I like statistics. Provided they are true, they help you decide more or less in an unbiased way.

I can drum up many statistics about TV. But I won’t.

Waiting for a minyan at our neighborhood synagogue I asked myself, why some people avoid the synagogue? I thought – in previous decades the synagogues were full.

What happened?

What happened? Before the center of one’s family life was the family and the synagogue. The synagogues and the Mitzvot allowed a family to connect in a positive, wholesome way.

The yetzer hara – evil inclination – said I’ll take care of that. I will replace the center of one’s family life with electronic media.

Today, walk into the average home – and the center of their life is centered around the TV.

Those who realize this will choose family over the screen. The synagogue over the social media.

In many Orthodox Jewish homes the TV is absent but family connection is not. They center around the coffee table to connect rather than having a screen that serves as an intermediary between them .