Two ultra-Orthodox rabbis, branding video cassette recorders “dreadful” and “demoralizing,” have forbidden the pious from keeping them in their homes.
The rabbinic ruling was handed down Monday by Rabbis Shmuel Halevi Wassner and Nissim Karlitz, leading halachic authorities in the ultra-Orthodox township of Bnei Brak. The rabbis spoke on behalf of the Zichron Meir religious court in Bnei Brak.
Their edict was promptly circulated in posters and advertisements to religious population centers all over the country.
Families who want to raise their children according to halachah were warned to “stay away from VCRs.”
They must not be introduced into “private homes or institutions, even if they are used to show wedding tapes or other family events.”
The rabbis said they had heard of “dreadful disturbances caused by the demoralizing instrument called video.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
