This weekend I was in Atlanta for a family simcha and heard Rabbi Ilan Feldman at Beth Jacob give a dvar Torah about, of all things, an Israeli commercial that he’d seen on YouTube. The commercial, which you can watch below, shows a bunch of Chassidic guys bemoaning the new HDTV available on Yes (one of the cable providers in Israel, I think). They sing and dance about how bad it is, all to the tune of YMCA by the Village People. It’s pretty tongue in cheek, if you ask me, but Rabbi Feldman was incredibly offended by it. How dare anyone make fun of Orthodox Jews who have the balls to actually refrain from something, to actually say something is bad for them and then not do it! We need to be more vocal about the ways that being Jewish enhances our lives. And we should admire people who make an effort to put the things that they find offensive and harmful out of their world.
I see Rabbi Feldman’s point, and it does make me a little uncomfortable to have dancing Chassidic Jews as a cinematic punchline. (The Village People thing is just cheesy, as far as I’m concered.) That said, I’m not a huge fan of the constant bans put out by various charedi institutions. To try to rid one’s world of the things that have potential to be dangerous is not only paranoid, it can be a harmful act in-and-of itself. It’s one thing to create an environment where a television can’t contribute anything substantial, but it’s another to say that televisions themselves are the harbingers of evil. It’s one thing to say that modesty is important, and it’s another to throw rocks at women who wear clothes that don’t accommodate the community. It’s okay to say to someone, “Hey, that TV show you’re watching really seems to be having a negative effect on how you look at your own body.” It’s not okay to say to someone, “TV is evil, Gossip Girl is evil, and you and your bulimia can shove it, as far as God is concerned. Call Him when you keep shabbos.” To me, this seems like a very chanukkah-appropriate struggle. We do want to encourage people to embrace Jewish life and Jewish law. We don’t want people living lives that overemphasize the aesthetic pleasures in life. The Maccabees never seem to have found a happy medium, but I hope that we can.