A Kosher Read?

A "highlight" from an Internet "shiur" I heard [as I was going about my business]. The [very popular] lecturer recommends a novel written by a anti-charedi women that has arayos in it. Simply an issur di-oraisa, no question [see Yoma 29 and many many other sources]. But he says "you can handle it". Handle what? The erosion of the soul? The loss of connection and feeling to Torah and ruchniyus? The notion of "kedusha" is so foreign to people that even well meaning people fall into the trap of the yetzer hara and western attitudes that convince us that it is no big deal.

It is a huge deal.

Reading novels, if they contain any salacious or unclean content, is worse than eating pork. Why do frum Jews who would never touch pork nevertheless read such filth? Maybe because they don't understand the severity of the issur? For that I come to remind us.

Our bris with Hashem is predicated on our shmiras ha-bris. The gift of Eretz Yisrael also depends on our shmiras ha-bris. Please-please see the Sfas Emes on lech lecha תרמ"ח ותרנ"א for a very deep kabbala based explanation.

I think this leads to another important point. Gemara and halacha are not enough anymore. People have to understand on a pnimiyus level what such concepts as kedusha entail. Otherwise they get caught up in the "web" [double entrende] of impurity.