Television Programming Director Awaits "Jewish Laws of TV"

"Media should be like medicine," says colorful Udi Lyon. "Just like some rabbis are doctors, we need some rabbis who also studied media in depth."

Udi Lyon, 52, directs the Keshet national television company's special programming department - but that does not begin to describe him.  He is also a student of the Merkaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, married to a left-wing secular woman, responsible for several nationally successful TV series, a strong opponent of the Disengagement, the employer of an Arab secretary as part of his campaign to promote minorities, son of a religious father and secular mother, and one who says about himself, "I don't do anything until I check to see if it's G-d's will."

His dream? "I want to build a media kollel [rabbinical seminary for married students] for genuine top-notch Torah scholars; they will study Torah half the day, working on media issues from the standpoint of Torah and Jewish law, and will study cinema and media the other half of the day."

"I know that I am deep in the 49 levels of impurity, but I'm trying to climb up to the 46th level"

Hagit Rotenberg of Arutz-7's weekly B'Sheva newspaper visited with Lyon in his office/studio.  A sampling of what he had to say:

• "The worst problem with television is the passiveness.  This is the mother of all sin, the opposite of Judaism.  You just accept whatever they give you, without choosing."
  
  
• "As long as the religious public does not totally remove televisions from their homes, the way to deal with the situation is to use video and to select which programs you want to have taped for you.  But in the current situation, the rabbis say it's better not to watch at all, and those who still watch are just left to watching whatever programs the secular channels give them.  I would like the rabbis to compose a Jewish Law book for television, governing how, what, how much, and when to watch."
  
  
• "If you assume that all the secular Jews will become observant in the next five minutes, then the question is a good one.  But I assume that in the near future the secular public will remain secular, and therefore I ask myself: What are they to watch? I would rather give them five minutes of spirituality on Friday night than totally abandon them.... I have a responsibility for all of Israel, and I deal mostly with the general [secular] public.  If I can cause them to think about spiritual matters instead of the stuff they would otherwise watch, then I have saved a soul."
  
  
• "The commandment to ensure that the Land of Israel does not lie desolate and abandoned applies here as well, for the television also has territory - an entire room in many houses. We are not allowed to abandon it, even on the Sabbath. If I could, I would broadcast the entire Sabbath."
  
  
• "I have no place to eat in this building; the cafeteria is not kosher."
  
  
• "I know that I am deep in the 49 levels of impurity, but I am trying to climb up to the 46th level...  Aside from police agents implanted in the underworld, I am in the deepest place in terms of impurity - but I feel that I'm on a mission.  As such, I cannot relate to every Halakhic prohibition, unfortunately - even though, essentially, I very much believe in these prohibitions: As the Sages say, G-d wanted to cleanse Israel and therefore gave them Torah and its commandments..."
  
  
• "On the one hand, just like a doctor may touch his patient, here too, the actor is merely doing a professional act, and it is certainly not in private. On the other hand, the actor must employ emotion as part of his acting - and also, it's questionable whether the whole thing is considered 'necessary.'  In order to provide the answers, we need rabbis who understand the significance of drama and cinema and will be able to say whether it's important.  Today, they just say it's not important... It has to be understood what an actor does; maybe we have to think of another method of acting..."
  
  
• "There is a [Talmudic] tractate that has yet to be written, and that is Tractate Media.  It must be a real clarification of what the media is, how it must work, what is permitted and what is not. Aside from whether or not to buy a newspaper, the Torah is barely applied to these types of questions.  Our forefathers never envisioned the current media situation; it's a totally new reality that requires a Halakhic breakthrough."
  
  
• "The theory of censorship is right in principle, until you get to the question of who decides - and then you're in trouble...  But if there is a real Torah clarification of these issues, out of genuine Jewish education, then even the secular public - they won't observe the Halakhah [Jewish Law], but they will follow us.  We can lead a real spiritual process."
  
  
• "Our approach to the ger, the stranger and foreigner, is a thread that runs throughout the Torah. I am talking only about Arabs who are loyal to the State; those who aren't, we must be very tough with.  But we, who have experience in being strangers, cannot understand the plight of the Arabs? This is not a simple test that G-d has placed before us.  I'm talking about truly loving the foreigner, as the Torah says, and to really accept him."
  
  
• [Why haven't religious Jews, such as the graduates of the religious film school Maaleh, succeeded in making many full-length films?]  "You have to be ready to make terrible sacrifices.  People who make movies are up at 3-4 in the morning; they are real matmidim [a term describing those who are constantly engaged in Torah study - ed.].  But in the religious world, there are other priorities - Torah, family... For one thing, girls who get married immediately leave the field.  And among the boys, only a few of them come to really learn cinema... The single girls who are busy making movies - this is a problem for me, because I think that family comes first."
  
  
• "Maaleh graduates are now filling news editing slots.  They chose to do this because it is safer economically, and it opened the doors to other religious reporters such as Amit Segal and Sivan Rahav-Meir.  Moti Shklar, in his capacity as Director of the Second Broadcasting Authority, created a climate for more religious people to enter, as did Uri Orbach in Army Radio."