Some people are in cities far from the front or even out of the country and they want to feel a part of the painful situation. They constantly read reports about what is going on in Eretz Yisrael. Is this a good thing?
It’s hard to tell people not to read the news at all, although that would be best and what should be done. In situations like these, it’s natural for people to want to be connected and know what is going on. Someone who doesn’t want to know what’s happening, well, that’s a problem too. But it’s definitely worthwhile to minimize the news that you read for two reasons. One, your reading the news doesn’t help anyone. Two, while you read the news, you could have actually helped by learning Torah or saying Tehillim.
This is being said particularly to those who are addicted to the news, who refresh the news pages every few minutes so they won’t miss the latest information. It’s an addiction and it’s important to deal with this as soon as possible.
Today, they say that in Eretz Yisrael there is no front and rear, because we are all on the frontlines. This is definitely true for all Jews; we are all soldiers on the frontlines of this war. There are soldiers with weapons on the Gaza border and soldiers with Torah and Tehillim in Crown Heights [ed. and Jewish communities throughout the world]. Think about it – just as soldiers on the frontlines don’t pause in the middle of fighting to read the news, we too, cannot stop in the middle of learning or saying Tehillim to read news updates.
In one of the Rebbe’s talks, the Rebbe says that wasting time on the news is contrary to intellect! Because all the information you will get from news updates cannot help the soldiers on the frontlines, but if you say a chapter of Tehillim or learn Torah and do mitzvot, you can actively help the success of the war!
Rav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, shlita, member of the Badatz of Crown Heights. Reprinted from Beis Moshiach
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