the Cyber Seder
March 25, 2013
Rabbi Keith Stern of Newton’s Temple Beth Avodah… plans to place computer screens on the Seder table and include his traveling children via Web video connection.
Linda Freeman Goodspeed will also be placing screens on her Seder table this year and firing up the WiFi.
Congregation Shirat Hayam, a Conservative synagogue in Swampscott, is already webcasting — or as they’ve dubbed it, “Shulcasting” — its weekly shabbat services on multiple channels, providing the service free to nursing homes. The temple will also webcast a Seder service Tuesday, featuring Jewish blues musician Saul Kaye.
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BLT 
So wrong on so many levels.
To just take one example of where this goes wrong: I always understood that Jewish belief was about actually doing the commandments (mitzvos), not merely symbolically performing them. There may be some commandments which are impossible fulfill (because, for example, the Temple does not exist), but for those commandments which are possible to fulfill, it is important to actually do them. Cyber-relationships — even within a family — should not be confused with actual presence. A familial cyberhug is no substitute for the real McCoy.