Q&A: Watching TV Series and Deriving Pleasure from Prohibitions
Watching TV Series and Deriving Pleasure from Prohibitions
Question
Lately I’ve been wondering about watching TV series and movies from a somewhat different angle than usual. Is there a problem in Jewish law with watching series, not because of modesty issues on the viewer’s side, but because of deriving pleasure from various prohibitions that the actors are violating? (Physical contact between a married woman and an unrelated man, filming on the Sabbath, and the like.)
From what I understand, the question presumably does not apply to non-Israeli films and series, since the actors are gentiles and for them there is no prohibition at all, and therefore I as the viewer am not deriving pleasure from any prohibition. So I was wondering—assuming, of course, that I am correct to begin with that there is a problem with benefiting from prohibitions in this way—whether from a halakhic standpoint it is actually preferable to watch specifically non-Israeli series.
Answer
Good question. In my opinion it is permitted, for the following reasons:
Deriving benefit from a prohibition is, simply speaking, forbidden only in cases of Sabbath desecration or from things from which benefit itself is prohibited, and even then it is permitted to others after the Sabbath. In addition, the actors probably are not considered subject to prohibitions at all, because they are not believers. Beyond that, even if there were a prohibition against benefiting from the film, the reasoning of “it is unavoidable and not intended,” which I wrote about regarding your prohibitions, could also be relevant to the prohibition of benefit.
And finally, this is not done only through a prohibition and not only for you, and they are also paid for it and act for their own purposes.
Discussion on Answer
Does someone who is on the other side of the world, to the east for example, need to wait until the end of the Sabbath in the place where the film was made, or is it enough that it is already after the Sabbath where he is?
I didn’t understand.
Haim means to ask:
If a believing Jew desecrates the Sabbath and the product of that desecration is sent to me in another country where the Sabbath has already ended (or has not yet begun), may I benefit from that product, or do I have to wait until after the Sabbath of the one who desecrated it?
The question is whether the reason one waits until after the Sabbath before using it is because I myself am forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath, or whether it is really the rule of “the amount of time it would take to do it” — that is, I wait until the time when he could have done it permissibly. It is likely the former, because if this were a rule of “the amount of time it would take to do it,” we would have to wait a bit after the Sabbath ended and would not permit it immediately. And if it is not because of “the amount of time it would take to do it,” then I can use it any time it is not the Sabbath where I am.
Thank you very much for the answer, Rabbi Michi!