from:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52858246/Ami-Magazine-April-6-2011-The-Impostors-Among-Us
(note that I do not necessarily endorse the rest of the essay)
Baruch SheKivanti!
The story is told that when the Telzer rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, zt”l, once found a comic book in the dorm in the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, he began crying. The person who was accompanying him downplayed the severity of the find, saying, “It’s just a comic book.”
Rabbi Bloch replied, “In Europe, the bochurim who ‘went off’ were interested in intellectual subjects. They followed communism or Zionism, and we could deal with them by reintroducing them to the intellectual world of Torah. But if they are interested in the foolishness of comic books, they are very far away from intellectual matter of any kind.”
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer הרב יוסף גבריאל בקהופר
Rav Miller on Batman
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, one of Rav Miller's students was in charge of a children's minyan in his shul. For Simchas Torah, the man had made Simchas Torah candy bags which the shul gave out to the young children. One year he included in the bags little comic books featuring Mickey Mouse, the Lone Ranger, Superman or Batman. The kids got a kick out of the books and it was a real treat for them.
Another congregant in the shul rebuked him, "How can you give these books out? Look what these kids are reading! You're causing them to sin! You should be giving out Tehillims instead!"
But the man replied, "It will be an even bigger sin if you give them Tehillims because the kids won't treat them respectfully and they'll end up in the garbage." Both men decided to ask Rav Miller what to do.
The student brought Rav Miller six comic books and Rav Miller promised to look them over. The following week he told the man, "Tell the person who said it's a sin to give these books out -- that he's wrong and it's even a mitzva. The books teach law and order to the kids by making sure the hero always overcomes the villain. The heroes even teach humility since they disguise their true identities and keep their good deeds confidential."
-- from
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5761/behaaloscha/BHLfeatures.htm
(Phil)
http://www.batwisdom.com/Reviews.html
ReplyDeleteRabbi Cary Friedman has culled quite a bit of good wisdom and values from the Batman series.
(Be that as it may, I definitely see your point!)
-Phil
http://www.projectsinai.org/event/12957
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised at the intelligence of some comic books. Comic books are merely a medium, one that can contain silliness or intellectual ideas. Many do contain intellectual ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe creators/writers of many of the superheros were Yidden (including Batman, Superman, Captain America, X-men, etc.).
ReplyDeleteBatman is totally Jewish: No turning the other cheek, pursuing the rodef, disguising good deeds, etc.