I own GTA4 and it's true that there are Jews in the game. But I don't think that game is antisemitic. There are no missions to "kill" Jews. I specially like the map (Liberty City/ {New York City}) and its graphic. You can do more than in GTA San Andreas.
Do more what? Crime?
It's more realistic. You can pick up stones and so on. Of course it is an "criminal" game but I think it's more tactic and a kind of "second life".
I only play one video game every night... It is called Nexuiz and it is a First Person Shooter type game in the mold of Quake III. The only 'crime' involved involves shooting opponents to death with a variety of modern weapons including Rocket Launchers, Machine Guns, laser guns, and others... I look at it as target practice which improves my hand-2-eye co-ordination... But I don't like games where you must engage in crime like prostitution, theft, or murder... According to Jewish belief it is wrong to think about crime, because it will lead to commiting crime. I think this is one reason so many young people today feel no shame cheating, stealing cds and dvds, and even posting immodest photos of themselves on facebook.
http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/http://www.neveh.org/ciner/parsha58/shoftim.htmlhttp://www.torah.org/learning/olas-shabbos/5762/tzav.html Thus, he explains, it is specifically with regard to the Olah offering that "learning its laws is as good as bringing one." Since the purpose of the Olah was to atone for impure thoughts, it is befitting that purifying one's thoughts through Torah study should stand in its stead. But for a korban whose purpose was to atone for having actually transgressed a specific sin, perhaps studying and "thinking" about it's laws is not enough. In other words: For sins of thought, it is enough to repent in one's mind. For sins of deed, one must go further...
The whole idea of a thought-sin seems almost foreign to one living in Western society. After all, what I think is no one's business but my own. We acknowledge that it is wrong to sin: The challenge of being human is to overcome one's desires and do what's right, even if we'd prefer otherwise. But thinking about sin? As long as I don't follow through, no harm done. No?
"Do not stray after your thoughts, and after your eyes..." (Bamidbar/Numbers 15:39) While present day's free-to-be attitude dictates that it's okay to think about, and talk about, and joke about sin as much as we want, as long as we know our limitations, the Torah sees things differently. "The eyes and the heart," say our Sages, "are the two 'agents' of sin: The eyes see, and the heart desires, until one ultimately goes ahead and sins. (Rashi, ibid.)"
In fact, talking about sin, and thinking about sinning, is just a devious form of acclimatization to sin. Once we've toyed with the idea long enough, and we've spoken about it with others, even in jest, it no longer seems as foreign as it once might have to take the next step - to go ahead and do it.
I will not go into details, but if you give the matter some thought, you will see that society has gone one step further. They have taken the most evil and immoral sins, and created a lexicon whereby sin no longer sounds so bad at all. Using a subtle turn-of-phrase, one can easily avoid "calling a spade a spade." Call a pig "Artiodactlya suiformes suidae sus scrofa" (it's scientific name), and it just doesn't sound like a pig anymore.
Topic: Grand Theft Auto IV video game allows killing of Jews (Video) (Read 35845 times)