Guard Your Eyes

GuardUrEyes
A website for Jews struggling to maintain their moral purity in today's world
  GUE Home New Website Forum Email List Stories Tips Hotline 12 Steps Filters Links FAQ Help Us Kosher Isle Contact  

Jewish Rabbis from Across the Religious Spectrum Speak Out
Click here for more from hareidi.org

"There is an international scourge attacking the Jewish People: this is the widespread addiction of men to pornography. This scourge threatens to tear apart the fabric of Jewish life. This addiction has spared no class of Jews: from teenagers to kollel members, from office workers to rabbis, and from single to married men. "Guard Your Eyes" has successfully helped to wean hundreds, if not thousands, from pornographic addiction. "Guard Your Eyes" is worthy of the encouragement and financial support of every Jew."

 

Rav Aharon Feldman, Member of the Mo’etzes Gedolei HaTorah of America

 


 

"I doubt that at any time in our history has there been as grave a threat to the morality of our people and to the stability of the Jewish family as the plague of addiction to internet pornography. It has ruined more marriages than anything. It has ruined families. It's been terribly destructive. The "Guard Your Eyes" website is saving lives and families. Much more can be done to extend this invaluable program, but support is necessary to allow its continuing function and expansion.  Supporting this life-saving cause is a great mitzvah."

 

Rabbi Abraham J. Twersky, MD

(Click here to listen to a short 4 min. audio clip from Rabbi Twerski)

 


 

"I'm quite aware of what's going on in Klal Yisrael; and I will still say, that this is the single, biggest problem facing us today - bar none. It's completely out of control. Not a week goes by that I don’t have to deal with a Shalom Bayis Problem or a problem in Chinuch Habanim or Banos, or a very fine Bochur who will call me up – or at least what is left of a very fine bochur – calls me up crying, begging for help. There is nobody that can claim that either they’re not affected, or a family member, or a neighbor, or the chaver sitting next to them in shul, or the chavrusah sitting across from them in yeshiva. If you discounted it until now, you’re gonna have to take my word for it when I say that there is no single problem facing the yechidim in klal Yisrael and communities at large, there is no bigger problem than this. There’s a Chov Kadosh to do something now before there’s no semblance of Kedusha left in Klal Yisrael. And I don’t say that lightly. Keep in mind, the people who come to me are so frum and so upset about what’s going on, that they’re willing to talk to their Rav. That means that there are thousands of people who would never even speak to their Rav. I hate to sound pessimistic – but if you have unrestricted internet in the house – internet that is not both filtered and reported, I would say there’s a higher than then 90% chance that people have already been Nichshal in your house. And if it hasn’t happened yet, there’s more than 90% chance it will happen. And if it’s not happening at home, it’s happening in the office."

 

Rav Yosef Veiner, Agudas Yisrael Flatbush

(Click here to listen to a short 4 min. audio clip from Rav Yosef Veiner)

 


 

Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira  (taken from this article at Arutz 7)

Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, Dean of the prestigious Ramat Gan Yeshiva, maintains that the temptation is so great to look at forbidden material that a person should not sit down at a computer alone.

"Being open-minded and on the cutting edge of technology has a certain value," admits Rabbi Shapira. "But let's be honest: would anyone bring a prostitute into his home to tutor his children even if she were a talented math teacher?"

Rabbi Shapira recommends avoiding the internet except 1) for work and 2) with a content filter installed. "And like the laws of yichud, never use the internet while alone in the room," he adds.

 


 

Click here for a powerful article from the Mishpacha Magazine, Feb 2010, where they interviewed Dr. Phillip Rosenthal about the dangers of the internet and practical solutions. (Our work is mentioned in this article as well).


 

"You have no idea as to what category of people have fallen victim to internet pornography. We would not think that these type of people would be capable of it. Hopefully nobody who’s a Yirei Shamayim is going to go look for that kind of trash and that kind of filth. However, it is perfectly possible that while monkeying around with the internet, you hit a button and there’s a pop-up of a pornography scene. You weren’t looking for it, but it happened. You have exactly 3/10ths of a second to turn it off. And if you avoid it for 4/10ths of a second, you may become addicted. That’s how severe it is. It's one of the most powerful addictions. Day after day after day - I get letters and calls from people who say, "what can I do to save myself?" because they have fallen into the pornography addiction and it has taken them all the way down. It has ruined more marriages than anything, ruined families. It's been terribly destructive."

 

Rabbi Abraham J. Twersky, MD

 


The renowned Rabbinic leader Rav Shmuel HaLevy Vozner issued a Jewish legal ruling forbidding males to surf the internet in a room alone (without a fool-proof filter).



Rabbi Elisha Aviner

Rabbi Elisha Aviner, one of Israel’s foremost authorities on high-school education, gives lectures to parents and teachers all around the country. “There is absolutely no excuse not to have an internet surfing filter on one’s home computer,” he tells parents. “Not to do so is to violate the commandment, “Thou shall not put a stumbling block in front of a blind man.”


Beitar Ilit, one of the most ultra-Orthodox cities in the world, bans open internet use claiming that “Fifty percent of the problems in the city – sholom bayis and chinuch habonim – stem from the Internet. There is a hidden blaze in the city. An atom bomb underneath the city". If this can be said of Betar, how much more so this must be true in less religiously strict cities!


Internet Warning at Yeshiva Darchei Torah

May 14, 2008

From www.theyeshivaworld.com (Click here for the full Article)

A warning about the dangers of unfettered access to the Internet through computers and cellular phones was delivered to hundreds of Yeshiva Darchei Torah parents Monday night by Rabbi Yaakov Bender Shlita, the Rosh Hayeshiva.

The yeshiva is not known for shying away from modern educational tools and methods - and is even notable for the businesslike manner in which it conducts activities such as large meetings and fundraising - but Rabbi Bender used an uncharacteristically lengthy hour-long address to deliver a firmly anti-Internet message.

He went so far as to say that no home ought to have Internet access without the approval and guidance of one’s rav or rebbe.

That would appear to echo a no-Internet policy introduced in Lakewood, N.J.’s yeshiva community several years ago.

No specific incident precipitated Rabbi Bender’s remarks, Mr. Benoliel said, though he did relate a few horror stories during his speech.

In bringing up what he considers to be a very serious problem, he “stated that the dangers inherent in modern technology may be the greatest threat faced by the Jewish People in its history,”. Rabbi Bender was prepared with suggested solutions. Technical experts were on hand, and literature was available to advise parents about Internet filters and even “kosher phones” in which all features are disabled except telephone service and voicemail. No text messaging; no Internet access.

Yeshiva administrators spent days making phone calls urging parents to attend. In the end, 600 people showed up, a very good turnout.


Click here to see what the renowned Rabbi Twerski has to say on internet addiction.


Tzvi Fishman, founder of JewishSexuality.com

“The problem of pornography on the Internet caught everyone by surprise,” Fishman maintains. “Especially among the modern Orthodox Jews in America and the religious-Zionist community in Israel where computers with Internet are a fixture in a majority of homes. Gradually, parents were shocked to discover what their children were viewing while they were away. And plenty of religious kids have discovered long lists of adult sites in their father’s viewing history.”

Tzvi Fishman adds that his site's Forum receives lots of frightening true confessions, along with appeals for advice on how to overcome the urge. “The addiction to Internet pornography leads people into a lifestyle of lying and deception,” he says. “Many people are riddled with guilt, but don’t know how to stop. Young boys describe how they have become loners, trapped in the web of their terrible secret, and husbands write how their addiction has destroyed their relationships with their wives.”

“But if a person truly wants to stop, he or she can,” Fishman asserts. “Just as Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous have long records of success, we hope to have the same success at Pornoholics Anonymous too.”


Belzer Rebbe Shlita: Kosher Internet Only for Those who Must be Online
YWN Israel

June 10, 2008

The Belzer Rebbe Shlita on motzei Shavuos addressed his chassidim in the Grand Yerushalayim Beis Medrash, telling them that we are now in the time of “Kimu V’Kiblu” and as such, we must realize the Internet brings many “nisyanos” (challenges) to us and for those requiring connectivity to earn a livelihood, must opt for one of the kosher options available today – to distance oneself from the “open internet” and all the threats associated with it.

Addressing the khal following havdalah, a proclamation was made public, signed by all members of the Machzikei Hadas Beis Din, referring to the need to limit dangers as per the Rebbe Shlita, and to continue efforts in tandem with the Rabbinical Communications Committee which oversees kosher cellular telephones towards providing kosher internet to those whose lives demand connectivity.

A new system with a higher filtering ability is running in pilot mode to meet the needs of those who must be connected or use email, adding the Badatz is aware that the success of filtered systems to date depends greatly on the cooperation of an end-user, stressing the many dangers associated with Internet access. The rabbanim Shlita are not giving a blanket ‘hechsher’ to Internet use, explaining they are aware one cannot be ‘me’taher es ha’sheretz’ (purify the contaminated) and therefore, there is no blanket approval regarding Internet use, even filtered as it may be.

In another publication released by the Machzikei Hadas Beis Din, reference is made to those who “have no alternative” and must be connected to the Internet to earn a livelihood – urging them to change over to the new pilot filtered system which limits risks to exposure to to’eva. The badatz notice is also addressing those who just use email.


Click here for an article from Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, Rabbi of Elon Moreh on breaking free of internet pornography addiction.