Rabbi offers prayer for Web porn surfers

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 Posted: 10:07 AM EST (1507 GMT)

 JERUSALEM, Israel (Reuters) -- An Israeli rabbi has composed a prayer to help devout Jews overcome guilt after visiting porn sites while browsing the Internet.

 "Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs that disturb and ruin my work ..., so that I shall be able to cleanse myself," reads the benediction by Shlomo Eliahu, chief rabbi in the northern town of Safed.

 Eliahu, quoted by Israel's largest daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said he had responded to a deluge of queries from Orthodox Jews worried that the lure of Internet sex sites was putting family relationships at risk.

 The rabbi recommends that Jews recite the prayer when they log on to the Internet or even program it to flash up on their computer screens so they are spiritually covered whether they enter a porn site intentionally or by mistake.