Claiming historical significance in one’s work is usually hyperbole; usually, but not always. When Moishe Rabbainu put out the call for donations for the mishkan we can assume he told everyone this is a historic opportunity “Hashem Yisborach made this world 2,500 years ago and he hasn’t yet found a home! He has given us this one chance to invite him into our midst and we better not screw it up!”
This morning I received this sponsored email from Vos Iz Neias, shilling for an organization called Guard Your Eyes.
Finally: A solution for one of the biggest challenges facing Klal Yisrael
Today with the internet in every pocket, we risk losing the battle.
This kedusha crisis is unique to our generation and has wreaked havoc on untold families and individuals. One organization is determined to find a solution and has already helped thousands.A donation to GuardYourEyes is not just another Tzedaka – it has historical ramifications. For 3,000 years, the Jewish people have been able to preserve standards of kedusha, but today with the internet in every pocket, we risk losing the battle.
What is one of the biggest challenges facing Klal Yisrael?
- Is it access to knowledge that undermines Judaism?
- Faltering community coffers, which will soon lead to an inability for Jews to keep their children in private schools?
- The increasingly obvious fact that frum Jews are not better than everyone else?
- The Israeli government’s War on Torah?
- Bais Yaakov girls gone wild?
Of course it’s none of these; it’s porn addiction. Duh.
Apparently there’s an epidemic of porn addiction in the frum community, if you don’t believe it, just watch the accompanying video where Eli admits to having a dark side, leading a double life, being a terrible father to his children, and thinking to himself “if he only knew” every time he shook his rabbi’s hand. Don’t you feel that way when you shake your rabbi’s hand?
It seems that we Jews have never spilled as much seed in our history as we are currently doing, so in addition to tearfully saying tefilas zakah before kol nidrei this Yom Kippur, why don’t you consider donating some money to this fine organization, which promises to stop the seed spilling and thus neutralize the largest existential threat facing Klal Yisroel.
Thousands of people have been convinced that porn = hard drugs? That’s so sad.
I get that porn addiction exists, and may be as bad as hard drugs, I guess. My issue is that they basically say that anyone who watches any porn is an addict, and that’s not true.
Whether or not porn addiction, or even general sex addiction, exists is a matter of debate in the mental health community. All of the studies I’ve seen the claim that it is are funded by conservative religious groups. Which doesn’t mean that they’re wrong, but does mean that they should be treated with caution.
I haven’t looked at GYE for a couple of years. Thanks to you, I looked at their site again, and I saw that they have expanded their market base to include women. Based on some things they link to in that section, I suspect that they are Breslav group, and share that chassidus’s obsession with masturbation as the worst possible sin.
What they’re doing is evil. They’re convincing people that if you look at porn, it will take over and ruin your life. I suspect that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once someone is convinced that porn/masturbation is the ultimate sin, the guilt ruins his life. Worse, if the people in his life are convinced, then *they* will ruin his life. It would be much better if it was left well enough alone.
It could be they’re related to Breslav, but I don’t think you have to be Breslav to be hung up on masturbation and porn. I’m aware of at least one yeshivish family that was broken up over allegations that the husband watched porn. Someone anonymously told the wife, the wife stalked her husband, she found him watching porn and they got divorced over it.
You’re exactly right – they really need to leave well enough alone.
They didn’t get divorced because of porn. They got divorced because they had the kind of relationship where the husband kept things from his wife and the wife “stalked” the husband instead of just talking to him about it.
All of the horror stories on GYE’s site are like that, too. The people who write about how porn ruined their marriage are actually describing unhealthy relationships, mostly where the husband is a jerk and the wife is a crazy person. The porn was just the thing they happened to be fighting over.
Good point.
Also @G_3:disqus , check out this podcast. Warning! It’s really, really cringe-inducing.
You’ll hear a young chassid saying that he, and all men, are pigs who only want hot women, he thinks all secular people have group sex in dorm rooms like he sees in porn flix and he wants to know why any man would remain with a woman after he finds someone hotter than her.
Unfortunately, to a large degree it’s the chassidish (and yeshivish) education which creates the need for organizations like GYE.
http://loveandradio.org/2014/09/of-birds-and-boundaries/
we are addicted to eating, spending time with our children and our doing our hobbies. We all get a rush of dopamine while we engage in those activities. These and many more things, if we were to stop cold turkey, would cause us to experience something similar to withdrawal symptoms. Porn might also be an addiction for many people, but, just like a hobby, its a great thing to do, and unless its infringing on your future happiness or on the happiness of those around you those around you, it an addiction that should be encouraged.
Just shows that the Frum are like everyone else.
I wonder how they counted fluid ounces of seed in the olden days?
Instead of stalking, confronting, arguing and then getting a divorce a clever wife would order in pizza and watch it with him then try out a few of the ideas themselves.
Cartoon character in these ads reminds me of South Park.