The Evils of Pornography

"That which you gaze upon you become." Sufi Wisdom

"Look to God and live." (Alma 37:47)

The Savior taught the multitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)

"Keep your hearts and minds [in] Christ Jesus... Whatsover things are pure... if there be any virtue... think on these things." Philippians 4:7, 8

"I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." Psalm 101:3

"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1st Peter 2:11

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven...Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:20,27,28

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;" -Philippians 2:15

2nd Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." —1st John 2:15-17

"That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." —2nd Thessalonians 2:12

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." —1st Corinthians 10:13

The word "pornography" comes from the Greek porneia, porneuo, and porne. Porneia is translated "fornication" in the King James Version (Mat 5:32; John 8:41; Rom 1:29; 1 Corin 6:9,13,18; Gal 5:19; Rev 19:2; etc.). Porneuo is the verb "to commit fornication," as in 1 Corin 6:18. Porne is translated "harlot" in Mat 21:31-32; 1 Corin 6:15; and Rev 17:5.

A Tragic Evil among Us by President Gordon B. Hinckley
"[Pornography] is like a raging storm, destroying individuals and families, utterly ruining what was once wholesome and beautiful."

"Sex is the number 1 topic searched on the Internet" (NCPCE Online, "Current Statistics," Internet, http://www.nationalcoalition.org/resourcesservices/stat.html).

Being tempted is not sin (even Jesus was tempted) - but giving in to it, or seeking it out, surely is.

Statistics

Pornography is an $8-billion-a-year business.

17.5 million surfers visited porn sites from home computers in Jan. 2000, a 40% increase from 4 months earlier. (Source: US News & World Report, 3/27/2000)

Web surfers spent $970 million accessing porn sites in 1998. (Source: Datamonitor research firm)

Porn accounts for 69% of the $1.4 billion pay-to-view online-content market, compared to video games (4%) and sports (2%). (Source: US News & World Report, 3/27/2000)

Also See:
Reasons Why Porn is Bad Non-LDS Site
The evils of pornography are deadly to human spirit

Jacob, Job, and Other Wrestlers: Reception of Greek Athletics by Jews and Christians in Antiquity1

"...man's struggle with his darker side."

And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he could not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip became dislocated as he wrestled with him…Therefore, the children of Israel may not eat the gid hanasheh, which is on the socket of the hip, until this day, for he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, in the gid hanasheh. (Genesis 32:25-33)

Why, in this case, do we remember something by not eating? In our tradition, we eat certain foods to remember events. On Passover we eat matzah to remember that we left in a hurry. On Chanukah we eat oily food and cheese to remember the miracles. So why do we not eat the gid hanasheh (as the sciatic nerve is called in Hebrew) to remember this event?
The Zohar describes Jacob's battle with the angel as an symbolic of man's struggle with his darker side. The entire night the battle remained even, as Jacob held strong.
As morning was approaching, the angel knew that he had to act fast, for soon the night—the time when he has power—would be gone, and he would be powerless. He therefore struck Jacob's thigh, the Zohar explains, in the place from which all sexual desire extends. And there, he was able to wound him.
The Zohar teaches us that in every struggle we are powerful and can overcome our evil urges if we so desire. There is only one place where the lust is so strong that even great men are powerless – the gid hanasheh. Its very name means to forget, because once it has been aroused, all rational thinking and religious scruples are left far behind.
The only way to win that war is to stay far away in the first place, for once the first flirt his been thrown out, there is no knowing where things can lead. For this reason the gid is not eaten at all but utterly avoided. (by Rabbi Menachem Posner)

Jacob Means "God's Servant"

On the Jewish Website, Chabad.com in an article by Yanki Tauber titled, "Who Wants to Be Jewish?" he talks about how Jacob in Genesis 32 acquires a new name, "Israel," after wrestling all night with an angel. "No longer shall your name be called Jacob," proclaims the defeated angel, "but rather Israel, for you have contended with G-d and with men, and have prevailed."

Tauber explains:

...yet, Jacob continues to be called "Jacob" in the Torah, though he's also called by his new name, "Israel"; from this point onward, the Torah alternates between the two names. The same applies to the Jewish people as a whole: we're generally referred to as "Israel" or "The Children of Israel," but there are also numerous times in the Torah when the Jewish people are collectively called "Jacob" or "The Seed of Jacob."

The Chassidic masters point out that the name Jacob is used when we're referred to as G-d's "servants" (as in Isaiah 44:1: "Now, listen, My servant Jacob"), while the name Israel is employed when we're called G-d's "children" (as in Exodus 4:22: "My first-born child, Israel").

The difference between a servant and a child can be understood on many levels. A most basic distinction, however, is the motivation behind the relationship. Both a child and a servant serve the parent/master and fulfill his will. The difference is in why they do it. When a child does something for his father or mother, he does so with love, pleasure and joy. The servant, on the other hand, does these actions not because he desires to, but because he must.

This difference will affect the quality of the relationship on all levels. While the "child" and the "servant" may be doing the same actions technically, there is a tremendous difference in the nature, quality and impact of an action if it is done out of love and desire, or because one feels compelled to do it.

These prototypes--the "child" and the "servant"--exist in all relationships: in a marriage, in the family, in the workplace, etc. There can even be a child who in his feelings and actions towards his parents more resembles a servant, or a servant whose service of his master is suffused with a child-like love and desire.

In our lives as Jews and our relationship with G-d there are also these two prototypes. Our Jewishness can be the Jewishness of a "servant"--one who has no choice in the matter and simply accepts the fact that this is what he is and these are what his duties are. Or we can be "children" of G-d who rejoice in their role, who desire it and celebrate it and revel in it.

The "spirit of Esau" with which we all grapple is our own material self. It's the part of us that just wants to be like everyone else--make a living and get through life with the least hassle possible. It's the part of us that "accepts" our Jewishness as something that's been imposed on us: we do our bit, but without the love, joy and desire that comes from doing something we truly want to do.

This is our "Jacob" personality--the self that's still locked in the struggle with the spirit of Esau. But we each have our moments of triumph over the angel of materialism and apathy. Moments when we rise to our "Israel" self--the self that rejoices in our relationship with G-d and our special G-d-given role as Jews. Times when we experience a mitzvah not as a duty, but as an act of love and personal fulfillment.

But the Torah knows that it's not simply a matter of defeating the angel and "graduating" from our Jacob personality to our Israel self. Rather, we remain both Jacob and Israel, alternating between these two modes of our Jewishness. Some of us may be Jacobs most of the time, while in others the Israel self predominates. But, in truth, we each have our Israel moments, as well as the times that we regress to the Jacob mode.

That is why, even after Jacob defeats the angel and acquires the name "Israel," the Torah continues to call him--and us--by both names. The message is two-fold: firstly, that G-d continues to value our Jacob self as well, cherishing every good deed we do even--and perhaps especially--when we lack the joy and desire and need to force ourselves to do our duty; and secondly, that the opportunity is always there to access our inner Israel and experience the joy and fulfillment that comes from desiring and rejoicing in who and what we are and our mission in life.

"The God-Man who wrestled with Jacob"

Podcast by Rabbi David Levine

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"The Sun Will Shine"

In the article called The Love Trap by Lazer Gurkow we learn: that just like Jacob, who wrestled the angel and was injured, but "whose thigh was healed as the sun rose, so too will our ability to stand firm return as soon as the sun rises and shines." Like the prophet Isaiah promised, "the sun will shine" And when the divine is manifested again in our lives, "those warm divine rays will heal our "thigh" and strengthen our posture. We will once again stand tall, strong and proud..." Jacob's struggle can be likened to our present day struggles..."even in the dark of night, we must know that the sun will rise and that our spiritual stature will recover." We are also reminded that we must take action because knowledge is not enough. By resisting assimilation into a fallen culture and falling into temptation and sin we can by recommitting to our beliefs "actually rekindle the soul's flame and trigger our sunrise."

Fight or Flight

Flight or Fight

By Yossy Goldman

Of all the things we Jews observe in order to remember events in our historic past, surely one of the strangest must be what we read in this week's parshah. Jacob wrestles with an angel (Esau's spiritual guardian) and in the course of the struggle, his hip is dislocated. Therefore, says the Torah, to this day, the Children of Israel are not to eat the sciatic nerve (of an animal) by the hip joint--because he struck Jacob's hip-socket at the sciatic nerve.

Just because 4,000 years ago one of my ancestors had a hip dislocated, I need to forgo a good rump steak? The sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh) and its associated sinews and nerves are located in the animal's hindquarters, and because they are very difficult to properly remove, only cuts from the forequarters are usually available as kosher meat. So if it has always bothered you that you can't get a kosher rump steak, you can blame it on father Jacob and his wrestling match with the angel of Esau.

So, tell me, just because 4,000 years ago one of my ancestors had a hip dislocated I must curb my culinary cravings? Is this fair, is it logical? Why remember that--what's the point?

The 12th century French sage, Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir ("Rashbam"), a grandson of Rashi and a Biblical and Talmudic commentator of note, offers the following insight. The story of Jacob and the angel occurred just prior to Jacob's impending encounter with his estranged twin brother. Esau was coming with four hundred armed men, and Jacob was actually planning to flee from Esau. That was when the angel attacked him. According to Rashbam, the reason for the angel wrestling with Jacob was so that he would be forced to stand his ground and not escape via a back route. Destiny itself was compelling Jacob to confront the enemy and overcome him. Only then would he witness the fulfillment of G-d's promise to protect him from harm.

It seems that Jacob was coming dangerously close to developing a pattern of escapism It seems that Jacob was coming dangerously close to developing a pattern of escapism. He fled Beer-Sheba when Esau threatened to kill him. He fled from Laban in Haran in middle of the night when he worried that Laban wouldn't allow him to return to his homeland. And now he was preparing to flee from Esau. At any moment now there would be yet another nocturnal escape.

Apparently, G-d wanted Jacob to learn that a philosophy of escapism is not the Jewish way. So the angel dislocated his hip, preventing him from running away. Now Jacob had no choice but to fight. In the end, he defeated the angel and was blessed with the name "Israel," signifying a superior stature, victory and nobility. No longer shall it be said that your name is Jacob, but Israel, for you have fought with the divine and with man and you have overcome.

Every son and daughter of Jacob must learn this lesson. Every one of us must become a child of Israel. The quality of fearlessness and courage, of strength and sacrifice, these are the hallmarks of Israel. When we stop running away from our problems and face up to them with guts and fortitude, we enter that higher state of consciousness. We move up from the Jacob Jew, who is still struggling, to Israel mode, where we finally emerge triumphant. When we are prepared to take up the challenge and go for the fight rather than flight, we move from being wrestlers to becoming winners, from humble Jacob to dominant Israel.

Escapism is not the Jewish way Of course it's never easy. Escape is usually the path of least resistance. Nor am I suggesting that we go looking for a fight. But the fact is that there will be times when we know that we really need to have that confrontation. We need to square up to a particular problem or individual in order to deal with our situation effectively. We shouldn't be confrontational people. But often we know in our heart of hearts that if we don't engage a problem honestly it will continue to plague us.

If we can move from meekness to courage, then the story of Jacob's wrestling match will live on and continue to inspire us to become the stronger personalities we really can be. The dislocated hip joint thus becomes worthy of eternal remembrance because it makes us better people. And the small sacrifices we make in avoiding those unkosher cuts of meat around the animal's hip socket are well worth the effort.

The Wrestler

The Wrestler
Vayishlach Parshah Report
Jono learns some wrestling pointers from our forefather Jacob.

From the Rabbi we learn: Jacob struggled and was injured in his hip by the Angel he wrestled. And even though Jacob was injured he arrived home safe and sound and he stated he had arrived home and intact.

Jacob's Match

"dark night of the soul"

In the story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Rabbi Richard Hirsh tells us that this story could be seen as "more psychological, and suggests that Jacob is struggling with himself in his "dark night of the soul." Jacob stands at the same river he crossed many years ago in flight. He is engaged in what psychologist Erik Erikson might call the struggle between "ego integrity and despair"; its outcome is contingent on being able to take one's personal history and have it make sense as a unified story....The struggle is an internal one, and the adversary is a stand-in for the discordant parts of life that all people struggle to accept. Perhaps that's why this story continues to retain its power."