Lashon Hara Is Now Fast and Easy

(courtesy of http://www.blallen.com)

Lashon Hara is now fast and easy with new Verizon DSL. For just $39.99/mo. you can quadruple the amount of people to hear your gossip and destroy and defame Yidden ten times faster. The Internet and Blogging is just anything else in the material world. It can be used for the utmost good as well as the utmost evil. Lately I have seen a pattern of Jewish Blogs posting nothing but negative aspect of Judaism.

I'm not speaking about blogs like Failed Messiah, Xyre or, Circus Tent. These blogs are another category. They had their feelings hurt buy groups they tried so hard to be accepted by and once rejected were unable to cope with the fact that Hashem had other plans for them. Instead they dedicate hours upon hours exposing the most negative, distorting the truth, and praying (well at least they pray for something) for the destruction of the people they are out for.

The Internet has made this much easier as these people would not have even a third of the success they feel they have gained if they led such a campaign in the real world. You know, face to face to the people you slander. No, because that would end in either a pummeled face (G-d forbid) or being out debated, as without google.com open, the knowledge base must shift to brain-only mode. Still these site gets thousands of hits and people keep coming back because people just love to read the kind of negative filth these sites host.

Is it Lashon Hara that i speak about these blogs and the horrible things they say? Some might say yes, but still criticizing a blog, isn't criticizing a person. I don't know the people who write these blogs, and for the most part they try to stay anonymous for fear of retaliation against them. Apparently getting your blog hacked is not as scary as a group of displeased people at your front door.

My focus of this blog is on Blogs that I consider quality blogs writing Lashon Hara. Blogs I support, avidly read, that sometimes go in the wrong direction when they are short on material. There is this concept in the Blogosphere, specifically the Frum one, that it is OK to expose the negative aspects of Haredi Society on the Internet because people deserve to know the truth. There are many problems with this. Firstly Who deserves to know the truth? Haredi people or people that stumble upon a blog and form an opinion that Haredi Society is all negative. Still, the negativity should not be ignored and it should be documented, but it should also be based on fact and not opinion, or not on the word of three or four people.

My issue is when there are blogs that write articles about specific people. This is without question Lashon Hara, and the usual response is that Lashon Hara is just an excuse to keep the truth from being known. Well my question is, who are you to "expose the truth"? You are a Jew with a blog account and nothing more. This goes for me as well, and if my blogs are a reflection of my position on this issue, I can say that if I do write a blog about a person, their idenity is unknown to anyone but me, and possibly them if they read the article.

I have thrown around the idea of posting the blog and its article that spurred this posting, but that will not solve the problem. I enjoy reading the blog and have learned interesting things about Haredi Society and how I functions at least from this blogger's point of view. The article really set me off and I argued back in forth but to no avail did the blogger shift their opinion on the subject.

In short the article is about a few Rabbi's and their method of fundraising. The blogger goes off on them equating them to thievery, fraud, and deception. My problem is what evidence was this hateful blog based on? 100% opinion, yet it is presented as if its well known fact. If you don't agree with how this Rabbi works, then he is not the Rabbi to you. Unless you are his accountant, or the Israeli IRS how do you know what goes on? You asked a couple people (who also happen to dislike this Rabbi as much as you) and this is your evidence.

Lashon hara (or Loshon hora) (Hebrew לשון הרע; "evil tongue") is the prohibition in Jewish Law of telling gossip – negative disparaging but truthful remarks about a person or party who is not present.

However you want to justify an article targeting a specific person, this is the Halacha. You can chose to ignore it, like you can chose to ignore any halacha.

Frum Blogs should be used to make the Internet holy and break the klippot that the Internet has encrusted around its users. Yes, all aspects of Judaism should be documented, but there is plenty of Positive going on, and its a shame that is ignored for the more juicy stories. If that is your goal, then you should work for a goyish mainstream publication like People Magazine.

There will be a separate follow up to this blog but the end result is the same.

If we spent the same amount of type Gossiping and putting Jews down as we did in our Torah study, Moshiach would have come during the time of the 1st Temple.

The Vilna Goan repented one Rosh Hashanah on his time wasted in not learning Torah during the year. He carefully calculated that it was 7 minutes for the whole year!!! If we only spend 7 minutes a day or even a week extra learning Torah, think of our benefit.

Chasidim Dont Learn Chassidus Anymore

(Courtesy of www.derechhamelech.org)

*Update 8.28*
I realized after a day of thought and a response by a fellow Chasid that the blog wasn't really about the claim that Chasidim dont learn Chassidus, but I critical commentary on Chabad philosophy. My Yetzer Hara one uped me here because this is something I had told myself I wouldn't do anymore. Criticizing other derechs of Judaism does not further my pursuit or bring me closer to Hashem. So I rewrote the blog that ends with a question I hope non Chabad Chassidim who are allowed to use the internet can answer.

Darche Noam has an interesting Chassidic element to it. Three Rabbis who teach there are Chassidish and there are more than a few students inspired by them and the larger part of Chassidus. This is where I heard a most interesting statement made by a Lubavitcher Chasid that is a student at Darche Noam. He told me straight faced and serious that "Chasidim don't learn Chassidus anymore except for Chabad and Breslov." Flabbergasted, I said that it was simply not true and that many Chasidim learn Chassidus. He said to ask anyone and they will agree with his statement which he wishes wasn't true but is a reality none the less. The only Chasidim I am exposed to in Long Beach are Lubavitchers, Breslov, and my Rav who is neither of the two. He is a Polish Chasid, spodik and all. I learn Chassidius with him once or twice a week. I was scared and confused at his words. Does this mean I am a Breslover or a Lubavitcher since I learn Chassidus? Ok, I wasn't scared, I knew that this Baal Teshuva, just like other B.T's (including myself), sometimes believe what a certain person, Rabbi, or group might say and take this as the Emes of all Emes.

Even though I didn't believe him, I was on a mission to figure out if there was some truth into what he had said. First, I went to all the Chassidic Rabbi's who teach at Darche Noam. One is Vizhnitz, another Breslov, and the third seems to lean towards Chassidus in general. The Breslover laughed, the Rabbi who is a general Chasid was confused, but the Vizhnitzer had the best response of them all.

"First of all Chasidim learn Chassidus, there is just different opinions on how you learn Chassidus, when you learn Chassidus, and how often you learn Chassidus. Chasidus is the dessert of Torah. The Gemara is the Cholent. Some Chasidim eat dessert first and then have no room for Cholent. In Vizhnitz we don't learn Chassidus as much until you are older for this reason."


I'm not a Chabad Chasid or any specific Chasid but I try to learn Chassidus daily. If I am successful or not is another story. I know I'm not the only Non-Chabad Chasid learning Chassidus out there because I learn Chasidus with non Lubavitchers. Our last Shabbos in Eretz Yisroel was in Bnei Brak with an Aleksander Chasid who runs the Aleksander Shtiebel off of Rabbi Akiva St. It was one of the most amazing Shabbosim I have ever experienced and it will have its very own post, but I can tell you one thing about Aleksander Chasidim. They learn Chassidus. They learned Yismach Yisrael, by the second Aleksander Rebbe, Rebbe Yerachmiel Yisroel Yitzchok Dancyger after Shachris during Kiddush AND at Shalosh Seudos.

I am convinced that Chasidim are still learning Chassidus, but I wont be able to answer my own question until my wife and I get back to Israel to learn next year. Hopefully till then you can answer my question.


"Do Chassidim still learn Chassidus? and if they dont, what are they learning?"

Learning How Much You Need To Learn

(courtesy of www.shuvubonim.org)

The main purpose of our trip to Israel was to figure out where we would be learning next year. Our Rabbi recommended the yeshiva/seminary that he learned at with his wife before he recieved smicha, and Baruch Hashem, that we followed his advice. My wife and I have experience learning at other Baal Teshuva yeshivot and seminaries and at least my own experience has shown me that learning Hashkafa comes before Halacha in many cases. This never sat right with me that getting a Black Hat or a Gartel was the goal when one could'nt even learn a sugia of Gemara. Because of this, you have B.T. Bochur A putting down B.T. Bochur B for not keeping Chalav Yisroel or Pas Yisroel when he doesn't know the source for the Halacha, where you can be makel, or the legitimate Heters given by poskim. All Bochur A knows is that a Rabbi told him something and that MUST be the only way. Most B.T yeshivas simply push their minhagim and their interpretations of halacha on impressionable Yidden and cause the B.T to think this is the only way.

This isnt to say anything negative about any B.T. yeshiva, because B"H they bring Jews back to Torah and regardless of how they do it, its bringing Moshiach quicker. Its just not a direction that speaks to me. This is why I can say Darche Noam, is (for the Baal Teshuva) that best Torah Institution on Earth. We learned there for a few weeks and also spent time with many of their Alumni and I noticed two things they all had in common. First they all very much had their own Hashkafa and they were all different types, Chassidic, Litvish, Religious Nationalist, Sephari, and the second thing they had in common was they were all Talmid Chachamim. They knew how to pull halacha out of Gemara and Shulchan Aruch and I'm not talking about the Kitzer. The beautiful thing about Darche Noam is that you learn how to learn. You dont rely on what one Rabbi says, you learn to listen to what one Rabbi has to say and then research yourself to figure out what you should do.

Darche Noam's faculty also is something special as all walks of Yidden teach there. Different types of Chassidic Rabbis, Rabbis with smicha from Mir, even HaGoan Rabbi Kamenetsky's son is on faculty. So for those critical of Darche Noams "lack of" hashkafa will have no problem finding a Rabbi to latch on to and seek for guidance.

Our plan iy"H is to start next summer and go a full year and see where we are at. We went to shuir's at other yeshivas and I had a chevrusa at another and just looking at the people at other yeshivas I knew Darche Noam was where I need to be. At Darche Noam not to many put in the time learning to leave and go clubbing in Tel Aviv at night and no one wakes up at 2pm and daven shachris with their Tefillin on in the Beis Midrash.

Being at the yeshiva really smacked me with a reality check. How much I knew, How much I now know, but more how much I Need to know. Of course we are always learning, but outside of Israel in the darkness of Chutz La'Aretz its really easy to think you know something.

Our experience has brought light back to the darkness and I pray to G-d that he keeps blessing me with the light until we get back to the source in his Holy Land of Eretz Yisroel