For those who are stating that it’s loshon hara to say that R’ Soloveitchik lived in an apartment which had a television, what about the loshon hara involved in accusing another poster of not telling the truth?
intellegent,
My experience was somewhat different than yours, in that while I was growing up my family did have a television, though I didn’t spend much time watching it & rarely talked about it (because I didn’t find it especially interesting). Many of my classmates who did not have televisions at home arranged to watch television at the homes of relatives or babysitting clients who did own them. One classmate arranged for her regular babysitting client to tape a soap opera she liked to watch, and shared the plot with other classmates. So to say that anyone who grew up without a television never thinks about it, while those who grew up with one do think about it, is not always the case. (Although to be fair it’s quite possible that these classmates, who likely do not have televisions now, don’t miss it either).
That said, I don’t own a television now because I don’t think it’s appropriate for myself or my family (and I don’t miss it a bit). Nevertheless, I would not condemn others to lose their share in olam haba because they own a television. I really doubt that my grandmother o”h, who moved to E”Y towards the end of her life, lost her share in olam haba because she watched the news in English on her 13″ black and white television. I don’t think that R’ Avigdor Miller meant that every single Jew who owns a television, regardless of his/ her reasons for doing so and situation in life, will have no share in olam haba. If someone could share the context in which he made that remark, I’d appreciate it.
illini07,
I agree that the “divine calculator” theory you describe sounds distinctly unJewish–in fact it sounds like a completely different religion to me.