Reply To: Rav Avigdor Miller

Avi K. – I am just quoting from Rav Avigdor Miller, so I don’t know what type of movies he was referring to. I would tend to assume that he would say there is a problem to some extent with any movies, but that there is no comparison between one category of movie and another.

I am not an expert on movies, although I have seen a few in my life, but from my knowledge of movies, I think that most movies, even Disney movies, are likely to have some pritzus. Even if there is a movie without pritzus, there is still the issue of hashpa’a from the goyim, and there are always subtle hashkafic messages given over that are likely to be k’neged haTorah.

Our purpose in life is to serve Hashem and we want to try to make sure that everything we do is L’shem Shamayim, and we also want to try to live lives that are “kulo Torah” without any outside influences. As a general rule, watching movies is going to detract from that.

That being said, each person has to know himself and what his needs are. And if someone feels that he really needs to watch a movie in order to relax and he is able to find a movie without pritzus or kefira, maybe that is what he needs to do.

But as a general rule, someone who is striving to be an Oveid Hashem should probably try to avoid movies.