Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg - Kerem Bi-yavneh
According
to Sefer Hamakabim, the main reason for the wars of the Maccabees was
to fight for freedom of their own culture. "In those days, evil
people came out from Yisrael... And they went to the King, who sent
them to act according to the laws of the other nations... And they
built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, and they abandoned the holy
covenant..." Sports and nude plays were symbolic at the time of
the outside world. Yosefus Flavius writes that there were Kohanim,
holy priests, who left their shifts in the Temple in order to watch
Greek games.
In
view of this, just think how ludicrous it is that a custom sprung up
in the days of the First Aliya to schedule the sports events of the
"Maccabee Games" during Chanukah, in memory of the
Maccabees, who went out to fight against the games!
In
the year 5716 (1956), the author Avraham Kariv wrote an article about
the evil culture that has spread through our lives. Here is some of
what he said about movies:
"They
have become an all-powerful agent of all the evil and coarse urges
within man... This is normally an unseen world which hides itself
from the sun and from other people, and then rises up in front of the
viewer in all its guile: 'Here I am! Here I am!'... The voice of the
evil inclination is its most powerful in the world of the movies,
almost as if it could be compared to the tunes of a chazzan, heaven
forbid, representing the whole community of creative artists.
Whatever society rejects, whatever education wants to uproot, is
brought into movies and shown on the big screen with powerful
emphasis... In a single week a person can pass through all seven
sections of hell.
"Promiscuity
and corruption were present throughout history, but they were never
presented to an audience in such a show of shamelessness... Seafarers
are created on the island of the movies, both boys and girls, and
they all gaze at the actions taking place on the screen, which are
directly opposite to all the limits put in place by parents and
educational institutions alike. What is considered as a serious
breach of acceptable limits within the confines of the home and
educational institutions is the accepted norm here, in the movies...
"The
venom of the movies lies in wait for our children from their earliest
days. How and from what source will the soul of the next generation
maintain a bit of purity and innocence? The movies are the evil angel
which calls out to the young of our generation, saying: 'Descend to
the lowest point!' These forces have the power to reshape the face of
a nation. Our sages have taught us the following about Yisrael: 'This
nation can be recognized by three characteristics: They show mercy,
they have shame, and they perform kind acts.' After a quarter of a
century of intensively watching movies, our nation is very different
than it used to be, in all its traits.
"During
the day, we are involved in laying the foundations for a proper life,
and then at night the soul is abandoned to an approach that tears
apart the very foundation of these efforts. If the night doesn't
follow the day as it should, the day follows the night."
Similar
things can be said about sports: "There is no greater sign of
spiritual deprivation than the great increase in the interest in
sports in our time. We must remember that winning a sports
competition does not make the winner into a better person but only
into a happier creature." (Dr. Kampell, Maariv).
We
finish with a statement by Chaim Nachman Bialik about movies: "The
intent is to cause impurity and to confuse all five senses at once,
so that anybody who goes there one time will be transformed into an
animal for life."
