The Bobover Rebbe visited Machane Kerem Shlomo,, where the talmidim are spending their summer break.
The Rebbe tested the talmidim, and after Shacharis he conducted a ‘l’chaim tish’ in honor of Rosh Chodesh Elul. In his address he bashed the use of unfiltered technology.
He reminded the participants of the takonos that were established on Rosh Chodesh Av when he verbally attacked those people who indiscriminately use unfiltered phones.
He added that the majority of the avreichim have begun to use filtered and supervised phones. he related that hundredsof avreichim gave up the use of their smartphones, and strongly requested that others should follow suit.
“Be aware of the catastrophic effects of the smart phone. It is not a smartphone, rather a “shmad phone!” said the Rebbe. “The use of the smartphone has brought ruin and wreaked havoc within families,” he concluded.
Who invented that slogan? What has shmad to do with a smartphone? Not every rhyme has reason, I guess. This is notwithstanding all the Bobov twitterists.
Filter your yungeleits’ brains and the smartphones will be safe.
In Smartphone the ‘r’ is pretty silent, hence: shmtphone שמד-פון.
It has nothing to with “your yungeleits’ brains”. Sadly so many smart yungeleit and smart young women from all sectors are OTD, thanks to the Shmtphone and Internet.
Is there a Rebbe race for the technology bashing mode? So how do these posts get on the internet (I don’t care what you write about me just spell my name correctly?? or move that soda bottle out of the way when you take my picture..)
Is Yiddishkeit and Torah a massive failure? Torah stopped working? Technology is stronger than all the years of learning and performing mitzvos? Something is drastucally wrong if so. Start a cheshbon nefesh where everybody went wrong.
One itty bitty cellphone (and I don’t care what it has or doesn’t have in it) cancels out all a guy was brought up with at home and in yeshiva? Something stinks. Think about it.
Yankel, the Torah commands each and every one of us “Velo sosuru achrei levavchem ve’achrei eineichem”. This severe problem always existed and the solution is not to filter your mind but to keep huge distances away from shmutz, as Chazal say “harchek min hakiyur umin hadomeh lo (distance yourself from anything resembling repulsive behavior)”. In the past the nisyonos weren’t so close to home. A religious Jew would be embarrassed to walk into a store that sells such stuff or to walk into a theater to see obscene repulsive things. However today the yetzer hara out”Smart”ed his customers with his “Smart”phone bringing these nisyonos straight into your home and nobody in the world would know about it and the embarrassment barrier would not exist.
Chazal in Brachos (32a) use the phrase “Ma yaaseh haben velo yecheto” in relation to a father dressing up his child, adorning him with nice jewelry and putting him in front of an immoral place. What should prevent the son from committing immoral acts?
Think about it.
“not to filter your mind” as Copywriter wrote but…
Wanted to end with “Now you understand.” instead of Think about it.
Who messed around with the layout on this site?
Getting back on topic: a smartphone is not in the category of “lo sosuru.” It is not kiuyr. The person misusing it is the problem. It is not evil, it can be used for evil. It can also be used for good, and much good. The person who owns one is in control. A phone is a phone is a phone. If every bochur/ avreich/ whoever, is being choished of doing evil then we are in very bad shape.
Is there no one out there who can use a smartphone to get where he has to without being farblundget, check his mail, the weather, and text messages and close it when he’s done? Are all frum men fardorben ad keday kach? Everything in Yiddishkeit has boundaries and limitations. Every mitzvah has its size shape, time limit etc. from korbonos to tefillin to tzedoko. We are a disciplined folk. And we all lost it collectively? I don’t buy into this. If it’s true it’s very scary.
There are grey areas in life where it is up to the individual to exert his sense of propriety and make the right choices. Boys and men have been trained for 20-30 years to face the world and its challenges, and you say that it all flunked. We are all incapable of switching off a phone when we are done. If I were you,I would declare bankruptcy, something like the Emperor’s new clothes. The more I surf on these sites the more I am sure that this chinuch is in the dumps. And I’ii tell you a secret. The same guys you can’t trust with a smartphone, you couldn’t trust before they were invented. It’s not the phone.
A smartphone is a grey area. Teach kids to “just say no”, from day one, concentrate on the asey tov,and keep an eye out.
Yankel, according to your philosophy a heavy person should not go on a diet. He should just control himself with a strong willpower to eat only healthy foods with a limit. Why then do we see so many people who don’t do it when they know it’s hazardous to their health? They begin dieting and fall through and become heavier than before. Is this proof that the education they got from their parents, teachers and doctors all failed? No. It just means that the appetite overpowers their self-control.
The Torah education is fine and did not fail and is not failing. Nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s just a lack of self-control if the nisyonos which didn’t exist before are in front of our eyes. That’s it. It’s like the overweight person who sees cream-puffs. Go tell him to control himself.
Chazal reveal the Torah approach to such situations in general. Chazal say that a nazir who’s prohibited to drink wine should keep distance from a vineyard and make a detour in order not to bring himself into nisyonos.
Smoking was accepted for generations. When the doctors realized that it’s fatal to a person’s health the policy changed and the governments required stern warnings to be printed on every cigarette box. Today the spiritual doctors are Gedolei Yisroel. When they evaluated that these Smartphones are fatal to our neshomos, they came up with the same severe warning that it’s a Shmadphone.
A big y’rei Shomayim related that while walking on the street he was nichshal with an improper sight and feels a stain on his neshomo. His friend replied that he doesn’t understand what he’s talking about since he constantly walks the same route, looks around here and there and doesn’t feel that it effected his neshomo.
A godol explained the difference between these 2 individuals. It is similar to a person who got a tiny touch from a pointy needle and instantly felt a sting. While the other person was touched by a hammer and didn’t feel anything. The y’rei Shomayim who’s so particular about his shemiras eynayim felt a prick from a tiny improper view. Whereas the other person, since he’s so megusham and sees it all the time, he doesn’t feel it has a negative effect on his neshomo. Boys/girls coming from chareidi schools where they are taught and monitored to stay holy, any small deviation or small nisoyon can have a huge effect.
According to your way of thinking, prohibiting Smartphones proves a failure of yeshiva education. Even if we’ll assume you’re right. What do you suggest? They should rather be educated in public schools?
I’ll be brief. About dieting: we would call it something positive as in healthy eating habits. Diets can be (and are- see cream puffs) broken. Healthy habits are a positive approach. It’s a mindset. Same with smoking, although that’s a bit more difficult. It’s a matter of mind over matter – and our brains are above our other body parts for a reason. And if we can’t act in kind, we are glorified beheimos with their brains on one level with the rest of their bodies.
Here’s a scenario from pre cellphone days. I was personally involved in this story. Two young girls attended a cousin’s chasene in Yerushalayim, and were going home with a family member, who decided to detour to the Kosel on the way home. AT THE KOSEL(!!!) two yeshiva boys followed them and one slipped one of the girls a piece of paper with a phone number. Young, daring and adventurous, one of them called the number. It was the yeshiva’s public phone!!! B”H the parents found out and it was nipped in the bud. No smartphone needed.
So should the parents have burned down the yeshiva? Smashed the public phone? Banned the Kosel? What they did was elevate the girls to their true roles as bnos Melech, give them pride (and tips to smell out trouble.)
Apropos your two yirei shomayim, one should have enough positive material (mishnayos baal peh etc.) in his head to be occupied with good thoughts and he won’t notice anything.
Who am I to suggest anything- but one thing I know and it’s a fact. The minute you ban anything, it becomes the most popular item. This negativity has a boomerang effect. If you knew the inside story, you would know that the whole negative campaign hasn’t done a thing (maybe just added new jokes and sarcasm).
“However today the yetzer hara out”Smart”ed his customers with his “Smart”phone bringing these nisyonos straight into your home and nobody in the world would know about it and the embarrassment barrier would not exist.”
NOBODY IN THE WORLD??!! How about והנה ה’ ניצב עליו ומלוא כל הארץ כבודו ומביט עליו ובוחן כליות ולב אם עובדו כראוי.
Every three year old worth his Telma cornflakes could proclaim this by heart. And grown men, yeshiva guys, zeidys etc. don’t know or absorb the meaning of this? And so they allow themselves to sin with their smartphones cause no one is watching/ Scary! Tear kriyah, judaism as you know it is dead.
Following your train of thought, smartphone monkey business isn’t the only sin you can do in private. There’s lots of stuff- from Shabbos to kashrus to TH”M and continue down the line. As a matter of fact, one could look so holy moly in his shmoineh or less begodim and doing who knows what when “Nobody in the world” is looking.
And for the icing on the cake, same Bobover Rebbe who coined that historic term, made positive use of modern technology when he blessed a chossid with ALS via Skype, while standing near him. I have seen it done before, but not by someone who spoke harshly about technology. So he used Skype, it was posted on youtube, and his other news is released for publication on the web. For Jimmy Carter to see, r goyim in Nigeria? Get real.
Yankel, please see the gemara in Yoma 69b, where the anshei knesses hagedolah prayed for the abolishment of the yetzer hora of avodah zara & aroyos. Surely, these were from the greatest men klal yisroel ever had & yet these 2 yetzer hora’s had such a profound effect on their generation that they did what they could to be mevatel them. In this generation, which is so much later & weaker than the generation of the AKH”G, we have the yetzer hora of technology. Anyone who knows anything about it, knows how addictive/destructive it can be. While for the most part, Torah education & training helps in making the right choices, it’s still not 100%. Just seeing how many people out there text while driving even though it’s dangerous, attest to its addictiveness. Minimizing our use of these technologies should be part of our chinuch in an effort to remain an Am Kodesh!
Try this as an antidote: I – add name- am the son of the King (and as the Baal Shem Tov said every Yid is beloved to the Oibishter as an only child born to his parents in their old age). It is beneath my dignity to stoop so low as to fool around with negative things. I am royalty, and royalty is involved with gold, silver and diamonds. Es past nisht far a ben Melech.
Even a midah as gaavah can be used for kedusha
Waiting to hear from a Godol, R”Y, Admor, Baba, clairvoyant etc. that the rockets and the Iron dome are because of the whatsapp, email, google glasses, smartphone…
אחכה לו בכל יום שיבא