Let’s talk about privacy, shall we?
Oh, just a second. Hang on for a minute, I am taking a selfie and uploading it to Instagram… Click, upload, done. Great. Let’s see how many likes my selfie will get.
I am back with you.
It’s funny to discuss privacy in an age that seems to completely abandon the notion of privacy. People, on their own accord, are choosing to share everything, and I mean really everything. Is there any privacy left? Should we care?
In this week’s parsha we find a familiar verse. “Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishk’notecha Yisrael, How great are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!” These words, uttered by Balaam in his curse-turned-into-blessing, are so important that they became part of our morning prayers.
Rashi (based on the Gemara in Bava Batra, 60) explains what impressed Balaam so much: “He saw that the openings of their tents did not face each other so that they should not peer into each other’s tents.” Clearly, being so strict about privacy and modesty was, at the time, a unique attribute of the Jewish people.
Having said that, let’s introduce both camps: pro and against social media.
First, the “no” camp:
“Why do you share everything about your life? Do you think people really care what you had for dinner? Or if your kids/grandkids/friends’ kids are cute? Just delete your Facebook!”
And the “yes” camp:
“Don’t you see how much good came out of social media? Didn’t you hear the story about the Holocaust survivor who died with no family, but because of a post on Facebook, hundreds of people came to his funeral! And whenever you make a donation to an online fundraising campaign, if you share and tag your friends you are inspiring others to give tzedakah!”
As a chasid of the Rebbe, who always reminded us that everything Hashem created should be utilized for the good (with all the safeguards needed), I came up with a formula. It’s called “purposeful sharing.”
The idea is that before sharing anything on social media, we should ask ourselves: what’s the purpose of this? Why am I sharing?
Then we can listen to ourselves. There are many reasons why we share; some of them are noble (we want to connect with others, inspire them to do good) and some are…not so much (we want to brag about something, even if it will make others jealous). Purposeful sharing helps us focus on the sharing that has a positive purpose and avoid those that do not.
Finally, if you are already on social networks, think about using them to share words of Torah. Follow pages that do, and share with others; or better yet, write your own.
After all, this is exactly why Hashem created social media channels to begin with.
By Rabbi Mendy Kaminker
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker is the rabbi of Chabad Hackensack. He welcomes your comments at [email protected].
