(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)
No. This isn’t Meah Shearim. This is Monsey, NY on Erev Shabbos Nachamu.
These Chareidi extremists staged a protest outside the “Ping Cellular Store” which is a Verizon Wireless Dealer, located on Route 59, at the “Town Square Mall”, right next to the Evergreen Supermarket.
The group is upset that the establishment is selling smartphones.
A few dozen extremists were part of the protest, as a few dozens counter protesters grabbed their signs and yelled back.
Police were on the scene keeping the two groups apart.
It is not known who this group of extremists belong to.
(Charles Gross – YWN)
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35 Responses
Hey,
Everyone needs some entertainment, why do you think “extremists” don’t? I certainly had my entertainment for the day! Saudi Arabia would be a suitable place for these idiots.
maybe it’s a color war break out!
What a bunch of absolute morons. A wonderful way to spend Erev Shabbos Nachamu, right after Tisha B’Av. Ahavas Chinam at it’s finest.
I think this is not a Jewish store so it would be totally out of line but a small demonstration with signs in both Yiddish and English might help a bit
Honestly, how does this help anyone? The ones who are buying will buy anywhere with the additional distaste for people who are not acting logical.
As a monsey resident who got stuck on route 59 today because of these mamzerim, I would like to let each and every one of them know that I will NEVER EVER forgive them for the loss of my time, As far I am concerned, they can all rot in gehenoim. The absolute nerve of them to inconvenience thousands of jews who are trying to prepare for shabbos!
This is so sad. So many religious fanatics have strayed so far from the peace loving jew we are supposed to be and end up being apart of what can only be described as chasidik cults.
Chasidus is something you choose for yourself, not something you can be born into. Further, torah concepts such as eilu v’eilu and shivim panim latorah imply strongly that we are to use our own minds to think about what we do instead of relying on only what others tell us.
Sadly I would presume the “leader” behind this chasidik cult is someone to be careful from. It appears that this protesting group is nothing but drones plugged in with no individual thought. Their only belief is that they are doing pikuach nefesh on the rest of klal yisroel
If you strive to be a chasid in life then kol hakavod. Do whatever you feel that is within halachik bounds that gets you closer to hashem. Once your lifestyle choice impinges on others negatively-you need to question whether what you are doing is truly holy (as diracheha Darchei Noam requires) or just a Gaiva and sinat chinam.
If you are telling people that you are a chassid then perhaps your Gaiva needs a maintenance check.
Personally I have never heard of a person being chozer litshuva because their car was pelted by rocks on shabbos
Ok, why does everyone get so agitated?
To the moderator of Yeshivaworld.: Why all the negative articles about frum people. Yesterday was about Satmar sleepaway camp and today with this article. Why try to create divisions and just ignore for sake of achdus. I don’t agree with these people’s actions but why is there a need to highlight it?
“No. This isn’t Meah Shearim. This is Monsey, NY on Erev Shabbos Nachamu.”
You make it sound as though they did something wrong. Peaceful protest is allowed in this country. If anyone was violent, it was the counter-protesters destroying the signs. If you want to protest against the protesters, do it peacefully.
(And don’t use a dvar mitzvah like a shofar!)
To the editors of YWN: Shame on you. You claim to represent the yeshiva world but sadly you don’t. You take every opportunity to disparage anyone slightly more observant than you. Do you feel threatened or insecure with your own observance? I definitely don’t agree with the protesters (I’m writing this on my smartphone) but I think you guys provide no objectivity here. Real journalism doesn’t do this. Real journalism provides the story and lets the readers decide. Writing a sentence like the first one in this article is just plain immature. Shame on you to do such a thing on Erev Shabbos Nachamu.
@ BoysWork “I will NEVER EVER forgive them for the loss of my time, As far I am concerned, they can all rot in gehenoim.”
Wow, harsh words! You might want to rethink that if you want Hashem to go easy on you with your sins. (Unless you have none, of course. If that’s the case, please disregard my comment and I apologize for posting it.)
Go easy on them and Hashem will go easy on you. Trust me; I didn’t make this up. Have a good shabbos.
There are many halachos that are ignored here. Firstly, the protesters are causing pain and loss of parnassah. Mobs trying to destroy a business is what Sharpton did trying to destroy Jewish businesses. To the protesters: “Whatever your reasons for inflicting harm, remember that many bad things happen to Jews for the sin of sinas chinom. Instead, try a bit of ahavas yisroel. We don’t have to agree, but me must respect each other.
owning an non filtered Smartphone is prohibited by Jewish law. Men who dont filter it usually end up viewing innapropriate material. Ask any rav
I is nice to be an extremist; no thinking is involved and you can feel great about yourself too.
Unfortunately the world is more complicated than that and today some people need smartphones and they are kosher and responsible people who realize the risks involved.
Seriously YWN. Why are you reporting this? To get the people reading to hate charedim? Whenever you guys have a chance to fan the flames of sinas chinam, you guys are there…
You supporters of these sickos are as insane as these fanatics. Living in Ramat Beit Shemesh, I am glad that Monsey residents are getting a taste of what we have to put up with here. No doubt it will spread to Crown Heights, Flatbush & Williamsburg. However, I’m sure your police department & city council will deal with this nasty group, unlike here, where the police openly admitted they are afraid of these lunatics and refuse to intervene.
These thugs are on the Satmar payroll & probably are the local Neturei Karta militia on the side. However, there are things you can do. We literally slam the door in the faces of RBS Bet residents or any other creeps who come collecting. We tell them no in Hebrew, Yiddish & English to make sure they get the message. I don’t care if they are crawling in the gutter (which they aren’t, believe me, they are onto every scam & welfare benefit they can scrounge) they will not get any more money out of us.
If the outraged citizens of Money & storeowners stop giving them when they beg, either at home or in shul, they will think twice in future. After all… if the owner of the cell phone store is out of business, how can he possibly support these bums?
“owning an non filtered Smartphone is prohibited by Jewish law. Men who dont filter it usually end up viewing innapropriate material. Ask any rav”
Sorry, just because a “rav” says something is assur does not make it so. Just because a chareidi rav says something is assur does not mean actual halacha says any such thing.
Thank you whoroxthehouse and TheVoiceOfTruth for your balanced criticism
Forget all the talk about fanatics, everyone has to learn personal responsibility. Smartphones are no different to many other things the Eibishte caused to be created that He did not make ossur in the Torah. Use them properly and they are tools sent by the Eibishte for good. Use them wrongly and you have let the yetzer hora win. Non kosher animals as described in the Torah are non Kosher. Smartphones do not appear in that list.
The Voice of Truth is correct.
By the way if you would like to “bashmutz” other Jews by reporting these kind of news items at least report news professionally without inserting you own opinion. The headline did not have to have the word “Extreemists”. That is your personal opinion. A news organization needs to separate OPINION COLUMNS from NEWS COLUMNS.
People that try to simply make smartphones, or any form of technology for that matter) “assur”, are merely burying their heads in the sand. It is absolutely impossible for all frum people to simply not use these tools in this day of age. Is it possible for some people not to need it? Yes. However there is no way that all frum people could simply do away with technology, the world runs on it. Are there terrible things done with technology? Yes. There always were terrible things done, today it is more accessible. Smart people who don’t need technology try to limit its use, maybe they even stay away entirely. Smart people who live in this world apply tools such as internet filters etc. To go yelling at people that their phones are the reason for people being sick in the hospitals is downright disgusting. Further; the children of these “better than thou” people stray further than the rest many times. They see the world as black or white, nothing in between. So if they can’t be in the mikvah all day, they may as well go all the way since in their family’s eyes they’ll be a sheigitz anyway.
Taka mamash- rav Hershel schechter also said it needs to be filtered.
Really, you should only be allowed to protest a smart phone if you are smart yourself.
This recurring issue of violence by “fanatics,” etc. is really a deeper matter. YWN’s hashkafa seems to be the epitome of the American ethos of “live and let live.” Add to this the newly concocted attitudes, not sourced in the Torah BTW, that “no one is empowered to “judge” anyone else for just about anything. Unless it’s to defend the State of Israel against any and all Chareidi “assault” or insult. So, while it’s OK to be Chareidi, it’s not OK to publicize it too much, and for sure it’s not OK to protest any sort of infringement on Torah observance in the public sphere. “You guys do whatever you want, but do not dare to raise your heads and open your mouths in public.” Live your lives in your own home, yeshiva, or shteibel, but you have NO right to tell us or any other Jew what to do or not to do. “No right to judge,” “live & let live,” “your rav’s psak doesn’t obligate me,” etc. All the various American slogans, most of which are the product of am ha’artus. Due to this POV, any action(s) that is perceived not to conform to this American ideal, is unacceptable. Most MO groups, Dati Leumi groups, subscribe to this way of thinking. [The “Lehava” organization here in Israel is a notable exception; it’s also notable that they don’t get a lot of coverage on YWN.] Are they following “their da’as Torah?” Only they can answer that, although I find it ludicrous for people who barely, if at all, accept the concept of “da’as Torah” altogether.
While violence on the part of the “fanatics” is nearly always wrong and counterproductive, some people are taking this notion of “darkei no’am” to absurd lengths. As if it means no one can speak up publicly if another Jew is doing something wrong. Because, if whatever a person has decided is right — well, that’s “his” (!) da’as Torah, and how dare anyone try to contradict that. So, violence is not the Torah way; and making up one’s own piskei halacha and hiding behind “darkeii no’am” to preclude any criticism is ALSO not the Torah way.
The degree that someone (or a website) battles public outbursts of Chareidi hashkafa is probably an indicator of how Chareidi that person really is.
talmud student August 4, 2017 5:55 pm at 5:55 pm
> owning an non filtered Smartphone is prohibited by Jewish law. Men who dont filter it usually end up viewing innapropriate material. Ask any rav
Are you saying that you have a psak that non-Jews are prohibited from using a smartphone and that Jews are required to protest the actions of these non-Jews? In case you haven’t notice, guy, this is in America full of non-Jews (in fact, whole bunch more non-Jews than Jews, in case you didn’t notice) patronizing these businesses.
TheVoiceOfTruth
> You make it sound as though they did something wrong. Peaceful protest is allowed in this country. I
Eating pig is also allowed in that country. The point you are deliberately ignoring (and why is that) is that the Torah has rules on derech Eretz and rules how Jews behave in a non-Jewish environment that are no less binding and relevant than the rules on eating pig. Why is this demonstration in a non-Jewish environment against a smart phone any more intelligent (or more allowed) than a demonstration against the supermarket nearby against selling pig?
whoroxthehouse
> Why all the negative articles
TheVoiceOfTruth
> anyone slightly more observant than you
> harsh words
Are you guys really serious? So why where those who did NOT serve idols etc. punished? If you ever bothered to read the Navi (and our Talmud on it) and take it seriously, it is because those in a position to do so failed to call the miscreants to task, and were therefore put at the top of the list for punishment themselves.
These “protests” are deliberately public and disruptive, not only to Jews on Erev Shabbas who got caught in traffic, but also non-Jews rushing to their long-weekend. Just how is snarling the traffic on Jews Erev Shabbos, and non-Jews rushing to their fun, NOT an enormous Hillul Hashem aside from simply inciting non-Jewish hatred against Jews?
As someone whose job is Social Networking, I can tell you factually that plenty of them have smart phones and plenty of them are on Facebook. Like that old western song “looking for love in all the wrong places”…
ywn has an issue when it happens in meah shearim as well. chareidi lite
I would like to respond to “the voice of truth” and to “whoroxthehouse”.
To the first: You say my words are harsh: My time is valuable to me. There is ZERO chance that any one of these low lives will ask for mechila from any of the 1000s that they inconvenienced. I may not be a gaom olam, but I know that they can NEVER repay what they stole from all of us. On top of that, they are trying to take away someones livelihood. If they don’t want smartphones, kol hakavod, however, I am willing to bet that at least half of them had smartphones in their pockets. They are a bunch of lazy hypocrites who leech off the government and provide nothing useful to humanity. So, unless they all come out with a public apology to all those that they inconvenienced, I will not forgive them
To the second: You take YWN to task for printing “negative articles about frum people”. Well, let me ask you, since when do Satmar and NK behave like frum people? What they did on tisha b’av in their camp is appalling. They teach little kids to hate. Isn’t that why we lost the bais hamikdash? Stealing peoples’ time is frum? Please do not call Satmar chasidim “FRUM”; unless of course you refer to the roshei teivos “Fill rishus, Veinig Mentchlichkeit”. In that case, they are very “FRUM”.
Additionally, let me add this. I daven in a mixed minyan. We have some satmar teens who come, but never crack open a siddur or a chumash. They sit and schmooze. Some fumkeit.
Why is YWN and some others taking it so personal? If you think of them as a group of non-sense extremists why even talk about them?
You must be feeling guilty!?
Think It
Do you even realize how you sound with your “why even talk about them?” insult? The posters here are clear on the damage done to Jews on Erev Shabbos trying to prepare for Shabbos and I was very clear (and short) on the hatred this engenders by the non-Jews for inconveniencing them for no logical reason. So basically, you have de facto stated you don’t care who suffers, whether Jews or non-Jews, for their stupid behaviour just as long as you can feel superior with your attack on others. But unlike you I do take (the point of) the midrash seriously that tells us that Nebuchadnazzer was motivated to destroy the Beis Hamikdash because of the hassle she suffered from Jews as a youngster.
There are so many other people in this free country, jews and non-jews, doing so many things. No one talks about them. Why make such a big deal davka about this? Again, you must be feeling guilty?!
Little late to point out that that is a non-sequitur, but it is.