It seems everyone is not only talking on Twitter nowadays, but everyone is also talking about Twitter. This may have to do with the fact that Elon Musk is proceeding with the purchase of the company for billions of dollars and transforming it from a public company into a privately-held one. 

Why is he doing this? One of his stated reasons is to bring back a more robust open and free speech model to the platform. Twitter, with a lot of bumps and a lot of challenges, nonetheless attempts to moderate its platform.

As social media has become the most vibrant public space in our societies today, the new civic square, should these new public spaces be moderated at all? This week's Torah portion of Acharei contains insight into this question.

The Torah portion comes right after the tragic death of Aaron's two sons, Nadav and Avihu, after they entered the sacred space within the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, and offered an unauthorized form of service. Immediately, the portion addresses the new reality by instructing Moses to instruct his brother Aaron that access to this most special of public spaces is to be moderated:

God said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will* into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die; for I appear in the cloud over the cover.
- Leviticus 16:3

Ramban noticing the way the Torah calls attention to the sibling relationship between Moses and Aaron, "Tell your brother...", points out that the inclusion of their familial relationship was deliberate. This law did not apply to Moses, but even when something is not applicable to you personally, you have a moral obligation to your brother, and by extension, we could argue, to other people in your society.

Ramban continues and echoes an understanding of the injunction in the Torah that is shared by many other commentators, which is that the Torah is intentionally teaching us there must be limits on engagement in our most important public spaces. The Tabernacle cannot just be approached in any which way a person chooses, and to continue the thought to our current time, neither can our social media platforms such as Twitter. There must be a balance struck between the ability of people to express themselves, and a discourse that is corrosive, hateful, violent, and poisonous to the ties that bring communities and people together.

We do not know what will happen to Twitter yet, but no matter who owns it, it is imperative that this negotiation between these two principles remain. A platform will never always get it right, but it cannot cease trying.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben && Yechiel