As is his custom, the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Aron Teitelbaum Shlita held an Aseres Yimei Tshuva drasha on Sunday, 4 Tishrei, in the large Satmar Beis Medrash in Williamsburg. After his halachic portion of his address, the Rebbe addressed inyanei dyoma, pointing a finger at the growing number of electronic gadgetry that has invaded our day-to-day lives.
The Rebbe expressed concerns regarding parents who give their children a cellular telephone for short periods of time, possibly when they go on errands, shopping, stressing the dangers involved, even for a short period of time.
“A cellular telephone in the hands of a child is like given him a loaded gun. Would you give your child a loaded gun for just a few minutes”?
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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14 Responses
“A cellular telephone in the hands of a child is like given him a loaded gun. Would you give your child a loaded gun for just a few minutes”
That analogy is simply not accurate. A single use of a gun is fatal. A single telephone call or website “load” (assuming the phone has an internet connection) is nothing.
Of all of the precautions and exaggerations the yeshiva world takes to protect from the real dangers of technology, this statement goes overboard.
People need to stop misinforming gedolim.
A website load is nothing????? You’ve got to be kidding???
I do have a phone for myy children when they do errands( Without internet usage) Though now I seem frightened based on what the Rebbe states here?
“A cellular telephone in the hands of a child is like given him a loaded gun. Would you give your child a loaded gun for just a few minutes”? WHAT?!? I would think the exact opposite after what happened with Leiby, A”H! A cell phone could be be a lifesaver!!!
The Rebbe is right. I wish I were Satmar.
#1: A website loading is “nothing?!?!” My guess is that you are female thus you have NO CLUE about male tayvos.
#4: You don’t have to be a Satmar chosid to heed the Rebbe’s advice.
I agree with #s 1 and 3. Maybe any phone with internet on it can be dangerous, but it is not that difficult to add parental controls to a phone. My almost 13 year-old son comes home with his friends at night, on either bus, train or walking 20 minutes(because yeshiva doesn’t provide transportation home after 4th grade). I really don’t see a problem giving him a phone that has controls activated to restrict internet usage and texting, and is limited to calling and receiving calls from an approved list of numbers. I plan on letting yeshiva know he has a phone for emergencies, and I’d be very surprised if they gave me a hard time.
You don’t have to be Satmar but you do need the support of the community you are in.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with a child taking a cell phone with them when they go on shopping errands providing the phone does not have internet access. Kosher phones are available !
The main problem with taking a phone on shopping errands is that they have the phone in one hand and steer the cart with the other and cant concentrate on both
Or further to 9 they are walking in the street or crossing streets or pushing carriages and are paying attention to the telephone conversions and not looking where they are going. Everyday I see children bus driver talking on the phone [no handsfree]woman crossing streets without looking pushing baby carriages and a 2 or 3 year old holding onto the carriage because the mother’s hand is on the cellular phone and she is not looking where she is going. Also bike rider are talking and almost run over people WHY OR WHY has it become necessary to talk on the phone all the time??
To #3,
A loaded gun in the hands of Leiby might also have been a lifesaver. Would you recommend then, that parents give their kids guns??? Think before you comment please.
#11, You seem to have TOTALLY missed the boat!!! I don’t agree with the Rebbe that a cell phone is like a loaded gun!!!
To comment #1, 3 and others with a similar comment:
Just because you don’t understand it isn’t a reason to disagree with the gedolim.
You have no basis to just disregard what the gedolim are saying just because it doesn’t seem right to you.
Maybe your rabbi, gedol, rosh yeshiva wouldn’t go that far, but the gedolim are definitely against all of this “technology” and all of the problems that come with it.
So push your personal biased opinions aside… Korach also thought that he was right and that Moshe was wrong and he ended up 6 feet under…
#13, I fail to understand what is wrong with expressing our opinion?!? We value the gedolim’s opinion but we want to express ours too!!! There is such thing as a filter you know!