This blog is now a year old. It began one year ago, and now it receives between 180 to 220 daily hits for the total this year of 53.476. 00. I thank all those who regularly check in here and those who leave comments and in this way are mezakeh harabbim.
This blog has a defined purpose.
From the beginning, the goal for this blog was to disseminate Torah but also to stake out a position that would fulfill an unfilled need. What I had not seen prior to this blog, are sites that attempted to provide inspiration along with Torah content. Several new chasiddic oriented blogs have now appeared and to some degree they are positioned in the same quadrant...but not quite. Inspiration means talking to the heart. Inspiration also means light as well as d arkness. One cannot live inspired at all times. There are ups and there are downs in Avodas Hashem. One of the greatest challenges to a life of wholeness is the challenge of bringing the mind and the heart together. This must be acknowledged and addressed. A blog must be true to life or it will sound inauthentic. The vision of "avakesh" is not saccharine spirituality devoid of all traces of conflict, darkness or melancholy. In real life, these elements compete with joy, lightness and light within a spiritual lifestyle. They also contain kernels of inspiration. Consequently, this blog needed to mix, Torah, inspiration and be entertaining at the same time. Tall order!
There are many blogs out there that focus on current events, or on description of individual lives, or, regretfully, on gossip. Among the latter group are some of the most successful blogs. This is not a surprise. The Web is not only a communication/information medium, it is also a very effective means of participatory entertainment. For most people, entertainment trumps education. The lessons of this fact, however, are not that entertaining is bad or immoral, or somehow unworthy. Instead the lesson it teaches is that a successful blog must to some degree also entertain in order to fulfill its information function. Thus, we have set up our first conundrum: "How does one employ elements of entertainment without subverting the mission of the informing and inspiring, and how does one touch the heart without slipping?"
In addition, a Torah blog must be worthy of its vision. It cannot and should not employ unworthy means. It must not, for example, allow speaking badly of individual, movements or approaches, even if it .lifts traffic. It must remain at all times respectful. It must take the high road. The Internet medium is inimical to eidelkeit and fineness; here in the Web it is gossip and character assassination that sells. One must therefore find a way of being entertaining but in a noble way, not a cheap way.
A Torah blog should provide new content but it is not a means to self-revelation. Torah is eternal and the self is evanescent and secondary. The Self must take second place to the mission of educating, inspiring and uplifting. There is a lot of Torah out there, even if it isn't mine. This is why I quote extensively while also providing original content.
To carry out its mission, my posts are reasonably short. People nowadays are not able to stare at a computer screen for long. A post must be concise and to the point, with a clear structure and message. I also learned to run more entertaining and less technical posts at least once a week. These ones take a lot more thought because they must deliver entertaining content without violating the principles of which we already spoke. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I failed. To vary the content and to keep it light I intersperse video clips and humor or art among "heavier" posts. This is not in order to attracts frivolous attention but to provide relief from the generally serious, often cosmic subjects with which we deal. At the same time, images are more effective than moralizing in putting forth a message that can inspire, and even sometimes change, a person.
Finally, running this blog taught me a lot about circumspection. We are all so different and what one person considers innocuous, another perceives as a mortal insult. One cannot please everyone but neither must anyone's sensibilities be ignored. I continue to be surprised but never offended by the interpretations that innocuous pieces sometimes attract. To keep myself "in line", I have revealed my identity to a few individuals and several others have themselves figured it out. I remain anonymous to be freer to comment but also to be stay away from controversy and conversely, credit. However, to be completely anonymous is to act irresponsibly. Nothing keeps one on proper behavior as much as being watched. It is tool to living nobly that one must not easily surrender.
Regular readers - feel free to comment. I invite criticism and responses, in general of about specific features. I you can help me refine this blog, I would be most grateful and so will others.
We all have to do our bit, you know, for the tikun olam. Thanks, yours is a nice chunk.
Posted by: therapydoc | September 23, 2007 at 08:43 PM