Rabbi: Alcohol Abuse In Orthodox Community "Alarming"

Problem started with hasidim, spread to Religious Zionist and MO communities.

Rabbi Sherlo: Alcohol abuse in religious public alarming
Prominent religious-Zionism rabbi says recent surge in violence cannot be perceived solely as secular public's problem
Kobi Nahshoni • Ynet

Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, one of religious- Zionism's most prominent figures, urged the sector to curb its alcohol abuse, which he defined as "alarming".

According to Sherlo, the past few years have seen the Hassidic community's sanction of drinking seep into the religious-Zionist sector. "We have to deal with it now, just as we began addressing the problem of drug abuse several years ago," he said.

In an article published by the Tzohar Rabbinical Association, which aims to bridge the gaps between the secular and religious communities in Israel, Sherlo protests the religious community's viewing of the recent surge in violence as "the seculars' problem".

"The subject of domestic abuse has taught us that the religious community is not free of such cases, even if some try to ignore them," he wrote.

Sherlo went on to note several violent conducive factors, listing alcohol abuse at as one of them.

Another factor Sherlo believes encourages violence is exposure to the media. "The religious society spares no effort in protecting its youth from improper and immodest content, but at the same time, it is seemingly oblivious to the amount of violence tainting so called 'proper' media content," he said.

"We have been taught to believe that violence is far less grave than immodesty. Most of us would prefer to have our children watch a violent action film over a drama, because it is devoid of male-female interaction… that is the kind of message which allows violence to permeate."

Sherlo also noted the legitimacy given to political violence as an encouraging factor to street violence.

Comments

[Yosef ben M]

but chabadnikim are minim not orth jews.
granted as typical choteem umachateeim, they corrupt the others.

[harold]

Problem started with hasidim

The source of all evil.

[Ben]

Worshiping the saints also started with hasidim, who took it from catholics. Now saint worshiping is spreading to the rest of religious world and even to seculars.

[seymour]

he is fooling himself,

these problem have always been and it not TV secular that is causing it. It is just now with the internet that this things are exposed a lot easier. So it seems like it ios rising. It was easy to sweep it under the rug and very few people would know abouy it,

Buy now because of the internet it gets exposed for all to see

[Dave Marshall]

Harold, you are exactly right!
As far as I know, and I am not a scholar, in Judaism a person's holiness cannot be inherited, it must be earned through years of mitzvot, Torah study and ethical behaviour.
Seymour, I agree with you except that these problems may have always existed, but certainly exposure to violent TV programs or movies helps exacerbate the problem.

[seymour]

Dave Marshall

TV programs or movies helps exacerbate the problem.

there are many studies that show there is no correlation between tv and violence since even a small child knows it is make believe.

there was no tv during the holocaust inquisitions and many other truly horrific action in history.

Blaming TV is nonsense.

japan has some of the most violent shows and movies doe snot have an issue with violent crimes

[WoolSilkCotton]

This rabbi just discovered what the rest of civilized secular society has known for many decades. Alcohol abuse, drug abuse, spousal abuse, and violence happen to all societies.

Stop blaming secularism, TV, and movies. Living in isolation is a far bigger cause of such problems. Crappy parenting and crappy rabbinical leadership are major causes. Lack of ethical behavior is a cause. Stop hating everyone and everything; that's also a cause.

Start reading and applying the ethical teachings and rules about personal conduct in the Torah. That hasn't been tried yet.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to George Thurgood:

One Mountain Dew, one vodka, and one beer...

[WoolSilkCotton]

In a few weeks, it will be the anniversary of the Mountain Dew Party! It happened on erev Halloween 2008.

[yudel]

seymour you are correct and not correct. During columbine everyone tragically thought video game Doom was the culprit. Huge study showed it relaxed kids not excited them
Where the problem comes in is when the stove is already loaded with fuel. Problems in relationships, family, history of drug abuse alcoholism and the like.

The real problem have to be addressed. Going after one small part while it may be important if these people are in blueprint overload like the studies who show people awash in porn..note term awash.

It is very difficult to help any kind of addicts. Rehabs for the most part do not work and are a huge cash cow business. AA works for maybe 12% of the people.

It takes a full changing of the family context and support from friends ready to intervene to solve the problem. Well solve most of the problem.

Getting to kids in high school who are already self medicating is a very simple thing to do but hard to carry out in the yeshiva world. Those kids end up on the street, etc.

But seymour you are correct ...pointing the finger and making the media the target is oh so convenient.

[nobody]

Like the problems in MO should be blamed on hasidim? Hasidim have their own cultural problems, and MO has its own cultural problems. One has nothing to do with the other. "Spread" ????

[kathiego]

I agree with woolsilkcotton. You can't solve problems by continually blaming someone or something else. One of the best ways to solve these kind of problems would be to, as woolsilkcotton says, "Start reading and applying the ethical teachings and rules about personal conduct in the Torah." Yudel is also correct there needs to be interventions as well and "a full changing of the family context, etc."

[WoolSilkCotton]

Nobody, I agree with you (second time today!). Drunkenness was described in the story of Noah. It's been going on ever since.

Maybe it wasn't as much a part of Jewish culture in the previous generation as it is today. I'll leave it to sociologists to figure out.

In any event, alcohol abuse in the religious world certainly isn't to be blamed on the hasidim as the cause.

Kathiego, thanks.

[Hometown Postville]

All of you have brought up some excellent points. Sounds like the corruption of alcohol, domestic abuse, fraud, you name it, etc.. boil down to our neglect of living as God wants us to live. Loving our neighbors as ourselves,forgiving one another, honesty, having no false idols, honoring our families and our G-d... the centuries old ten commandments say it all. No more, no less. Adding rules upon rules isolates people and makes serving G-d a chore not a joy. All the rules become self-serving, a form of idolatry. It sets them apart from others. Is that not also a way to say "we're better than everyone else?" And in our protest of their practices, are we not guilty of saying the same? Pray for them as we do for each other; they are most in need of finding G-d, the loving
G-d.

[Dr. Dave]

We should hear their reply soon - that it is the BT's the erev rav - that abuse alcohol and lead the hasidim astray.

[BaltimoreYid]

Thank you for the great photo of the Stoly's bottle. I'm going to pour myself a frozen shot of Stoly's lemon to go with my bong hit.

[WoolSilkCotton]

BaltimoreYid, that's the smartest idea I've heard all day!

[nobody]

woolsilk, glad to hear we are on common ground, both using common sense.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Nobody, I am pouring you a shot of Stoly. L'Chaim!

[Dave Marshall]

Seymour, yes it's true that in Japan there are a lot of violent movies available to watch. However Japanese society is very law abiding and the influence of Buddhist and Confucian ethics promoting non-violence is quite strongly present in Japanese society, so that strongly counter-acts the violent movies. In a society where there is no/ weak value system imposed, violent movies have a greater effect on children and young adults.

[L.Krawitz]

re -WoolSilkCotton's posting

You are correct chemical dependency problems exist in all societies.

But, when a community condones and openly encourages drinking a chemical substance such as alcohol without thinking it through as has been done here, then any underlying problems in the society will obviously increase and or be exacerbated.

People who deal with alcohol abuse related issues also know that,
- spousal abuse and alcohol abuse go hand in hand (in fact its rarely a sober man who will resort to beating his wife or/and his children!),
- a marked increase in violent behaviour occurs across the board, regardless of the person's religious affiliation, when its coupled to alcohol abuse.

So L'chaim WoolSilkCotton, and the rest of the Stoly lovers on this site as I pour myself a Stoly from my bottle tucked onto the freezer, as we all drink to responsible drinking.

[kniazhev meir]

AS TELL ME WHO IS DRUNK THERE AND WHOM?
WORLDLY JUDAISM WORLDLY CHRISTIANITY OR
OPPOSITE WORLDLY CHRISTIANITY WORLDLY JUDAISM
I ASK YOU BECAUSE I SEE THAT THIS WORLDLY
CHRISTIANITY DRUNK WORLDLY JUDAISM BUT NOT
OPPOSITE WHY?

BECAUSE ALL VODKA WHAT WE SALE HERE IN ISRAEL
MADE THE WORLDLY CHRISTIANITY BUT NOT JUDAISM
BECAUSE ALL VODKA HERE IS NOT KOSHER SO MUCH

WITH RESPECT KAHANIST KNIAZHEV MEIR

[David]

TV and movies don't exacerbate the problem, they normalize it. I wonder what studies have been done to see if there is a correlation between violent shows and a lack of remorse in children who commit violent acts. The reason violence in media does not increase violence in children is because the categorization of television personalities as 'other' distances children from the violent acts as compared to actual evolutionarily adapted mechanisms of morality training. 'Us' meaning close family, community, and teachers--versus 'them' meaning other cultures, and distant personalities (I.E. on television). However, if there is a pre-existant identification to violence through family and community--violence on television reinforces a lack of guilt when the act is performed. I'm rambling...

[buy viagra]

People who deal with alcohol abuse related issues also know that,
- spousal abuse and alcohol abuse go hand in hand (in fact its rarely a sober man who will resort to beating his wife or/and his children!),
- a marked increase in violent behaviour occurs across the board, regardless of the person's religious affiliation, when its coupled to alcohol abuse.