Popular Culture of Farmington. Hills 1111 nsters fa awls & cal04.4 AWL, ea4t.,„, • Healthy Middle Eastern Cuisine • - Juice Bar • Gift Certificates Available • Large Selection of Vegetarian Entrees • Catering For All Occasions Lunch Starts - at s3 Buy one entree ‘17 get the 2nd entree for 25% off. On The Bench The Pokemon phenomenon highlights the struggle between Jewish values and popular culture. ni O Not good with any other offer. • With coupon exp. 1/29/2000 • 1 coupon per couple. .1.1•11 11111.qiiv: um wow- avairugilifv.:::.,giw'-lumg am am Pen 7 D ays for pock & (248) 3 10 corner of Dinner ,.fax (2481 .- 324-1164 st 12 Mile Rd. :HIL, near Erowleys and Rite Aid) OP '%Location: 8207 Middlibilt (bemeen Joy & AIM Arbor Trail) Westland (734) 421-4084 111110 `-*IPMW4 • Healthy Diet Dishes Available TOTAL DINNER BILL DINE IN OR CARRY-OUT • Excludes Holidays • Expires 12-31-2000 •Compiete Catering Service For All Occasions Open 7 Days A Week 2 9 8 75 NORTHWESTERN HIGHWAY At Inkster • Applegate Square • 3 5 3 - 7 8 9 0 Former Location: 5815 Dixie Highway • Waterford GOURMET DELI "The new Cafe Dish coy Become One of Your Favorite Lunch Spots.' ! Oaklauti July 26, 1999 Kids Menu 1/7 2000 82 Sat, Sun., Mon. 7:30 4 - Tues. - Fri. 7:30-7:30 2322 Orchard Lake Rd. (where Middiebelt ends) Former L.A. Cafe (248) 738-8333 CHARLOTTE HILDEBRAND HARJO Special to the Jewish News r usajiro Yamauchi did not foresee the fuss surrounding the Pokemon phenomenon when he began manufactur- ing Japanese playing cards in Kyoto in 1889. Jump ahead to 1996, when Nintendo Co. Ltd. of Japan — whose current president is Mr. Yamauchi's great-grandson — developed a Game Boy game called "Pokemon," based on the Japanese card game "Pocket Monsters." In 1998, Nintendo introduced Pokemon for Game Boy to North America, and in January 1999 — yes, folks, it's only been one year — Wizards of the Coast licensed the Pokemon trading card game from , Nintendo for American audiences. Since the debut of the Pokemon trading card game, more than 3 mil- lion starter-sets have been sold. Now, that's a lot of pocket monsters. The phenomenon of Pokemon has taken us all by storm — concerned parents, educators, religious-school administrators, rabbis. We wonder, "How far do we go with this Pokemon craze, a craze seemingly more powerful than any- thing else in years? How much do we spend, where do we set the limits of play, and, ultimately, is this phenome- non good or bad for our children?' "The challenge with Pokemon, as with anything else," says Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, author of Children of Character: Leading your Children to Ethical Choices in Everyday Life, "is how do we incor- porate our Jewish values, handed down for thousands of years, and relate them to specific American cul- tural experiences on a day-to-day basis? I don't see them as opposite. I see them as completely compatible. Charlotte Hildebrand Harjo is a contributing writer to the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. How do we bring harmony to both? "When it comes to Pokemon, identify your own values," Reuben advises parents. "Then act based on those values. For instance, if you want to teach compassion, encour- age your children who have cards to share with those who don't; if you want to teach integrity, talk to your kids about being honest when trad- ing. Have your children ask, 'What would the world be like if everybody acts the way I am acting?' This is an important lesson to impart." Despite the lessons to be learned, the Pokemon craze has caused corn- motion in and out of classrooms in schools across the country, and now it's impacting the observance of Shabbat. "Instead of Shabbat being a time to focus on family, community, God and Torah," says Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of B'nai David Judea, children at his Los Angeles-area synagogue were focusing on trading Pokemon cards. "Children would come to shul with their backpacks full and begin negotiating, exactly the way adults buy and sell stocks the other five days of the week," Kanefsky recalls. "It was impossible to draw them out of it." He eventually sent home a letter to the parents banning Pokemon from shul. "For me it was a Shabbat issue — about there being no commercial transactions — and a distraction issue," he says. As a father of a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old, Kanefsky confesses he sees no value in the game, but he did state that Pokemon presents a wonder- ful opportunity for parents to teach the more subtle lessons of stealing. "In Leviticus, Chapter 19, Verse 14, it says you should not 'place a stumbling block before the blind,"' Kanefsky points out. In the halachic interpretation, he says, it's a figurative blindness, mean- ing you should not lead the unwary astray. In Pokemon terms, it means not taking advantage of someone's