Josh: this is the situation

Josh: there is this kid (believe me i dont knw how i got involved) but he's totally Frum and is really confused about his jewish identity and asks me questions

Josh: today he asked me wut is wrong w/ non jewish music and movies and he's like y cant we watch or listen so i gave him an anwser and he wasnt happy can u give me a good reasson that might hit home for him

Josh: sry that was really long

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: ok - let me try (it might a little tough since this is online and I don't really know him, but I can try).

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: Let's start with movies, it is far worse that music

Josh: ye i knw

Josh: i'll give u backround he's 15 and really confused and has no where to really turn

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: that is sad that he has no one to turn to

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: you know what I just thought of... could you send him here?

Josh: i would love to but i'm not sure he'd come

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: ok, so let's talk about movies a bit

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: what did you tell him?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: very nice

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: let me tell you a story I heard from a woman who grew up in a home where the parents let them go to movies....

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: so she often would go to the movies. One day when she was about 12 or 13 she was in the theater watching a movie about this man having an affair with a married woman...

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: (sorry for the delay there are a lot of people on)

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: anyway... the plot of the movie had the audience feeling sympathetic for this man...

Josh: ye

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: suddenly this girl watching the movie thinks "oh my G-d" - here I am having sympathy for a guy who is doing something against the Ten Commanmends. Basically, G-d tells me one thing, and the producers of this movie have me feeling another thing! She picked herself up in middle of the film, and never walked into a theater again!

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: this was true 40 years ago - imagine how it is today. The movies are a lot worse - more of the movies, and more of each thing inside the movie is against what Hashem's says in the Torah. You see people killing, stealing, lobster, sex, immodesty, afairs, cheating etc. etc. and what is worse, in many of the movies the people doing all these things against the Torah are the hero of the movie, which means they become the hero of the person watching the movie

Josh: ok

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: so on one side you have G-d, the creator of all the universe, saying Chaim (pretend that is his name), Chaim, I have a special mission for you, no one else in the world can do it, I need you to do it. On the other side, you have some actor who is doing everything against what G-d said, and by watching it, you are sort of saying G-d, I don't care if you need me, I don't want you, i want this immoral junk instead!

Josh: ok this is all way good how do i copy it and paste it

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: when you are ready to leave press the quit button (not the X) and you will have a choice to have this emailed to you

Josh: so wut can i tell him about music

Josh: i tried to tell him that not only r we trying to b different but the messages that their music gives off is not for a good jewish boy so on and so on

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: Music is a more refined issue. When you watch a moive you see exactly what message you are getting (although you don't always realize at the time how much it is affecting you). Music is more sneaky

Josh: ok

Josh: but it seems he has a more of an issue of not being able to not listen to non jewish music then he does w/ watching moveis

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: there are two issues with music. 1) lyrics that (like the movies) are against what Hashem teaches in the Torah -- they are immodest, they preach forbidden things, some times they are violent etc. So those are obviously not good

Josh: ok thats wut i told him and he said to me that it's not like im doing wut they say

Josh: just listening to it

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: "just listening" is a big problem. Because we are not robots, and what we see and hear DOES influence us. It is no secret why American youngsters today reflect all the garbage of the hip hop world -- because they listen to all the garbage of the hip hop world!

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: and that is where 2) comes in. 2) Music comes from the soul. It is a lot more powerful than words. It comes from deep within someone. It also goes deep within to the person who hears it, without him even knowing

Josh: thats wut i hve to tell him

Josh: cuz i think in the past he has gone to other ppl who havent told him the real anwsers who didnt research so really i didnt want to give him the wrong info

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: ok

Josh: so i didnt really knw where to turn to get the right anwsers so i turned here thinking i would get some mean rabbi and id didnt thank gd

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: and that is why music is sneaky -- becaus a message from the soul of the composer goes straight into your soul -- without you or he even knowing about it. So do you really want some druggie or even some other dude, sending messages from his soul directly into yours?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: I mean that is like having a hacker send a virus from his computer into yours, without you even knowing about it. And then suddenly one day you wake up, and all your files are completely messed up, and you wonder why!

Josh: wow thats a pretty cool way to explain it

Josh: any other good tips for me

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: My favorite tip is to keep busy with good things. When we are bored we have time to be tempted by the movies and music and all other stuff -- and believe me, I know how tempting it is! So the real answer is to be totally occupied, in mind heart and action, with doing good things, and then we don't have to worry about how to refrain from doing the wrong thing

Josh: i think i will try to turn him over to u guys at askmoses

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: that would be a good idea to turn him over to us - hopefully we could turn him over to someone he can talk to live and in person, that is the best

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: I have to go now -- so let's work with this for now, and we'll talk again another time :-)

Josh: k cool

Josh: u do amazing things

Josh: thank u so mcuh

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: my pleasure