once I began thinking about this concept, I started to change my mind gradually. I believe that yes, technology is a potential threat to one's "beliefs", but it only becomes a problem once the user allows such practices to get out of hand. We come back to the same idea: technology has become a label, something that defines us superficially in the minds of others. Just because one may not have a kosher phone, does not have to mean that that person is sending inappropriate texts to another cell phone user. Our bond of trust and reliability upon others is destroyed once we enter the position of forming inconclusive judgements based on the type of technology used and the limitations it draws.