34 Responses

1. What a statement!!!

2. How much money may one receive from government programs funding this technology?

3. For a rabbi whom people used to admire to come out and speak like this after having been accused of the worst things in the world is in a way slightly hypocritical.
   Please remove this despicable article from here . It makes me feel sick.

4. “Anyone with an iPhone … saw the worst to’eva in the world that will destroy his entire brain”

   Before you jump to the conclusion that this is an needlessly extreme statement, please consider that I turned on my smartphone today and saw a picture of Rav Berland. It seems he has a good point.

5. BH my husband has a Samsung!

6. I am bothered by several things.

   1. This guy is not above suspicion. Why are we seeking statements from him?
   2. How does he purport to know just how Hashem will punish anyone? Is he a judicial member of the Beis Din Shel Maaloh?
   3. The answer to the problems about iPhones is not the rhetoric about punishments in this world and the future. The real answer is to make Yiddishkeit something that we enjoy and cherish. That has always been the antidote for yetzer horah.
   4. There were autistic children born to Torah observant parents long before cell phones and internet. many were born to parents who were yereim and shleimim, on whom one would be guilty for accusing them of pgam anything.

   I found this posted article painful, and I completely reject it. I do not have an iPhone, and follow all the takanos of our gedolim about internet use. This article is horrible. I concur with the earlier commenter that it be removed from YWN.

7. Before the usual eiruv rav chimes in with their leytzonus (r”l), it should be pointed out that the connection between smartphones and autism has been observed by many researchers. These effects could also be seen in the bizarre wardrobe choices and mannerisms of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

8. “The Rabbi adds that one who has an iPhone, his children will be .. ”

   and shtel zech fohr someone who has one and provides one to his children as well including teenage children with high hormones, and it has no filter or the filter doesnt fool the bochur, like every bochur has in the yeshiva i teach in rachmana letzlon

9. thethinkingjew is not currently thinking.If he can say what he said recently, obviously delete from your thinking mind of whatever he has been accused for. You won’t feel sick any longer.

10. A little extreme, no?

11. with all due respect, I think this is the most stupidest thing I have heard! There are more important life events going on and things being done inside the Jewish world than this…maybe he should talk about jewish communities that commit fraud or men who do not give women a GET, and more than thinking about the I-PHONE. I assume anyone woman who holds by this thinking will be filing for a divorce soon..

12. This statement comes from a man who has been the subject of allegations of misconduct with female followers of his, which have caused him to flee from country to country, thus avoiding extradition to Israel, where a warrant for his arrest has been issued.

    I’m convinced that YW only posts stories like these to upset people tremendously. This is also known as “trolling”. Good job.

13. His words are meant for his devoted followers.

14. He is obviously very ill from all he’s been through. Maybe a Shabbos of inspiration in Colombia will make his head clearer.

15. He’s a nut. He did more toava then any one who ever had the internet. V’hamavin Yovin

16. It is a bizayone haTorah when people make up things like this. Does the gemara anywhere say that a person is punished with autistic children for sins of their father? Did this person have a nevua about this? While a silly statement like this might draw some closer to Torah and mitzvose, for most others it is merely a chucha v’itlula. People make fun of Torah for silly statements that people make up.

17. Why are

18. This sounds like a curse he is putting on people.
    Wasn’t it an illness transmitted by a mosquito that resulted in small brain development?
    I don’t recall anything in the news about an epidemic caused by iPhones.

19. Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family
    by Devra Davis
    http://www.amazon.com/Disconnect-Radiation-Industry-Protect-Family/dp/140016897X

20. I understand the person must throw away his iphone but why must the wife demand divorce. He needs to talk about other issues Jews are facing like molestation cases in hasidish communities and other worse issues.

21. Punishments

22. Why would you post the phone number? Maybe someone should tell the “rabbi” that the reason the kids were born with partial brains is because of the zika virus but then again if he had an iPhone he would know that.

23. Because some one is sooooo religious doesn’t make them correct, sometimes it just brings out the looney-tunes in them….

24. They said the same thing about the telephone. They said the same thing about the radio. They said the same thing about the TV. They said the same thing about the beepers. They said the same thing about the brick cell phones. They said the same thing about text messaging. They said the same thing about the palm pilots. In 10 years, they will be saying the same thing about self driving cars and virtual reality headsets.

    Now, the heyligah BMG has their own website.

25. #18 – why should he believe in the germ theory of disease… after all “it’s just a theory!!”

26. i’m not going to take either side…
    However,
    i can assure you that anyone who came out here wild against rabbi berland is statement is actually a smartphone addict, those smartphone addicts get so wild whenever they hear anyone speaking against the smartphones.
    Any one open minded knows the חורבנות smartphones have done already.

27. He is insane and a menace. Even if he is right (and he is NOT) why in the world would you publish a lunatic’s ravings?)

28. we must be so careful how we speak about gedolim anyone who spks against him will give din vechashbon…………….

29. What I’m trying to figure out is who got paid more Peyton Manning for saying that he is going to during a lot of Budweiser or Rabbi berland promoting android

30. **drink

31. …… abuse is ok.
    Being a fugitive taking millions of dollars for “Tzedoko” escaping round the world is ok.
    but if you have an iphone your kids will be cursed!!!

    Anyone who believes in his cult needs to recalculate their priorities.

32. This is crazy. This is from an accused rapist who fled authorities. And c”v that anyone ever thinks that a special needs child is a curse. They are nothing but brachos. YWN needs to take this post down right now. This man, I would never call him a rabbi, is a con artist and a predator. We cannot listen to such things.

33. And I’m not some smartphone addict. I agree that smartphones can be a major problem. But to say these kind of remarks are insulting and inappropriate. He is using special needs children as a curse which they are not. And pls don’t say he’s a gadol so you’ll get din in shemayim. I’m pretty sure he’s going straight to gehenim just for these comments. Every person was and is created with tzelem elokim. So don’t use it as a curse

34. Whew! Lucky I’ve got an Android then, not an iPhone.

    But seriously, I’m a bit puzzled by all this railing against smartphone specifically, as opposed to the Internet in general. Is it because of the portability of smartphones, and hence the greater ease of access to the Internet?