Question: I’m in 10th Grade and I’ve decided to improve in some areas of spirituality. One area I’ve chosen is to avoid movies that are inappropriate.  My goal is that by the end of this year I won’t be watching any movies that are rated higher than PG-13 i am not sure how to do this. Can you please help me?

Answer: The “UP” offering (also called the BURNT offering, or OLEH in Hebrew) atones for OMISSION of PERFORMANCE OF POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS and for BAD THOUGHTS.Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (classic 19th Century commentator) explains: “A bad thought is not a NEGATIVE COMMANDMENT - ‘don’t do this’ – but rather BAD THOUGHTS (Seeing inappropriate scenes) happens because of OMISSION of POSITIVE commandments. A person who is doing nothing with his time will feel the urge to see bad movies. A person who is doing other things will be too busy and feel less of an urge.

So the first piece of advice is GET INVOLVED in something. It can be something social (a pro Israel activity) or something intellectual (start a project to read a book) but get involved.

Second: Redefine your circle of friends so they have the same values of you. You are in high school. Try and find peers who also avoid those movies.

Finally I cite from our religious texts: “Seeing inappropriate scenes is a very grave sin—-for the sinner doesn’t think he is DOING anything just looking and the viewer doesn’t understand that the viewing can eventually over a prolonged period of time lead to sin.”

Anyway, I would focus on the 2 things I mentioned: a) activity b) social circle.

Good luck. One final point: Don’t expect to change overnight and don’t be (overly) upset if you have a few lapses. Measure your success in monthly or quarterly intervals. If you have improvement congratulate yourself.

Warmly
Dr Russell Jay Hendel;