A new widely advertised cellular telephone manufactured by Samsung, sold in Israel under the “kosher line”
by the Pelephone Company seems to have a hechsher without justification.
According to a Kikar report, the Samsung phone permits making calls to “to’eva numbers” without any effort or advanced technical knowledge, yet the phone proudly displays the hechsher symbol of the Vaad HaRabbonim for Cellular Communications.
According to Kikar, the rabbonim were wise enough to block the dialing exchange to to’eva numbers, but on this model at least, if one uses ‘972’ first, as if one is dialing from N. America, the line is wide open.
This is not the first security breach in the kosher phone network. A number of weeks ago it was learned another model can be hooked into a camera, also outside the parameters of kosher phones.
As the news of this “kosher security breach”, Pelephone is reportedly removing the model from store shelves under the mehadrin label.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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4 Responses
IMHO, these desperate attempts to eliminate “stumbling blocks” to morality (and that’s what this all boils down to) will probably never succeed.
For a true Torah Jew to succeed in today’s environment, with temptation enveloping us wherever we turn, we need to heed Mitzvot,REALLY heed them, think of the consequences BEFORE we act, and develop our OWN iron will based on that.
Although the attempts are commendable, I think too many of us come to depend completely on others to police not only our deeds, but our THOUGHTS as well, thereby impeding our own development in that respect.
Whatever happened to personal accountability? I don’t answer to other men for my personal aveiros; that’s between me and the Aibishter, and if that’s so, I feel it’s through Him that I should seek aid in resisting temptation.
Just my 2 cents, but I feel if we could get back to basics,it will strengthen us all as a Nation.
Who knows, we might eventually again reach a point where we would be SHOCKED at the sort of incidents that we have today come to regard as all too common!
#1, in usa im forced completely against my will into imorality. it is rape by force and nothing else. there is no way to stay moral when there is 0% chance.
So-called ‘kosher’ cellular phones are a waste of money and an affront to the user’s personal integrity and sense of self-discipline.
If a frum phone user feels that he/she might be tempted by telephonic to’eivah then he/she should not have bought a cell phone in the first place.
I am trying not to smoke any more. In order not to be tempted I stay away from cigar stores.
Yes, and my children took my kosher sim card out of my kosher Nokia phone last week and showed me how all the “non-kosher” games could then be accessed! Pathetic!