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While there are plenty of rabbis who use the internet to teach conversion students, I have been wondering for a long time if the internet could be used for all aspects of conversion. I think I have the texts that lay the groundwork for it. Watch and see…
Source text can be downloaded here.
We’re thrilled to announce that NewKosher is back and better than ever! With a new mission statement, new volunteer director and new, delicious recipes, NewKosher is not your bubbie’s Jewish food website.
NewKosher is all about making delicious food for you, your friends and your family. We fully back the idea that anything can be kosher if you put the thought and creativity into it! We offer many vegetarian, vegan and healthy options.
At NewKosher we promise:
We have two different parts of the website. The first is full menus for events, parties and everyday meals. The second is our Recipe Box, which is an archive of all the recipes on NewKosher. We have different bloggers who contribute to NewKosher on a regular basis and we also encourage you to submit your own recipes and menus. We provide recipe cards for all set menus and also include a printable shopping list.
Additionally, we feature Jewish parties and events. Do you and your friends throw amazing Shabbat dinner parties? Let us know! Do you and your parents make a special meal for a certain holiday? Send it in! Throwing a party for a holiday, bridal shower or birthday? Check out NewKosher for special menus, party themes, and custom invitations. For more information, click on the Host a Party tab.
We hope you use NewKosher as the resource for all your kosher cooking!
People don’t like to think very far into the future. I understand that: I can barely think about next week, let alone a decade from now.
But if the Tribe is going to survive, we need to learn to adapt. Judaism came from a pre-modern era. Now, more than ever, we need to find creative ways to use technology to bring the Tribe into the 21st Century…kicking and screaming if we have to.
So here are five technological innovations, which I feel will greatly improve Jewish life and further the Jewish People.
Twitter Minyans: It makes no sense to me that technology and prayer have not been fused together. Most of the prayers are short enough that they will work in Twitter, and we can shorten the other ones to fit in the 150 character box.
Digital Shabbos Candles: There’s nothing that requires a Shabbos candle be a physical candle (haters beware, I did look in Code of Jewish Law for this), so we can assume that a candle screen saver would work just as well for Friday night. If you want something a little more low-tech, a simple flashlight would work just as well. But remember that if you do that, you have to let the battery run out, as switching the light off is “work.”
Robot Shabbos Goys: Need a Shabbos goy but don’t want to bother the nice Christian family next door? In the future, we’ll have robots to do that for us. Even today, modern conveniences like the Roomba by iRobot take away any pressure to work on Shabbat.
Kosher iPhone: The future is here and it’s called the iPhone. iBlessing and ParveOMeter are two amazing iPhone/iTouch apps to appease the yiddishkeit desire to introduce efficiency into the Jewish lifestyle. Future apps that I would like to see include the Modeh Ani alarm clock and a call-your-mother app that sends pre-recorded voicemails to your mom, letting her know you haven’t dropped out of med school (yet)!
Insta-Conversion: Utilizing the power of the Internet, we can completely re-think how new Jews are brought into the Tribe. The general requirements are a pre-interview, some kind of Judaism 101 class, Bet Din, bris, mikvah and a public ceremony. If we break this down, we find that most of this can be done quickly and efficiently, utilizing e-technology. Pre-conversion interviews between rabbi and convert can easily be done via IM or Skype. Classes can be modeled after distance learning with e-books to read and online exams. The Bet Din can be turned into a teleconference, or again, another Skype adventure. The bris (for men) and mikvah would need to be in person, but as far as I’m concerned a public ceremony could be a mass update on your Facebook/Myspace/Twitter. We could also use webcams to broadcast this event.
Stay tuned; I am sure I’ll come up with more.
Originally posted on Jewcy.com and photo stolen from Scienceandhalacha.org
You can get a college degree in just about anything online, from sports management to fire science. If you’re of the religious persuasion, there are over two million hits on Google for virtual seminary programs for Christians, and you can even become an imam online.
The Jewish world has its own options, depending on what slice of the Jewish pie you are a part of.
For the frum among us, there is Tifereth Israel Yeshiva, a distance learning yeshiva. Their site doesn’t say anything about what you learn.
Chabad got in on the act with Online Smicha, a project of Lubavitch Minnesota. Not surprising, this program is focused entirely on halachka, so if you are Hebrew language-less and/or not Orthodox, you’re out of luck.
And now the rest of us…
Aleph – The Alliance For Jewish Renewal is the only “movement” with distance learning for rabbis. It takes about six years and requires a lot of time at Jewish conferences and involvement with Renewal communities. Jewish Renewal was founded by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.
Rabbinical Seminary International was founded as a Jewish seminary by ex-Chassidic rabbi Joseph H. Gelberman who also founded an interfaith seminary years later. It is now run by Rabbi Roger Ross. The program is self study and mentorship focused on Jewish spirituality and less on Jewish law and other things that RSI considers to be impractical in today’s Jewish environment.
American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism has a similar program to RSI, however, it has less of the interfaith language and does mention the importance of learning Jewish law, text, ritual and kashrut. One of the rabbis who founded ASCJ is a graduate of Tifereth Israel Yeshiva, one of three Orthodox online yeshivot.
The Jewish Spiritual Leadership Institute is the project of Rabbi Steven Blaine, a graduate of Rabbinical Seminary International. A one year program, the site is built around a weekly chavurah of students and Rabbi Blaine using web conference software. It seems to focus less on rituals, Hebrew and formal study of Jewish text and instead looks at contemporary Jewish issues.
In the spirit of Levi Strauss, the second most famous Jewish cowboy next to Kinky Friedman, we’ve rounded up our favorite Passover videos and wrangled them into a video rodeo! Check it out…
This week we discuss whether it is possible to live a Jewish life online. You probably already know our answer, but there’s more! And, Werewolf Bar Mitzvah! Aaah-ooooooooooooooh!
PunkTorah Radio: Living A Jewish Life Online
My wife admitted to me tonight that she is virtually a white collar criminal.
Anna plays a Wii game called Animal Crossing. Think Second Life meets Sims, but with cute animals in a weird psychedelic forest. The object of the game? Well…there isn’t one. You simply live in a town full of animals, doing mundane activities like paying your bills, getting your hair done, celebrating holidays and going to museums.
In order to do anything fun in the game, you need to have money…or in this case, “bells”. You can earn bells by working a job, collecting fruit from the trees, fishing, or in my wife’s case, selling turnips.
But Anna is a little devious, and with the help of a friend, found a way to scam Animal Crossing by committing “turnip fraud”.
The Stalk Market is the marketplace for turnips, and it follows the same rule as the real stock market: buy low, sell high. But Anna found a way to play the market to her advantage, and that’s where turnip fraud comes into play.
The Stalk Market happens every Sunday. You buy turnips and wait until Wednesday or Thursday when the market hits its peak, then sell. Here’s where the scam comes in: Anna and a friend talk to each other to see who has the city with the highest turnip values. The friend with the lower value market then “time travels” in their city back to Sunday at the opening of the market, and buys lots of turnips. She then travels to her friend’s city (which is still in the present) and sell the turnips at a huge markup. According to Anna, this scam has netted her around two million bells at a time.
On one hand, Anna is cheating the game. But since she’s not competing against anyone, there is no winner or loser. Anna’s also gambling, which the written Torah doesn’t forbid outright but later rabbis had some problems with (Rosh Ha-Shanah I: 8 and Sanhedrin 3: 3). And if you ask Chabad, they will straight up tell you that gambling is wrong, because “it’s a bit like stealing”.
So Anna asked if what she was doing was ethical. I’d like to know what you think.
(By Michael Sabani)
michael@punktorah.org
We’ve gotten some flack from those who call themselves “more observant” wanting to know, quite frankly, “what the heck is an online minyan?” and “how can you justify it?” On the other hand, we’ve gotten messages from people who are scared. They need there to be barriers and some sort of mystical, pseudo-Talmudic, Torah based objection so they won’t be challenged!
Well, if you want to know how we can “defend” getting a bunch of people to pray together online, this is how:
We can see the advancements of the internet and the ability to stream a service live as a benefit of these modern times. This use of technology isn’t really as big an innovation as you’d think. In fact, “the gemara in Sukkah 51b relates that the synagogue of Alexandria, Egypt was so large that they had to wave flags so that the people in the back knew when to answer ‘amen’” (Friedman). How about that! The online service is essentially the same thing; we are sending out “electronic flags” to all those participating.
According to Rav Soloveitchik, “even if one is in another room, he may still have the advantage of tefillah betzibbur, just as he may respond to devarim shebekedushah” (Mipninei HaRav [2001], p.41). So we are told that even those in another room may participate in a service and be included, while being in a different room from the leader of the service.
The Rambam tells us, in the Mishneh Torah (Tefillah viii) that if a minyan is distributed between 2 adjoining rooms and the shaliach tzibbur is standing in a doorway between the two, or even within earshot of both rooms, all involved can be counted for the minyan. So, in the 21st century, the live, streaming video really is the doorway into the rooms of the participants. As long as everyone can hear the leader and participate, there really is no reason why all who are watching and participating can’t be counted.
In summary, Rav Friedman says that “all stimuli that are not from a natural origin, are not in their natural form, or do not originate from a natural process are invalid for the fulfillment of almost any halakhic obligation.” So it seems that if the prayer leaders are actively, naturally speaking and leading, the service would be valid.
But more importantly, Friedman says that essentially each mitzvah needs to be examined on it’s own merit.
Right on.
So guess what? You can support the conception and implementation of an online minyan utilizing traditional Talmudic sources.
And to that we say: Big deal.
Look, it’s great that we can come up with Talmudic sources to support he fact that we are trying to get more people to pray and connect with G-d. That is an important part of the tradition, being able to say “This is what we’re doing and this is why we believe we are in the right.” But the fact of the matter is, we live in a world where live, streaming services, Skype, and IMing are a reality. We live in the 21st century, and pretending it’s the 3rd, 10th, or 17th isn’t helping anybody. Getting people to come together and pray is.
If you think what we’re doing is wrong, or not halachically acceptable, fine! That’s your right! The Talmud is basically a bunch of rabbis arguing with each other, and in most cases there is no clear “Rabbi A is right, Rabbi B is wrong”.
So when I have to stand in front of my Creator (which I believe I will) and say that I encouraged people to pray together, to get to know one another, and to encourage each other in performing mitzvot, but it was wrong to do it online (!?) I will gladly accept my punishment. Better one person does a mitzvah out of my mistake than if none do, even though I live a righteous life.
Works Cited
Friedman, Mordechai. “HALAKHIC CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTIONS.” Torah on the Web – Virtual Beit Midrash. Web. 28 Oct. 2010. <http://vbm-torah.org/archive/halak61/12virtual.htm>.
(Many thanks to my friend Alan Sufrin of Stereo Sinai for the excellent help and research!)
We’ve been getting a lot of really interesting emails about our project OneShul recently. Most are amazing: people thanking the PunkTorah network of volunteers for making something like this happen.
On the flip side, we get these kinds of comments:
“There’s no such thing as online Jewish community.”
“You are trying to destroy physical communities.”
“There’s no way that any of this is even possible. It all violates Jewish law.”
To those who nay-say online community, I’d like to point you to three of the most brilliant minds in the world (thanks to the Ted Talks), all of whom agree that deconstructed online community is not only changing the world for the better, but also a natural extension of the human mind. Bottom line: the geniuses of the world support online community. So why resist?
The Internet enables intimacy between people (so much for that whole destroying-relationships-thing)
Technology creates tribes (and we’re members of The Tribe, no?)
Children can teach themselves (how will this effect bar mitzvah students?)
Originally posted on Jewcy.
Once upon a time, a group of people decided to start an online synagogue called OneShul. This independent minyan consisted of two buddies in Atlanta (a graphic designer and his weirdly Type-A musician friend) and all their friends that they met online who loved Judaism and were a little different in their own, unique ways.
In a chat room attached to their temporary cyber sanctuary the friends talked about what they wanted the synagogue to look like, feel like, and how they wanted to be represented as a community. They knew they wanted, more than anything, for the world to know that you can have a Jewish community on the internet that is just as good as any JCC or million-dollar synagogue down the street.
So they did what any reasonable group would do: they started an IndieGoGo page to raise money to make their shul happen.
Stay tuned for details as they happen…
