A friend who teaches in a post high school yeshiva mentioned to the boys in shiur that he heard that one boy in the yeshiva downloads sitcoms onto his iphone and then watches the whole series in the dorm. One of the boys smiled and said "One boy? The whole yeshiva does it".
THIS IS A CHURBAN.
It is a churban because all of the time wasted and it is more of a churban for all of the nivul peh, pritzus, kalus rosh and other poisons that abound on these TV shows.
Why do the yeshivas allow this to go on? Don't they realize that it is almost impossible for Torah to penetrate into minds contaminated by the filth ?! Many kids sit with their iphones in the Beis Medrash in full view of their rabbeim!! רחמנא לצלן. One friend told me that in the yeshiva where he teaches there are no iphones in the Beis Medrash but outside every boy is free to watch whatever he wants.
Ahhhhhhhhh.
Would they allow pornographic magazines? That is what these kids have on their phones. What is the difference?
Ahhhhhhhhh.
Would they allow pornographic magazines? That is what these kids have on their phones. What is the difference?
I was told by the av bayit in one yeshiva that many of the boys sleep without clothing on. Why is this allowed??
Not everyone has to wear a black hat and not everyone has to go to kollel but why is there no sensitivity to basic behaviors of tzniyus in most modern orthodox institutions? Where are their rabbonim? How come nobody is speaking up?? Just Elchonon Ehrman, a poor and ignored blogger from Givat Zeev?? What about someone respected with some clout??
That is besides the violent [I am told] football games that take place in yeshiva leagues.
Charedi yeshivos are not perfect and every institution has points to improve upon but the level to which the MO institutions have sunk is unconscionable. That is besides the illiteracy that I write about so often. Kids lack the capability to read one line of gemara or even Chumash-Rashi. I have yet to meet a kid who knew how chalitza was done ["she spits in his shoe" - no she does NOT!].
If it didn't bother me so much I would not write about it so much but to my mind it is one of the biggest [and most ignored] crises facing Orthodoxy in our days. I see these kids and how their neshamos are going to waste and it breaks my heart. It is not their fault. Had they been brought up correctly this wouldn't happen.
All I can say is - be careful where you send your kids to school and what apparatuses you allow into their hands.
I wish I could make changes but I tried and fell short. No money.
The old story....
Whoever didn't give should be blessed with long life [ahhhhh. I covered just about everybody].
With much love and hope for improvement,
Me:-)
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Here is the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz"l on television [and of course you can imagine what he would say about related technologies...]
Television is an unparalleled breach of standards. Even the non-Jews have now come out with a campaign against television, which is devastating for children. They are considering how to restore the situation as much as possible.
How shameful it is that in this case, Jews must learn from non-Jews. Moreover, we can see [how much of an effect it has had on the Jewish community] from the case of the four Jewish boys [who were recently involved in a murder], and other similar cases of killing and murder. Everyone admits that one of the causes of this is television and movies, where killings and shooting are viewed.
Moreover, even if one thinks that he will only view the “pious” programs on television that one is allowed to view, how can the parents guarantee that the children will not view other, forbidden programs as well? The children will argue that if the parents view television, they may also view whatever they want – and especially here in America, where children aren’t so obedient to their parents.
And who can guarantee that the parents themselves will not fall into sin? Today they will view a permitted program, tomorrow they’ll sneak a peek at another program, and little by little, everything will become permissible to them.
An obvious argument: How could the world have existed ten years ago, before television was introduced? Didn’t the world function just the same in all areas?
[Owning a television] will also result in another detrimental effect on others: When one knows that so-and-so, who has a full beard, has a television, and one doesn’t know whether that Jew only views permissible programs, he will view all the programs, even those that are forbidden to view, relying on that person’s conduct as permission.
One may ask, so why does so-and-so have a television? Are there not pious and even Chassidic Jews who have one? One should disregard them.
This is comparable to the 248 physical limbs. Not all the person’s limbs are healthy. One person’s eyesight is weak, while another is weak in anothare limb, and so on. Would it be reasonable for one to say that since another is sick in his eyes, he also wants to be sick in his eyes? So, too, with regard to spiritual matters: No one is perfect, and everyone does as much as he can in observance of Torah and Mitzvos. Why should one learn a fault from someone else?
Of all those who have a television, none will say that he bought it to increase his fear of Heaven or fine character traits. Everyone has an excuse for it – it’s a piece of furniture for his house, or for his wife. Or he says that he received it as a gift – should he throw it out?!
Once people were careful not to pass by a church; one would go around. A mother would not allow her child to go near a church or see a crucifix. Yet nowadays, through television they bring the church, the priest, and the crucifix into the house, Rachmana litzlan (may Hashem save us).
A young rabbi – in fact fine and G–d-fearing, from a pious yeshiva – related that he listens and watches television every day from twelve o’clock to one o’clock. At that time a priest speaks, and from the priest’s sermon, he gathers material to speak about from the pulpit in his synagogue! He said this sincerely, and he thinks he’s doing it for the sake of Heaven, so he will have what to sermonize about in his synagogue. He is oblivious to the tremendous sin that this involves.
Once, people would give up their lives not to hear a priest speak, but now, through television, they bring the priest into their home, and they even vest this in holiness, as being for the sake of Heaven.
This was the way of the early followers of the Enlightenment movement, whose motto was: “Be a Jew at home, but a mensch outside” – and some of them were even qualified rabbis.
Really, what was wrong with this approach? The Code of Jewish Law does not forbid this. Indeed, one shouldn’t go in the streets screaming, “I am pious!” So what was forbidden about their motto?
But did we not see from experience what happened to them? And among their children and grandchildren, no trace of Judaism remains.
We once related the story of a shochet (ritual slaughterer) in the village of Lubavitch who wore boots and was then fired from his position.
What was the prohibition? My father-in-law himself wore boots. Rather, in the time of this shochet, boots were a new thing, and only the Jews who dressed and acted like the pritzim [sing. poritz – the wealthy non-Jewish landowners], took part in their wild parties, and the like, would dress that way. If someone dressed like this, people knew that he had strayed from the proper path. In the end, it became known that this shochet and his family had indeed strayed from the proper path.
In Lubavitch a Jew once came to his father and asked him: “Is it an accomplishment to sit in Lubavitch, closed in one’s room, and be a fine Jew? If one walks on the street in Petersburg, and doesn’t sin there – that’s an accomplishment.” He continued: “Even that is no accomplishment. Being in Petersburg, going inside the theater, sitting with one’s eyes shut, and not sinning – that’s an accomplishment.” Then the Jew went further: “Even that is not enough. Sitting inside a theater in Petersburg with one’s eyes open, and not sinning – that’s an accomplishment.” He continued further: “Even that is not enough. Entering the theatre, sitting near the stage where the performers perform, and then not sinning – that is a great accomplishment.” In this way he detailed an entire list of activities, and one can readily imagine how such a calculation can lead the person to fall to the lowest depths.
You should see to correct this in your own city, and you can even start doing so in New York, because here the need to correct this is very great.
--------------
Here is the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz"l on television [and of course you can imagine what he would say about related technologies...]
Television is an unparalleled breach of standards. Even the non-Jews have now come out with a campaign against television, which is devastating for children. They are considering how to restore the situation as much as possible.
How shameful it is that in this case, Jews must learn from non-Jews. Moreover, we can see [how much of an effect it has had on the Jewish community] from the case of the four Jewish boys [who were recently involved in a murder], and other similar cases of killing and murder. Everyone admits that one of the causes of this is television and movies, where killings and shooting are viewed.
Moreover, even if one thinks that he will only view the “pious” programs on television that one is allowed to view, how can the parents guarantee that the children will not view other, forbidden programs as well? The children will argue that if the parents view television, they may also view whatever they want – and especially here in America, where children aren’t so obedient to their parents.
And who can guarantee that the parents themselves will not fall into sin? Today they will view a permitted program, tomorrow they’ll sneak a peek at another program, and little by little, everything will become permissible to them.
An obvious argument: How could the world have existed ten years ago, before television was introduced? Didn’t the world function just the same in all areas?
[Owning a television] will also result in another detrimental effect on others: When one knows that so-and-so, who has a full beard, has a television, and one doesn’t know whether that Jew only views permissible programs, he will view all the programs, even those that are forbidden to view, relying on that person’s conduct as permission.
One may ask, so why does so-and-so have a television? Are there not pious and even Chassidic Jews who have one? One should disregard them.
This is comparable to the 248 physical limbs. Not all the person’s limbs are healthy. One person’s eyesight is weak, while another is weak in anothare limb, and so on. Would it be reasonable for one to say that since another is sick in his eyes, he also wants to be sick in his eyes? So, too, with regard to spiritual matters: No one is perfect, and everyone does as much as he can in observance of Torah and Mitzvos. Why should one learn a fault from someone else?
Of all those who have a television, none will say that he bought it to increase his fear of Heaven or fine character traits. Everyone has an excuse for it – it’s a piece of furniture for his house, or for his wife. Or he says that he received it as a gift – should he throw it out?!
Once people were careful not to pass by a church; one would go around. A mother would not allow her child to go near a church or see a crucifix. Yet nowadays, through television they bring the church, the priest, and the crucifix into the house, Rachmana litzlan (may Hashem save us).
A young rabbi – in fact fine and G–d-fearing, from a pious yeshiva – related that he listens and watches television every day from twelve o’clock to one o’clock. At that time a priest speaks, and from the priest’s sermon, he gathers material to speak about from the pulpit in his synagogue! He said this sincerely, and he thinks he’s doing it for the sake of Heaven, so he will have what to sermonize about in his synagogue. He is oblivious to the tremendous sin that this involves.
Once, people would give up their lives not to hear a priest speak, but now, through television, they bring the priest into their home, and they even vest this in holiness, as being for the sake of Heaven.
This was the way of the early followers of the Enlightenment movement, whose motto was: “Be a Jew at home, but a mensch outside” – and some of them were even qualified rabbis.
Really, what was wrong with this approach? The Code of Jewish Law does not forbid this. Indeed, one shouldn’t go in the streets screaming, “I am pious!” So what was forbidden about their motto?
But did we not see from experience what happened to them? And among their children and grandchildren, no trace of Judaism remains.
We once related the story of a shochet (ritual slaughterer) in the village of Lubavitch who wore boots and was then fired from his position.
What was the prohibition? My father-in-law himself wore boots. Rather, in the time of this shochet, boots were a new thing, and only the Jews who dressed and acted like the pritzim [sing. poritz – the wealthy non-Jewish landowners], took part in their wild parties, and the like, would dress that way. If someone dressed like this, people knew that he had strayed from the proper path. In the end, it became known that this shochet and his family had indeed strayed from the proper path.
In Lubavitch a Jew once came to his father and asked him: “Is it an accomplishment to sit in Lubavitch, closed in one’s room, and be a fine Jew? If one walks on the street in Petersburg, and doesn’t sin there – that’s an accomplishment.” He continued: “Even that is no accomplishment. Being in Petersburg, going inside the theater, sitting with one’s eyes shut, and not sinning – that’s an accomplishment.” Then the Jew went further: “Even that is not enough. Sitting inside a theater in Petersburg with one’s eyes open, and not sinning – that’s an accomplishment.” He continued further: “Even that is not enough. Entering the theatre, sitting near the stage where the performers perform, and then not sinning – that is a great accomplishment.” In this way he detailed an entire list of activities, and one can readily imagine how such a calculation can lead the person to fall to the lowest depths.
You should see to correct this in your own city, and you can even start doing so in New York, because here the need to correct this is very great.
Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 18, pp. 459-461.
