This sign was just hung up outside the home of the Gadol Hador, Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita.
The sign reads (loose translation into English):
With the Psak of Maran HaRav Shlita, it is FORBIDDEN to enter the doorway of this home with the impure iPhone or other devices – UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES – WITH NO EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE.
Whoever does not follow this rule, transgresses the sin of “stealing” and other “grave sins”.
Signed by the children with the Psak of Maran Rabeinnu.
(Dev Gefen – YWN)
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19 Responses
excellent move! if only yeshivas and shuls, wherever they are, would follow the same example.
never understood how ppl who know better can bring a shtick tumah into a makom kadosh
The guys with smartphones need his brochos more than the guys without! Sent from a smartphone.
i dont believe it sorry. he only knows what people tell him. hence this psak is based upon what they described to him what the smart phone is. so essentially its their psak not his. worthless.
If an important person would come with his cell phone rav Chaim would turn him away
It was meant as a question
The Rabbi barely knows how to work a regular phone. I doubt he would know how to work a smart phone.
Number 4 believe it. You think Rav Chaim is unaware that these devices can be filtered. He is well aware, yet his issur makes no distinction and he wants none of it near him.
Ppl like you will dismiss anything coming out of the mouth of a Godol biyisrael by saying its someone else’s psak not his..that’s a way to be mevatel Daas Torah and have no manhigim in a dor because they are out of touch tzaddikkim who are being fed info. Afra le’pumei.
It’s not gonna stop guys getting smartphones, they’ll just leave it outside his house whilst they go in. What’s the point?
To #4
Do you really believe that the Rav is clueless as to what a smart phone is?? Whether you agree or disagree with his “psak” as a matter of halacha, it is unlikely he is as naïve as you suggest and that he is being manipulated by his gabboim.
as an answer to “coffee addict” to his (sarcastic) question: yes, Rav Chaim would absolutely turn him away if he knew he was carrying in an I-Phone, no matter how “important” he claims to be! don’t forget, Rav Chaim, unlike some other (american) Rabbonim doesn’t play games or get overly impressed with these “important” people.
lbj: the phone itself is not tumah. Just like the device you used to type your reply it can be connected to tumah. The Rav of my shul has his phone with him as he receives shailos from many individuals. Personally I don’t take my phone to shul but that is my choice.
Funny. So the primary issue of an iphone or the like in proximity of Rav Kanievsky is gezel? What is Kosherphone/Tag/Asifa(tm) doing to slant this now?
I don’t know how much he knows about smartphones and filters. His psak is probably based on what his handlers whisper in his ears.
I see shuls in Israel forbidding entry with a smartphone. The real question is: Will smartphone users really give it up to be able enter shuls, or if it was strictly enforced, simply stop coming to the shul?
THE PICTURE OF THE SIGN WAS TAKEN WITH A SMARTPHONE
Rav Chaim’s son, interviewed in Mishapacha last year, was quoted as saying that Rav Chaim does not know how to use an ordinary telephone.
When he needed to do so, in order to speak one time with (I believe) Rav Elyashiv, they put the phone next to his ear and he did not understand where he was supposed to talk, nor did he understand how it works.
His son said that there were only two times in his life that Rav Chaim h
(CONT)
my point was only that the people who said Rav Chaim may not even know what an iPhone is, nor what it does, should not be criticized, as Rav Chaim’s own son said he didn’t even know how to use a Manual phone.
#4 Answer this question: Why would it be in the interest of his gaboyim to make up stories to the Gadol Hadoor? Please answer me. thnx