Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

13 Tammuz 5765 - July 20, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

POPULAR EDITORIALS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
Rabbi Ravitz Demands Mifal Hapayis Stop Commercials Promoting Idleness

By G. Kleiman

Deputy Welfare Minister MK Avrohom Ravitz contacted the chairman of Mifal Hapayis to request that he stop television commercials calling on the public to buy lottery tickets in the hopes of winning a salary for life. In his letter to Mifal Hapayis Chairman Shimon Katzenelson, Rabbi Ravitz says the commercials indirectly encourage a life of idleness, and teach viewers to evade work.

"It is undesirable for Mifal Hapayis, which has already caused many people to form an addiction and to face various financial and personal problems, to encourage people in such a pronounced manner to stop working and to invest their energy into participating in its lotteries since there is only a slim chance they will win a prize that would permit them a life of idleness," writes Rabbi Ravitz.

"In my humble opinion this is a very problematic [commercial] and is in contradiction to the basic social values to which we are obligated. The foremost value is for people to live from the fruits of their labor. This commercial negates this, both by encouraging idleness and through the advertiser's attempt to present ways to fool an employer and to find excuses for a lack of desire to work that day. Moreover, from every perspective, even if a person receives a salary for life it is important for him to find ways to occupy himself, such as work, study or volunteering, rather than idleness simply because he won a Mifal Hapayis lottery."

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.