Just when you think it’s safe to go in to your neighborhood store in Meah Shearim and buy a new electronic device, the Takana Squad comes out and forbids it. Why? Same reason that nearly every other electronic device in the world is forbidden. You can access inappropriate material with it.
The latest such device is an MP4 player. Thank goodness for these Takanos. Who knows how many people would have gone astray? This new device is the work of the devil. That’s because it not only plays music, it plays video too. That means you can download a triple X porno film and watch it multiple times to your hearts content in the privacy of your own bedroom. Just like you can on cable TV or the internet.
The Takana Squad can’t allow the walls of their sacred community to be breached. So the MP4 is banned. Insularity is preserved. Their children are safe to walk the streets again – freeing their parents of the fear that they will ever be sucked into porno. But are they really safe?
Takanos are not enough. If a society has laws but no enforcement, what good are the laws? People will just ignore them at will. That’s where the Enforcement Squad comes in. You know – those wonderful Kaanaim who practice Arvus – brotherhood – by helping their community stay pristine in their Kedusha VeTahara - their holiness and spiritual purity.
They know what needs to be done and they do not hesitate. Thus they insure a world of pure Torah and Yiras Shamayim. Meah Shearim can rest easy knowing that these young men are out there doing what’s necessary. No one there will ever be able to access porno with these guys around.
How do they accomplish this? If you haven’t figured it out by now then you must have just returned from a lengthy stay on Mars. Let me fill you in. The following was reported in Ynet:
The fight against the device reached a new level last week, when an MP4 supplier, whose store is located on the outskirts of Jerusalem's Meah Shearim neighborhood, found it vandalized – its window and showcases smashed.
A second store, located just off the capital's Shabbat Square, did not fare much better: It too was vandalized and its repair lab burnt down. Some say that was an event waiting to happen: For several weeks prior to the arson, a dozen-or-so yeshiva student used to demonstrate in front of the store every week and protest the sale of the banned devices.
These dozen-or-so yeshiva students are the dedicated young men of Meah Shearim who have taken it upon themselves to keep their community holy.
These young men are the true soldiers in the holy war against the filth and pornography of the MP4 player. They are the ones who stand up for Kavod HaTorah. They are the ones with the courage to act.
Many people say these young people are just a bunch of hoodlums. But consider this. They do not make decisions to act except when they see community standards - as determined by their rabbinic leaders - violated. They react only when they see members of the community ignoring them. They take umbrage at that - and then act accordingly.
So accusing them of simple vandalism is incorrect. They provide justice to the guilty and thereby preserve the community. That’s why a few years ago young men like these set fire to a store in their neighborhood that they thought violated the modesty standards of their community. True - it was the wrong store but that is besides the point. The message was sent! Is there any sane person that is going to try and sell immodest clothing in that neighborhood now? Mission accomplished!
If they were truly juvenile delinquents they would be burning down stores randomly just for fun – not just Takana violators. They are the sincere young men enforcing the standards designed by their leaders. They don’t just talk the talk. They walk the walk.
Makes me proud to be a Jew.
