Eat Chametz or Filter the Devices?

Dear friends!

Today, all of Klal Yisrael went to burn the chametz??

I ask you: come now, we went to burn the chametz, and tonight we are going to eat chametz!!

And not only tonight, but tomorrow morning as well!!

And not only tomorrow morning, but tomorrow night as well!!! 

This year, on Seder night, there will be actual chametz in many homes in Israel that was not sold to a non-Jew!!

I do not mean some cookies over which there is a dispute; I mean actual chametz according to all opinions!!!

On Seder night, chametz will be in the home, and on Chol HaMoed many of us, our relatives, and even Torah teachers and Torah scholars,,

community activists, activists, Members of Knesset, and all sorts of other people whom I love, are going to eat chametz!!!!

Friends, we must wake up before it is too late….!!!!!

Chametz!!!

A home that has unfiltered devices is, in my view, worse than a home that has chametz!!!

Yes!!!

This week, all the seemingly imaginary stories told by various maggidim exploded in my face. They constantly told of rabbis and fathers of large families who, because of an unfiltered iPhone, divorced and left Torah observance. In my heart I always said: Certainly it is serious, but why exaggerate? …!!!!!! But this week I met a friend and acquaintance after several years in which I had not seen him—a father of 10 children, living in a distinctly chareidi neighborhood, with sons in Ponevezh, the son of an important and well-known personality. In the course of conversation, he told me that he had divorced and separated from his ten children after becoming an apikores!!! Yet he still wears a frock coat and tzitzit outside!!! And you will not believe it: he became an apikores!!!! I sat with him for a two-hour conversation, until he told me: I will tell you the truth—I went and bought an iPhone; I was curious, and ultimately I reached the darkest places and became an apikores!!!! And he is still invited to speak in several communities between Minchah and Maariv….!!!!! Do you understand??????????????????

I told this to Maran, the Rosh Yeshivah, my teacher and rabbi, HaGaon Rabbi Cohen shlit”a (without revealing the man’s identity), and I said to the Rosh Yeshivah: Today I understand how much we must wage an all-out war against the internet!!!! The Rosh Yeshivah replied and said to me: To me, the matter is simple; to me, the matter is simple….!!!!!

If someone asks me whether to eat chametz on Pesach or leave devices unfiltered, I render a clear halachic ruling that admits of no two interpretations, and it is as clear to me as the sun: it is preferable to eat chametz!!!! and filter all the devices!!!

For me, this is the clearest ruling I have issued during the past 20 years!!!

And why?? 

A person who eats chametz will remain a Jew. He will indeed incur karet and transgress a Torah prohibition, but that is all! He will have a remedy! But one who has unfiltered devices in his home—ultimately, he or his descendants will become complete non-Jews!!!! I have been brief, for there is much to elaborate upon in this matter!

I will share with you what is in my heart::

Like everyone else, I have friends who have unfiltered devices, and, like everyone else, I was always embarrassed to approach them and tell them: Go filter your devices. In public shiurim, before the masses, I always say it. But individually, I was not able to do so!

But no more!!

Since the aforementioned incident, I understood that there is no room here for embarrassment or delicacy. We must explain to everyone that whoever keeps an unfiltered computer or an unfiltered iPhone will meet a bitter and terrible end, just like all the most seemingly imaginary stories. Since then, I have also spoken with relatives, and I told them: Everyone tells me, “It will not happen,” but in the end, it does happen!!!!

This letter is directed to rabbis and darshanim as well,,

Dear rabbis!!

The time has come to begin telling the ציבור to filter their devices. There is little benefit when we merely attack and speak against the internet! The reality is that, in the current situation, the ציבור cannot manage without devices. Go tell them not to eat meat, not to eat fish … not to drink water…!!!

To save this generation, we must give the people an alternative: tell them to filter computers with NetFree, and for those who have iPhones, to filter them with Nativ, which, as I understand it, is the best filter of all those currently available. 

And a few words as well to those who are coerced, people who walk among us, Shabbat desecrators wearing hats, suits, and tzitzit outside—even frock coats::

My dear brothers and friends!

Know this!

The entire battle of the yetzer hara—who is Satan, who is the Angel of Death—is to cause a person to despair of his situation. Thus, through his schemes, he continues to sink him and bind him ever more deeply under his dominion..

I ask you with all my heart: take to heart what we say in the Haggadah: “At first our ancestors were idol worshippers, but now the Omnipresent has brought us near to His service.”

It is difficult: what is gained by recalling our lineage to our discredit and mentioning that our ancestors were idol worshippers??

Rather, the Maggid of Kozhnitz explained that we say all this so that a person should not say: Since I have corrupted my deeds and sinned against Hashem, I now have no remedy by which to draw close to Hashem. Rather, the essential thing is that he strengthen himself in Hashem from this day onward, and say in his heart: Even our ancestors were initially idol worshippers, yet through the power of their righteousness and their wholehearted walk with the Holy One, blessed be He, they merited that the Omnipresent brought us near to His service—teaching us that a person must not despair of his situation or feel distant from the Holy One, blessed be He, because of his deeds! A person must not remain where he is, thinking that he has no remedy to become a complete servant of G-d as is fitting! Rather, he should remember the greatness of our holy ancestors, who did not look at their past—from where they came, from an impure and lowly place—but through their faith in Hashem increased Torah and good deeds until their sins flew away, and they rose ever higher and established the entire chosen Jewish nation! 

And I found the root of these words in Midrash Shocher Tov (Tehillim, Psalm 40), which states: A person should not say, “Since I have sinned, I have no remedy.” Rather, he should place his trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, repent, and He will accept him. And he should not say, “If so, I have no rabbanut”; he should hate rabbanut, humble himself, repent, and not follow false notions—those who incline after acts of falsehood. And so our master David HaMelech, of blessed memory, says (ibid., 119) “I hate divided thoughts, but I love Your Torah.”

In addition, I wish to say to those who are coerced: My dear brothers and friends, to each and every one of you!

Know that even in the place where you are now—Shabbat desecration … and so on—each mitzvah you perform possesses a particular, great, and exalted quality that even completely righteous people cannot achieve. For now you can say to the Holy One, blessed be He: “Master of the Universe, even one like me, who is in such a spiritual condition, nevertheless comes before You and fulfills this mitzvah or that one.” How much nachat ruach the Creator, blessed be He, has from you with every mitzvah you perform. What a great stir you will bring about through fulfilling the mitzvot of the approaching Seder night..

I wish, pray, and hope that very soon all those who are coerced, all those families who have still not understood to filter their devices, will return from captivity to good, spiritually elevated, and sweet lives!

With blessings, yours devotedly,,

Yosef Chai Siman Tov

Author of the series of books “Eshkol Yosef” on the Four Turim and the Festivals

and the “Kerem Yosef” series on Shas and responsa literature.

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