A sign has recently been posted in the home of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita informing visitors one may not enter with a smartphone.
Kikar Shabbos News carries a Yiddish newspaper article from abroad which reports that Rav Kanievsky instructs a family to break a shidduch after learning the chosson, a talmid yeshiva attending a Litvish yeshiva, had a non-kosher phone in addition to a kosher one.
While the chosson was selected as being one of the top talmidim in the yeshiva, the father of the kallah learned the chosson uses a non-kosher phone during bein hazmanim and between sedarim. The father sent a family member to Rav Kanievsky asking what to do. Rav Kanievsky is quoted saying “Leave the shidduch”, adding “לא ייצאו דורות כשרים” from such a young man.
Kikar adds it probed the incident and learned it is unusual, for Rav Kanievsky will generally instruct using ‘Darchei Noam’ to have the chosson abandon the unauthorized phone rather than breaking a shidduch and if this does not work, then one may break a shidduch.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
I spoke with one of the Talmidim of HaRav kanievsky and he told me that this story is very complicated . There are many many more details to this story.
before any kalei ha’daas post c”v negative words about a kadosh hashem. rememebr the words of chazal “hizhuru bedivreyham and gachaltom gachalei eish. if anyone wants to inquire there are numerous stories of ppl who slighted stories or instructions that were stated in the name of rav chaim and what subsequently occured to those people.
i can say over a maaseh i heard firsthand. my cousin who is a son of a famous maagid shiur was last month by rav chaim along with his 7 year old son or 6 year old, and he was wearing short sleeves very short sleeves and rav chaim mentioned to the father that it was inappropriate especially for a child from bnei brak, and when they came home the father as dismissive of the guidance. when the kid woke up the next morning he for the first time had major rashes in just those areas.. the parts of his arm that had been covered were unaffected.
Has anyone really confirmed this story. There are so many inaccurate opinions attributed to the Rav its hard to know when to take these second and third-hand stories seriously. In this case, wouldn’t the kallah have some role in this decision or were her feelings simply not considered important?? Obviously, the issue of “kosher phones” is a big concern among some chareidim but this family probably has never heard about the “shidduch crisis” since they don’t have access to the internet.
Shidduch crises
And did anyone “probe” the incident to determine if it was even true. Now THAT would have been “darkei no’am”.
Google hador is infringing on Goodle hadors followers. Goodle doesn’t want competition.
This is a terrible story, and slanderous. Rav Knaievsky would never advise somone to break a shidduch because of a smartphone. There is more to this story and it is irresponsible to even post it. I am sure the secular media would have a field day with this. It also dosent give some of our youth a positive impression of our gedolim.
I was enraged after reading the trash from the yiddish paper.
PS I own a (“TREIF”) smartpohone so does my wife. My children who are in shidduchim own them and so does my son in law learning in Kollel. And we love them Lots of torah is learned ,and we even read yeshiva world on our smart phones.
I dlike to give another point of view…while I have nothing to back this up nor any reason other than my own logic…one could say he reasoning for the ravs decision is not simply that the Bachur has a non kosher phone but rather the fact that he has a kosher one during the zman and then a non kosher one being hasmanim…meaning that the character traits to be double sided is what the issue…for example if he only had a non kosher phone then the rav may say teach him whatso right and if he doesn’t respond then break it…but here it’s obvious the bochur understands what’s expected and right in his circles because he specifically doesn’t have it during the time when he believes there is rule over him…….again this is just a thought I have no idea about any of this other than I’d like to think the rav doesn’t think I’m a total shegetz cuz I have a smartphone…
Can someone explain what makes a phone “kosher” or “treif”, and does anyone in Chutz Lo’Oretz care about the distinction?
Realisticguy: very valid point!!
The issue could be about hypocrisy and the fact that we are yidden no matter if it’s bein hazemanim or if we’re in the beis medrash.
Of course, there must be more to the story…
To No. 9
The details vary among each Rav/Kollel/Chassidus but in general, a “kosher” phone is one that allows for voice calls only and doesn’t allow for any internet access or perhaps in some cases, only access to certain Applications such as mapping functions, etc. but not to social apps, email, etc.
#2’s maaseh would be more convincing if it was something he saw rather than heard.
redleg i heard the maaseh from the baal hammaseh who is a full time kollel yungerman and i can provide you his number.
RichardM.. does anyone care? how about the 30,000 ppl who own a kosher phone in the usa and the phone has an ee’shur that it is kosher and can not text or browse. this was in the hamodia in august a ful feature on this industry in the usa 30,000 strong and growing
EZ how do yu know how your son uses the phone when noone is around. i wouldnt be so proud of putting a major michshul in front of your childrens potential growth.
chazal and all our sefarim state how one should be marchik himself from chet at any cost. and if someone goes down a road that has a michshul and he can access his destination through a different road he is called a rasha in the words of chachameinu for choosing the first path even if he never commits a sin along the way.