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	The Word / Sin and Punishment 2.0 By Nati Toker Haaretz February 21, 2010 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151237.html ISRAEL -- Last week the Takana forum, a joint organization of representatives from a range of religious Zionist bodies that aims to fight sexual harassment in the sector, revealed that Rabbi Mordechai Elon, a well-known and highly esteemed figure in the nationalist-religious community, has been deposed. The grounds, according to the Takana forum, were allegations of "acts that contradict holy and ethical values, which to our deep regret were found to be true." Elon partly denied the allegations. In response, the forum published additional details about homosexual acts in which the rabbi was allegedly involved. The forum's announcement was not made in a synagogue, or even at a press conference. The forum leaders decided to publish the information and developments regarding Rabbi Elon on their Web site (www.takana.co.il). Truly, sin and punishment version 2.0. The transition to the virtual world is nothing new to the western world. Just this week, Galia Maor, the CEO of Bank Leumi, used an online blog on the bank's Internet site to announce her withdrawal from the race to chair the bank. Afterwards she held an interesting, if banal, dialogue with surfers. It's a good tactic to obtain maximal exposure without the hassle of facing the press and hard questions that reporters might pose. The religious community has also been making quite a bit of use of the Internet as a communications venue. There are any number of Web sites along the lines of "Ask the rabbi" and on other topics of Judaism. Some enable surfers to ask challenging questions that they might not have dared to ask in other forums. The issue of online Judaic sites took an interesting twist a few weeks back, when kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri held an exorcism ceremony, to banish a dybbuk (the soul of a dead person who has invaded a live one) from a young man in Brazil, by online video-conference. The publication of Rabbi Elon's alleged acts via the Internet is another step in the Internet's adoption by all segments of society. In the religious Jewish community, no more is its use being confined to disseminating Judaism. It is becoming a means to disseminate warnings, and administer punishment, too. The home site is turning into a virtual pillory on which, in a twist of tradition, the body of the dead sinner would remain until dark fell for the sake of deterrence. Rabbi Elon's supporters, who continue to deny that he did wrong, are also trying to protect his good name via the Internet. In recent days his entry on Wikipedia has been amended hundreds of times by people from all sides of the argument, trying to express their position. Finally the Wikipedia editors "locked" the site, disabling the possibility of surfers to edit it, which is the very raison d'etre of the site. Another site locked down because of the furor surrounding Elon was that of the right-wing Arutz Sheva radio station, which disabled surfer responses because of the heightened sensitivity of the issues at stake. It was just three months ago that leaders of the most stringent Haredi sects called on their followers to disconnect from the Internet and for all ultra-orthodox Web sites to close down. But their cause is lost. Internet has become an integral part of life, for the religious and ultra-Orthodox populations as well. Not only that: If anything, the Internet has been helping the religious community to preserve its habits, and for rabbis to guide their flocks. And now that includes the sobering step of excommunicating a man from the group.
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