Sunday, October 9, 2011

How Many Ipod's Does It Take To Power Today's Yeshiva Buchor In Shiur?



Attention! Steve Jobs brought Moshiach!

Ok, not really, but lets look at this with some perspective.

The Gemara says in the end of days,the beis midrash will turn to znus/immorality...the question is, how will this happen?

Let's look at the Yeshiva Buchor through relative history. Until very recently, one would have had to try very very hard to turn the study hall into immorality. By day people were learning, and by night there were usually a few masmidim keeping the midnight oil going.
This condition was the norm lets say from the time going back to yeshiva's inception as we know it today starting in the year 1800, until today 2011.
But something happened that has changed the face of the yeshiva world...that something is called 9/11. No, not the 9/11 tragedy that we all saw in NY, the tragedy that spawned from that 9/11 day: Technology.


For whatever reason that we can agree on, the tech. burst that came from 9/11 has changed the yeshiva: even killing it...which I feel WILL bring geulah..here is the breakdown...that leads us back to the Gemara.

Take yourself back to 1999..and the status of  the yeshiva.  What would a buchor do on any given, let's say: Tuesday?
If he is shtark, he'll be learning all day. If he is less shtark, he'll learn, he'll sleep,he'll  meet somewhere in town with the chevre. Point being: whatever groycer zachin he is into, it will be far from the beis midrash..what is he gonna do?- invite the gal inside while the Avreichim are learning? I think not.
Now lets get to 2002...just after 9/11.
There is an invention called the laptop, I don't have one, but some do. Windows is what works, and yeah I used to have an Apple 2e, back in 1989...but Apple today? uh, yeah right.
Wait, you don't have an ipod? An i - what?
ipod..get used to saying it...Steve Jobs is here.
It was right around the new millennium that Steve Jobs changed the world with his ipod. I remember in 2003 my brother flew in from London with his new ipod..I wasn't interested, as my CD's were still holding up quite well...but was there something to this new gadget?

The Buchorim of that year 2003,I had noticed something, from the previous years, 2000,2001,2002: they were in their rooms an awful lot! More than the other years...again, as in previous years, you had to really try to find a way to waste time. I didn't even know how I could find a movie to watch in 2001, or an episode of Seinfeld...I mean, Tzfat in that time, one really had to look hard to productively waste time.
By 2003, more and more kids had laptops..and the ipod is a regular fixture, with its 25,000 song capacity...so the guys are sharing songs...no big deal. They are burning movies onto discs for the laptop..no big deal. Then in 2006...it all changed: Rafi showed up to yeshiva with an Apple computer..Huh? Yes: Steve Jobs has taken over the world...much to my surprise, does Apple really matter? After all this time? The answer was, yes, just wait...
By 2006, everyone had their ipods, computers, yadda yadda yadda. ..we all know the story at that point, technology is here to stay...and videos are coming handheld...get ready..everything you ever wanted, is here, and here to stay...
Fast forward to 2008/9/10:
These ipods have movies on them..the laptop: obsolete...and everyone is doing it. This brings the point into focus, the Buchor doesn't have to travel far to find his vices...all day..unlimited downloads, movies, cartoons, YouTube, you name it...it is there, in his room, a vice that he never has to "wake up" ever again.

For the Baal Teshuva, this may be nothing more than a novelty, but focus on the Talmidim of lets say, Bnei Berak...this is the real Steve Jobs invasion..The Haredi world, and all the more so Baal teshuva world.
Now we move forward into the ipad iphone dimension...where the gemara resonates loud and clear.
The Buchor need not even stay in bed all day...he can go into the Beis Midrash, with his gemara in one hand, and his Znus in the other hand.

The possibilities of what they are watching, Frum Kids who never even left Bnei Brak type kids, have the whole world of filth at their fingertips..and this can happen right in front of the Rebbe as the shiur is going on! Imagine then what goes on in the Baal Teshuva yeshivas, where they have a knowledge of the world already coming in to the yeshiva...the znus is unimaginable..as on the iphone, you can do virtually whatever you want..all in the halls of sanctity, and as in the face of Hashem, davka.

The Rabbanim have tried to forbid these devices, but I'm afraid its too late...who is patrolling the night shift?
The yeshiva, as pictured above was virtually impossible to pervert. The doors were closed to the world, and if you were there, you were learning. End of story.

Shiur today may contain: texting, youtube-ing, ipod-ing, etc.
And what goes on at night in the study halls? ....perhaps the Messianic Prophecy fulfilled...Znus will fill the study halls.

Today, Steve Jobs runs wild in the sacred halls of  Judaism, a war that no one even attempts to fight. It is not about forbidding these devices, its about uprooting the problem.
Now even the Frum, don't read Talmud, they read Apps. No one owns Sforim, they read Tablets...we get the idea.
The Yeshiva has been taken over..rebbes don't have to prepare anymore,as their students aren't even challenging their minds like they used to, people don't show up, the list goes on of this unprecidented yeridah of the generation

Technology is great, it just happens to be the biggest test we have ever faced. Thank You Steve Jobs, now I can visualize what it will be like to see my life as a movie when I get upstairs. You have helped me identify concepts in a brand new way that I can perceive the ways of Hashem. You have also killed the Yeshiva World. That which appears to be Sam Chaim, the spice of life, may be Sam Mavet..the kiss of death.

The world lost Steve Jobs...and he may have taken the whole ship with him. If Moshiach would just come now, maybe we could salvage this thing and realize how it all is for the best. If its a long wait, then, so be it, and we'll just blame Steve Jobs for taking the life of Al Davis (one of the founding forefathers of football, and a known Jew), who died just after Jobs...and maybe now Jews will stop watching football and get back to reality..its a stretch, but we gotta blame someone for taking Al Davis...at least now maybe the Raiders may be normal...
Seriously though, Steve Jobs infiltrated a place that was impenetrable until now: The Yeshiva...this has and will send ripples into the entire world, as the last place we have, is the study halls, a prophecy of Bilaam, that may signal we really are at the end..and maybe this Gemara mentioned above of the study halls turning to immorality will usher in a speedy Geualah to thwart the damage. Steve Jobs did great things, he even saved the world at the expense of killing many Jews, at this point at least in potential.

One of the biggest things we see from this is sharing: before the flood, their biggest sin was stealing. Steve Jobs didn't create stealing, as it preexists him, what he did do, was make stealing perfectly legal, to the tune that today if you don't steal through sharing you are just not normal.  If stealing brought the flood, what will this monstrosity bring? Does anyone not steal today? Did you buy every mp3 song file that you own? Does anyone care? It is mandatory to steal, and do I blame Steve Jobs? No. Did he usher it in? Yes. Is he held accountable? Irrelevant,  it happened, and he helped make it really really possible, as he put his face on THAT map. In the end of things, it's here...and Moshiach is on the way...do the math.


May Hashem bring the Geulah soon and save us from destruction..A Time Of Trouble For Yaakov, And From It You Will Be Saved!

5 comments :

Klishlishi said...

That same Gemara gives 18 signs of the Geulah.

One of the most outstanding of which that is being fulfilled today is "oyvei ish anshei beiso" - "a man's worst enemies will be his own hoesehold - a son will revile his father, a daughter will rise up against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law....".

With the divorce and separation rate amongst even Haredim now exceeding 10%, maybe a case can be made for NOT marrying in this generation: one is not expected to enter in to a state of likely sakonah in order to fulfil a mitzva (with the sole exception of going in to physical battle in a Milchemes Mitzvah to defend the Am Yisrael).

And with the new breed of liberated/feminist/materialistic/ unreasonable/over-hormoned/awkward/spiritually unattractive gilgulised unreasonable, unreachable, unreconstructable modern female, marriage today carries so much risk of monetary loss, reputation besmirchment, property seizure, court and beth din litigation, demoralizing lifestyle misery, mental and physical health distress, nightmarish squalling brats, travel restrictions, denial of child visitation rights, risk of violence, false accusations and even.....real jail time!!

With a 1 in 10 chance of all this & much, much more occurring, a sha'aloh should be asked of a Posek if this may not actually outweigh the command of pru urevu!?

Jesterhead45 said...

Klishlishi

I seem to recall a midrash that says something to the effect that in the Messianic Age, the moon will regain the radiance and luminosity it enjoyed at the beginning of time, which is said to symbolise the female (with the sun symbolising the male) with both male and female in that era being like two equal and independent kings sharing the same crown.

Dov bar Leib of Mystical Paths and End of Days has mentioned that serving G-d for the sake of prosperity or getting something in return is coming to an end and that the next level is serving G-d for its own sake, it makes you wonder if that principle also applies to the realms of love / marriage (as in no financial security or safety net) / relationships as it does to human decency since nowadays there appears to be no reason for men and women to marry except Lishma with most (but not all) women being materialistic, hypergamous (e.g. looking to marry up), as capricious and picky as an X-Factor / Pop Idol Judge (who only has to sit in judgement and choose), harbours misandrist views thanks to secular popular culture and generally holds unrealistic contradictory expectations (an ideal man like G-d has to be everything yet nothing before a woman that does not know what she truly wants yet at the same time an ideal man unlike G-d is very much replaceable) though men are not entirely blameless for the situation reaching this point.

Being a male, I agree with you that marriage does not seem worth it at this time, quite a few people I know that got married are either in debt or divorced which has put me off (even if I could afford it) and while it is said that our generation, as in Egypt will be redeemed in the merit of righteous Jewish women, I have yet to meet such women though I can only assume that they are already married.

Devorah said...

It says that before Moshiach, a lot of people will be ALONE. Celebrate it! We're part of the Plan.

Anonymous said...

From the height of my ignorance, I beg to differ somewhat on Mr. Jobs having corrupted the Yeshivot.
To make an elementary parallel, for instance knives may be used to cut bread or to rip the other one's heart.
Using your reasoning, all knives should be banned from homes, so that nobody can kill using one of them...
As a recent Baal-Teshuvah "in-process" - still with a long way to go - I assure that 90% of everything Jewish I know today comes from the Internet, by listening to great Orthodox Rabbis' lectures and reading from Chabad sites, Torahanytime, Rabbi Eli Mansour and uncountable kosher sources.
The same MacBook I use for this holy purpose could also be used to view porn or watch filthy content, it's only up to our free choice.
IMO Steve Jobs is responsible for another aspect of Messianic times - the old part "...knowledge of G-d will spread like the waters of the ocean", and surely the Apple products are being used by millions of Jews to learn Torah - I hope, much more than the number that use them for negative purposes.
Chag Sameach to all.

David said...

i agree with you on that. where i am coming from is, that the steve jobs' invention is quite literally what the yeshiva world has guarded against with mesiros nefesh...and steve jobs has pushed it into the yeshiva dormitory. the yeshiva fights this war, with the same fervor as the arabs and mcdonalds coming onto their soil.
but yes, there is the concept of the para adumah here, in that the most tumay can actually create the most kedusha/tahara..as i see the jobs' invention being equally great as it is destructive, but not until its hurricane path of chaos is fulfilled will it be that vessel of knowledge filling the world.the etz ha daas tov v rah will eventually be a tree of very good.
not every one has a taiva to butcher with a butcher knife, whereas jobs' device i believe gives everyone a bigger yetzer, even something as simple as stealing, as now it is the norm..he has brought down the moral fabric of society, albeit with a stroke of genius..to the point that when moshiach comes and torah flows, we will be thanking steve jobs first, as he will have made the torah of moshiach possible to fill the world...albeit at the initial expense of the yeshiva world as its korban...something that contains good and bad in its own right...the dictum of hillel seems to resonate here quite clear.

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