The Commentator

In Pirkei Avot, the quintessential collection of Torah aphorisms, our Sages advise us to “make a fence round the Torah.”   Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz explains:  “Surround it with cautionary rules that shall, like a danger signal, halt a man before he gets within breaking distance of the Divine Statute itself.”   The value of having “cautionary rules” around the Torah is clear – however the complexity lies in knowing when to apply them.  Thus, we rely on the spiritual fences created by Chazal, with the implicit understanding that Chazal used their Divine wisdom in discerning the areas wherein we are most likely to slip in our observance.  But what about creating gedarim – spiritual fences – of our own?

Personal gedarim that we create for ourselves are like blankets:  They may be smothering and a burden, if we blindly pile on too many.  But, if we use them appropriately, they may serve to keep us warm, while not overheating us.  A person might sometimes feel stifled if the gedarim around mitzvot are used improperly.  But proper usage keeps a person secure in his or her observance, without burying him or her in its restrictions.

When we choose to build a spiritual fence of our own making around our observance, it is highly important to understand what exactly we are trying to protect, and what the source of the extra measure is.  We cannot simply muffle ourselves in restrictions without understanding why they are there, and what objectives we hope for them to achieve.  Gedarim can ensure and enhance:  They ensure that mitzvot are being kept by helping us steer clear of situations that may bring us to violate a mitzvah.  And they enhance our religious life if used properly, because they allow us to understand how vital it is that our Torah principles remain safe.

We are complex; we are multifaceted; we are nuanced.  We insult our own intelligence when we declare something “good” or “bad” without realizing that often, things are more complex than a blanket statement allows for.  Sometimes it is necessary to subdivide an issue into its various parts and examine each one separately to be able to come to a conclusion on the issue as a whole.  Are there positive aspects?  Are there negative aspects?  Which outweighs the other?

This is especially necessary with the somewhat knotty question of watching television and movies.  It is not enough to simply write them off as all bad – we must first ask, do television and movies have enough of a constructive value that such value supersedes the dangerous strings attached to these activities?  My answer to this is no – in this particular aspect of pop culture, the negative features overshadow the positive ones, and so I believe that television and movies do not deserve entry into our Jewish lifestyles.

By excluding TV and movies from our lives, we are building a spiritual fence around ourselves, which ensures that we stand clear of seeing and hearing things that may lead us to sin.  This fence guards us from dulling our sensitivities in matters of morality and sanctity.  When we choose to place a geder around ourselves in order to separate ourselves from immorality and sin – to sanctify ourselves, if you will – by eliminating unwarranted, harmful influences that chip away at our clear understanding of Torah morals and values – we are engaging in the necessary act of Jewish self-preservation.

The vulgarity of television and movies creeps insidiously into our brains and hearts, opening us to secular culture’s casual indifference to violence, immorality and meanness.  And at such a cost:  What a loss of purity, of truth, of clarity we sustain by allowing ourselves to be entertained by matters that mock the essential core of Jewish modesty and observance.  Ideas in television are not only antithetical to Torah, but also come from a source that values the objectification of women, delights in splashing violence across the screen and profits from showcasing promiscuity.  When we watch such things, we allow these ideas to be absorbed, however unconsciously, into our very being.  Consequently, we lose a little bit of that part of us that says, “Hey, this is completely and unequivocally WRONG.”  Because when these ideas get lodged into our brains, right up there next to our understanding of right and wrong, they make those lines that were once clear just a bit fuzzy.  We should feel indignant when we see these things occur!  But when such scenes and personalities flash across our vision over and over and over, we get just a bit lazy in training ourselves to instinctively realize that violence, cruelty and immorality are wrong.  Vice becomes more relative, and we are slowly less and less repelled by what should be shocking and offensive to us as Jews, who follow a stricter moral code.

Nicholas Johnson, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from 1966 to 1973, noted, “All television is educational.  The question is, what does it teach?”   While there might be shows that may have a constructive message, such as informative documentaries, or shows that portray moral dilemmas, the overall effect of television is negative.  Television, as noted above, teaches us to relinquish our sensitivity to values that often are in direct opposition to Torah morals and ethics.  Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to filter what we watch - who can honestly say that they always have the self-control to switch the TV off or change the channel when an inappropriate scene presents itself?  Thus we watch and see things that we shouldn’t, and inadvertently educate ourselves in attitudes and ideas that are decidedly not in keeping with Judaism.

Much of the time, issues that affect our Torah observance contain various complexities that serve to complicate our decisions about what to do, what action to take.  When do we say that something is unequivocally bad or good?  There is almost always a hint of gray.  With some ideas and questions, the gray is much hazier, and only by looking very closely can we discern a form or semblance of the matter.  With others, it is more distinct, and we can more easily draw conclusions.  Such is the case with the aspect of popular culture discussed here.  Despite the shades of gray that may be present, the overwhelming darkness of television and movies overshadows any constructive purposes they may have.  Letting this darkness cast a pall on our spiritual clarity and purity can only be to our detriment.  It corrodes our sense of Jewish modesty and dignity.  What begins as offensive – meanness for the sake of humor, cruelty for the sake of drama, unfettered promiscuity, violence and vulgarity – gradually becomes less and less shocking, until it becomes entertaining.  And the price we pay for this is high: moral ambiguity, eroded ethical clarity and the validation of principles that are contradictory to Torah.  These values are the antithesis of the G-d-fearing Jew; they are the opposite of what defines us as a people.

To consciously allow this physical manifestation of the temptations of the evil inclination into our lives may, G-d forbid, give rise to the dwindling of our spiritual sensitivities and subtleties.  As individuals – and as a people – this is a cost that we cannot afford to pay.

Esther Baruh is a senior in SCW

i   Pirkei Avot 1:1.

ii  Hertz, Joseph H.  Sayings of the Fathers.  New York:  Behrman House, Inc., 1945.  12.

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