Modern technology, straight from the yetzer hora `beis medrash', is working overtime. His clever and inventive brain is constantly devising ways to seduce and incite; he does not sit with hands clasped but when he sees the public raising protective walls and standing vigil, he searches for new ways to bypass the heeding of `hearts,' and cataract operations for shielded `eyes.'
The external world operates with new methods. The Internet has become a vital work tool and in many instances and in certain professions, is absolutely necessary and thus, with giant steps, it has infiltrated our daily lives by taking over payments, setting up appointments, bank transactions and more. In all of these, the human input of clerks and secretaries is being drastically minimized and the various services are being computerized.
To our dismay, the devastating technology has invaded our precincts as well. Having succeeded in shoving its foot into the margins of our camp, it has swelled like a virus and begun to devour like an aggressive bacteria to assault the healthy ones and slaughter the soul.
HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman defined the tragedy of technology as "the temptation/trial of this present generation," and explained that "up until our generation, no one regarded the written word as a potent tool. A person could write to several people, but not to the entire world. Today, however, Hashem has granted a power to the written word where someone can write a message and it be visible to the entire world. This is our trial, that of these recent generations, and especially this one which may be the last to undergo such tests. We must overcome it and not allow people in our midst to use this thing as far as is possible, aside from what has been allowed - and even this, with extreme caution."
Now, in the time that Hashem is most close to us, is the time to distance ourselves from the temptations and tumah that threatens all that is holy.
