The last time I wrote about technology in this space one of my children seeing what was on tap for that week’s column got a quizzical look: “Again?” Since there may be readers who have the same reaction when intermittently I turn my attention to technological threats to us as Jews and as human beings an explanation is in order.
Were the dangers of today’s technology static manageable and merely external sounding the alarm about them every once in a long while would suffice. But that’s not the reality. The advent of television for example introduced a new danger to the Jewish home but its nature hasn’t changed much over the decades.
But the challenges posed by today’s technological advances are something else entirely. They are dynamic and constantly changing as technology becomes ever more ubiquitous and portable. Today’s advances pole-vault as it were over the defenses we hastily erected in response to yesterday’s digital innovations.
Many of these technologies have also become seemingly indispensable to functioning as citizens of contemporary society in conducting business and other aspects of daily living. I write “seemingly indispensable” because I don’t believe we will ever reach a point at which it becomes truly impossible to live without a full embrace of spiritually and morally inimical technology. That’s because as Chazal teach ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu ba b’trunya im briyosav — Hashem doesn’t challenge us with tests we can’t possibly pass.
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