A Time for War, a Time for Peace

Question

Dear Rabbi,

I have been advised by dear friends to consider ways to limit, monitor or completely make it taboo for our young children to watch TV due to immorality and violence found there. But I was thinking: In the same vein, perhaps we should also not read the Torah, since it has so many shocking and immoral acts in it, including violence. Thanks so much for your thoughts on this.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    Should we not study the Torah because we may not be personally comfortable with certain topics that are mentioned there?

    No. We should study the Torah. One reason is that it is educational.

    Television, too, is educational. Unfortunately, it is sometimes teaching the wrong lesson.

    The average five-year old sees hundreds of acts of violence, murder and other acts of immorality each year on television, phones and video games. So do his parents. He and his parents do this for entertainment. Rarely is there an obvious moral teaching or lesson conveyed.

    The Torah, on the other hand, educates us to be good. For example, the Torah says “Cain rose against his brother Able and killed him (Genesis 4:8).” Immediately, Cain is punished by God with exile and the eventual dying out of his line after seven generations.

    The immoral advances of Potifar’s wife toward Joseph are related in the Torah. Joseph’s resistance eventually leads him to become viceroy of Egypt and gains him the praise and blessing of his father (Genesis 49:24 and Rashi).

    Immoral acts are described by the Torah matter-of-factly and as briefly as possible. No “gory details” are offered for our “entertainment.”

    The word “Torah” means “instruction.” The Torah is our instruction manual for life. A manual shows what to do and what not to do; what works and what does not work; what is good and what is not good.

    And the Torah teaches us to always choose what is good and to love life.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team