[Elliot Dorff]

Contemporary video games use graphics that are much more realistic than those available ten or twenty years ago.  As a result, users more easily identify with the characters in the game.  Playing most video games is fun and sometimes even educational, as long as playing such games does not take over one’s life.  What about, though, the segment of video games that are violent or discriminatory – “Grand Theft Auto,” for example.  Is it good for you to imagine yourself killing people at random, with larger numbers of points for police officers or pregnant women?  Rabbis Elliot Dorff and Joshua Hearshen wrote a responsum on exactly that question, “Violent and Defamatory Video Games,” that can be accessed on the Rabbinical Assembly website here:

videogames Dorff Hearshen Final.pdf

 

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(commentary originally appears in Text Me: Ancient Jewish Wisdom Meets Contemporary Technology)