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09/01/2007
"I think I almost got hit by an invisible gimel!"
There's an article on Chabad's website outlining a rabbinical debate about telephone communication and radio waves. When Jewish law requires that its adherents hear a reading, it asks, is it better to hear that reading over the phone or radio than to miss it altogether? The matter boils down to a spiritual question about radio waves, a concept you don't often encounter.
The major concerns expressed seem to deal with whether communications media can be thought of as (in Marshall McLuhan's words) "extensions of man." I wonder, are they afraid that telephone Torah suggests some sort of disembodied, pseudo-Deleuzian "machinic mitzvah"?
The issue is, like many, perhaps best explained with puppets.
14:25 Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: media, judaism
Comments
I didn't like reading books/articles that took that position to the logical extreme and would basically argue that because you can remotely (voyeuristically) 'access' something then it is the same as you being there, except you're also a techno-superhuman, so it's superior to just being there.
Posted by: Trey | 09/02/2007
Trey,
You should check out N. Katherine Hayles' How We Became Posthuman, which argues in part that 'new media' can deconstruct (like, really deconstruct, not just flip over) the absence/presence binary.
Posted by: PrimroseRoad | 09/02/2007
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