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The reason for this drastic rule is obvious, the cell phone phenomena has gotten way out of hand and has minimized the kedusha of our sacred institutions.
Prior to cell phones, the wife might call the hall phone and remind her husband to bring home some milk. It was an annoyance for the husband and his chavrusa but not for the entire shul population.
Can you even imagine that people would text on their phones during davening; which means that they are answering a text just received. The same goes for during learning.
Have other Rabbonim or learning centers initiated similar bans?
Jax, say what?
Duck tape is Silver!
DUCT TAPE! (i should go learn some spelling!)
Joseph: “Silence is golden and duct tape is silver”…I’m guessing Jax means over someones mouth or something. Just conjecturing here.
NY Mom: I think you’re reading more into it than what Jax intended (although far be it for me to know what’s in Jax’s mind). I think he was just trying to say one is gold and the other is silver and that’s that. But I could be wrong.
I never heard of this phenomenon–cell phones in the bet medrash. Turning them off seems only common sense. Israel is a cell-phone heavy society, and our shuls are very informal–but I have never heard a cell phone go off where I daven or learn.
University laboratories, lecture halls, and libraries have no-cell-phone rules. Cell phones in a Shul or Bet Medrash? And they need a Rav to tell them that this is unacceptable? I agree with Joseph–this is not drastic- call it a reminder of derech eretz.
starwolf, you obviously haven’t been around much. I live in brooklyn and almost every minyan i daven at a loud ringer rings during davening, THIS IS CRAZY!!
Also, many shuls may have the sign but the rule is usually broken.
I think I read somewhere (wikipedia?) that duct tape was “invented” by or for the Navy and it actually was called duck tape, because of its durability in water perhaps.
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The origin of the term “duct tape” is the subject of some disagreement.
One view[17] is that it was called “duck tape” by WWII soldiers either because it resembled strips of cotton duck or because the waterproof quality of the tape contributed to the name, by analogy to the water-shedding quality of a duck’s plumage. Under this view, soldiers returning home from the war found uses for duck tape around the house, where tents were forgotten and ductwork needed sealing, not ammunition cases. Other proponents of this view point to older references to non-adhesive cotton duck tape used in Venetian blinds, suggesting that the name was carried over to the adhesive product. The Oxford English Dictionary says that perhaps “duct tape” was originally “duck tape”. This view is summarized most notably in a New York Times article by etymologist William Safire in March 2003. Safire cites use of the term “cotton duck tape” in a 1945 advertisement for surplus government property.[18] The Oxford English Dictionary gives a 1902 quotation for “100,000 yards of cotton duck tape” being used to protect the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge.[19] Thus a fabric duck tape was available to which an adhesive could have been added.
The other view is that “duct tape” is the original term, since there are many documented uses of that term which pre-date all documented uses of the term “duck tape” for the adhesive-backed product, and that there is no written evidence supporting the WWII story.[20] Some proponents of this view accept the idea that there was an earlier non-adhesive “duck tape”, but claim that people have just confused the similar pronunciation of two similar but unrelated products through the process of elision, and that the rest of the “duck” etymology is folklore or fabrication. This view was summarized most notably in a Boston Globe article by etymologist Jan Freeman, also in March 2003.[21]
In any case, whether it is an error or a preservation of the original usage, the term “duck tape” is sometimes used for the product today.[22] Duck Tape is also a brand name for this product in some countries.
–wikipedia–
So Jax didn’t do so bad afterall!
i once saw a kid texting while he was in middle of shemoneh esreh!
😉 goody613, the kid was probably trying to remove any ambiguities in his request as the Malach carries it up to the Kisai Hakavod. One would not want his request mixed up in the translation.
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i once saw a kid texting while he was in middle of shemoneh esreh!
To be fair, are you sure he was texting… or perhaps simply advancing to the next page of the davening on his BlackBerry?
The Wolf (who *always* keeps his phone on vibrate and therefore never has to worry about distrubing others with a loud ring).
wolf
I recently saw someone (an adult with a beard and black hat) texting (b’li safek), and not answering, during Kaddish. Could be an emergency I suppose.
Mod,
Oh — I agree that that sort of thing happens. I was just wondering about the specific instance.
The Wolf
I know. I was thinking you might very well be right. I wasn’t being facetious
and FACETIOUS means??
I dont really know exactly. To my mind it is kind of like sarcastic but with milder overtones.
I looked it up also wolf but the definition didn’t seem quite right to me. How would you define it, in other words how do you personally use the word
One day, when the Rabbi got up to speak between Mincha and Maariv, someone in my shul took out a piece of paper and handed it to the guy next to him. It read, “This is an important text message”.
Side note: I once heard that ‘facetious’ is the only word in the English language that contains all of the vowels in order.
And in my Yeshiva they have a rule that cell phones cannot be “seen” in the Bais Medrash. It goes without saying that they shouldn’t be ringing (I almost always keep mine on vibrate) but they also cause a lot of bittul Torah when people are constantly checking text messages and answering calls. People think twice about answering now that it requires walking out of the Bais Medrash.
I use facetious and sarcastic in a similar way.
To say something you hold clearly isn’t true, maybe even the opposite, often exaggerated, in a manner that you intend it to be clear that you mean the opposite or something different.
Like if you see someone having trouble lifting a light load and you say: “You must be Mr. Universe.” That to me would be sarcastic.
Facetious to me would be something similar but without implied negative tones perhaps.
Two words I guess I use loosely perhaps incorrectly, but most people would probably understand my meaning quite well
chofetz chaim, they made that a strict rule in my yeshiva this year too.
Is this a vocabulary thread? lol
hee hee! 😛
I heard of someone who was in a shul, and was wondering why there was a delay in the middle of layning. He was told the ba’al koreh answered his cell phone. Obviously not Wolfishmusings’s shul.
mazca: Great idea! What the CR needs is a vocabulary thread. Would you like to start one?
haifagirl: No Way! no one’s that bad!
I heard the story from a repuatable source. I don’t remember where the shul was. I think someplace in NY. (That narrows it down, right?)
I have heard stories where the Ba’al Koreh or Chazzan got a Hatzalah call
I think that cell phones ought to be banned outright.
Mod-80, regarding your use of the word “facetious”, this quote seems appropriate here: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
mosherose,
I agree. Regular phones too.
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