The Commentator

It is a fact that Orthodox Jews in America have been deeply influenced by American pop culture. Magazines rest on our coffee tables, athletes serve as our youth’s role models, and televisions adorn our dens.  In short, we participate in an entertainment-saturated social community, defined by assumptions, standards, and values that are not our own.  As such, there is no way to escape the difficult challenge that our generation is faced with: the growing gap between the ideas and ideals of American pop culture and those of Halachic Judaism. 

The far-reaching implications of this challenge should be painfully obvious to our Yeshiva University community, a community that takes pride in being able to sit comfortably in multiple worlds, steeped in the depths of our Torah tradition and at the same time open to and involved in modernity.  We cannot ignore the fact that we are fighting a battle of values.  The vulgar language, drug use, sexual content, and disregard of rules that characterize a large percentage of pop culture are directly antithetical to the mandate of our Torah .

Wikipedia, for example, lists Barbie, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and Madonna as central personalities of American pop culture.  Compare this list to those figures that we celebrate most in our Torah communities, like Rabbi Ahron Lichtenstein and Senator Lieberman, to list a few.

Could you imagine a more opposite group of individuals?  The point is that American pop culture, as we know so well, promotes radical materialism, narcissism, anti-intellectualism, and unrestrained pleasure seeking.  Meanwhile, our Torah community strives to teach and to live the values of modesty, intellectual discipline, sanctity, family, community, and shemirat hamitzvot, among other values. 

Clearly, any engagement with pop culture that involves seeing underdressed women, or hearing militantly atheistic or pluralistic ideology must be vigorously eschewed.  Any Jew who exposes him or herself to such sights and sounds is in deliberate violation of halachah.

While it appears that the conflict of cultures is absolute and irreconcilable, we must separate the potentially positive parts of pop-culture.  As a form of leisure, pop culture presents us with a few healthy options.  Going to the ballpark on Chol HaMoed Pesach, reading Harry Potter, and viewing certain movies are great opportunities for relaxation and recreation.  The first concern, of course, must always be the yardstick of halacha, both its particular dictates and its underlying spirit.  Competent halakhic authorities, who are well-versed in both halakhah and contemporary tends in pop culture, must be consulted in order to determine the aspects of pop culture that are halakhically permissible.

After identifying Halachikly neutral areas of pop culture we cannot just allow people to go out and enjoy them.  Instead we must operate by educating toward the complexity of the choice to engage in pop culture.  We must accustom every individual to weigh the potential benefit and risk involved.  ‘Does this movie or magazine enhance my relationship with G-d?  Does it help me relax?  Does it violate my personal standards and values?’  After considering these rigorous checkpoints we ought to acknowledge that there exist ample opportunities for healthy fun and amusement.

Our treatment of the interface between Orthodox Judaism and American pop culture thus far has been only in the ideal plane of how these two forces in our lives can and should relate to one another.  Realistically, this approach, on its own, will not serve as a viable solution to the dilemma lurking in the background.  The state of our predicament is that we are already deeply embedded in pop culture; we already measure ourselves with the standards of pop culture to such an extent that limiting pop culture to a form of occasional relaxation would be tantamount to dismissing the lifestyles of hundreds of thousands of observant Jewish Americans.  Even if we think that pop culture is a waste of time, our predicament does not allow us to reject it; instead it summons us to start providing helpful judgments on the matter. 

Therefore, looking toward the future, we must, as a responsible community, consider more creative and multifaceted approaches.  Rather then letting the less committed laity carry the agenda on this matter, the leaders of Halachic Judaism in America must assume a more active role.  They need to know what is going on and offer calibrated and insightful guidance as opposed to passively acquiescing or sneering.  While there is certainly no formula for this task, Rabbinic figures must begin to think proactively about bringing the ideals of Halachic Judaism into dialogue with American pop culture.  They must acknowledge the frightening fact that pop culture shapes behavior; it forms patterns of ideas and sets of values that influence individuals and social institutions in numerous ways.  It is therefore imperative to explicitly articulate some sort of ideology or general guidance on the matter.  Only then is there hope of influencing our current reality to catch up with our community’s complex Torah ideology.

H. Richard Niebuhr, an important 20th century Christian theologian-ethicist once articulated numerous models for the relationship between religious and secular culture: 1) there are those who strive to create a harmonious synthesis between the two, 2) those who view the two as being in continual tension, and finally 3) those who seek to transform secular culture through religion.

The first option is unrealistic when honestly assessing the state of American pop culture in 2007; it would be absolutely impossible to synthesize Britney Spears and Torah.  Only if we were to include high culture, like literature and visual arts, would this become a viable possibility.  The second option also seems impractical.  While it may service the conflict on a theoretical plane, in day to day life most people cannot live stably with perpetual paradox and tension

The third option, I believe, should serve as a paradigm for our community.  We should be more aware of the impact of pop culture and respond by creating a more expansive dialogue between positive pop culture and Torah values.  In other words we should strive to view select parts of pop culture as having religious import.  While this might be quite challenging considering Wikipedia’s definition of pop culture, if we were to add items like Newsweek, Jazz, a Broadway show, and Sesame Street, or figures like Michael Jordan and Mickey Mouse, to the list of pop culture then we have more to work with.  These areas can, by investing some effort, be used as ways to develop our understanding of the human race or appreciation of the way that G-d orchestrates the world.

Adopting this model, together with the approach of pop culture as a form of leisure, might better equip our community to confront the growing dissonance between Halachic Judaism and contemporary culture.  At the same time it is impossible to underemphasize the need for caution and common sense.  We should encourage our parents, siblings, and children to speak with their rabbis and teachers about their encounters with pop culture.  Let us continue to promote good judgment and selectivity as we engage this issue with seriousness and sensitivity.

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