Q:
Would watching television be permitted for old men and women in nursing homes who have no other interests anyhow?
A:
The answer is, old people in nursing homes would it be right for them to drink poison if they have nothing else to do? You have to realize that drinking poison is much more beneficial than watching television – especially for old people. A young person who watches television ruins his mind, it ruins his neshama, but still there’s some hope left. Maybe before he dies he’ll repent; maybe he’ll learn a lot of Mesillas Yesharim and erase from his mind part of what he listened to, part of what he saw. But old people just before they die, they have to purify themselves most! And if they’re going to pollute their minds in their last days, that’s what they’ll take with them into the next world. They’ll take all the arayos, all the wickedness, with them into the next world. Not because they’ll practice it. They’re too old to practice immorality. But they have it in their heads. Immorality in the head of an old man is the very worst thing.
Here’s an old man. You go to visit him in his house and he’s sitting and looking at the television. Gevald, gevald! His children are murdering him. He should say Tehillim in his last days. He should speak to Hashem in his last days. He should get busy preparing himself for the next world. If he’s reading something that’s dirty or looking at dirty magazines that his children brought in for the old folks to enjoy before they die so he’s taking all that garbage with him to the next world. Old people especially have to prepare and that’s why television for old people in the nursing homes is the very worst thing you could do to them.
TAPE # 485
