Smashing Computers

There has been some buzz around the internet regarding this video depicting the smashing of a computer. Some thought it to be a Purim prank, others thought that this perpetrator was not of sound body and mind.

In the VIN interview , I found this rosh yeshiva to be quite sane. He fielded a myriad of questions with aplomb. In the end, I tend to agree with almost all of what he says. No one can deny that the internet has taken it's toll on the frum world. It is certainly a challenge to keep racy images from appearing on the screen, and there is a very strong addiction factor that must be factored in when deciding to bring this technology into your home.

Additionally, having a computer in the home allows any inhabitant to turn that machine into a movie projector by slipping in a DVD. He also parries the excuse that one needs the computer for parnossoh by saying one should find other means to sustain himself. “It's better to clean streets and dirty your body than to work on the Internet and dirty your soul.”

This reminded of a paraphrased quote I once heard in the name of Rabbi Avigdor Miller regarding television. “You wouldn’t let a sewer line empty into your living room – but better a carpet get dirty than sully a child’s mind."

The argument that he could have given the laptop to a worthy cause can be countered by the psychotherapists who advocate the need for destroying the implement that is destroying their patient. No one will complain that it is Baal Tashchis for a smoker to set fire to his last pack of cigarettes (and I don’t mean by lighting them one at a time), for an alcoholic to drain out his inventory (not into his facial orifice). The Gemara cites several examples of destruction as sometimes being necessary for a greater good.