Burn iPhones, Haredi Rabbi Rules

A senior haredi rabbi has ruled that not only it is forbidden to own an iPhone, it is forbidden to sell or give one to a non-Jew. There, the rabbi says, you must burn them.

Updated at 7:20 pm CDT

In a teshuva (responsum), written to a business owner who claimed that owning an iPhone was “crucial for [his business] dealings” and that was published today in the haredi daily Yated Ne’eman, haredi “gadol” Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky reportedly ruled that “it is forbidden to posses” [an iPhone]. And not only can’t you own or posses an iPhone, if you have one, you must burn it. “[O]ne must burn it,” Kanievsky wrote, adding that “just as it is forbidden to sell a weapon to a non-Jew,” it is forbidden to sell (or give) a non-Jew an iPhone.

The sign posted above is now reportedly posted in synagogues in Bnei Brak where Kanievsky lives. It cites his ruling and tells readers to burn their iPhones.

[Hat Tip: Burich.]

Comments

[David]

Yeah! Burn, baby burn!

Sadly, the Halacha is that one is not meant to engage in wanton destruction. As an iPhone is an expensive and useful thing, destroying one must fall into this category.

It is also a mitzvah to get educated and conduct business to support oneself and family. I guess he missed the point that the iPhone can be used for that purpose as well.

It is becoming increasinlgy difficult to argue that the frumma are following Halacha or normative Jewish practise.

[Jack]

Burn iPhones, Haredi Rabbi Rules

Is the iPhone flammable?

[David]

Is the iPhone flammable?

Posted by: Jack | September 23, 2012 at 06:36 AM

I'm not sure of the calorific value of an iPhone (it is only the actions of the frumma which would cause such a question to be asked) but it is likely it could undergo a self-sustaining burning reaction given the energy contained within its various polymers and especially in its lithium battery.

[MarkfromShortHills]

Burning these phones is absurd. Why not ask Apple to hire rabbis to suck on them 8 days after they have been manufactured?

[Barry]

What is the Haredi take on the Android phones?

[Marc]

What is the Haredi take on the Android phones?

Posted by: Barry | September 23, 2012 at 06:53 AM

The issue of the iPhone may have to do with its integration with iCloud. The fear may be that there is some sort of deity involved and cause problems down the road.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

People who will burn phones will burn books, and you know what they say about people who will burn books.

[David]

People who will burn phones will burn books, and you know what they say about people who will burn books.

Posted by: Office of the Chief Rabbi | September 23, 2012 at 07:01 AM

They will burn phones. And people.

[Barry]

IPhones contain plastics which let of toxic gases when alight. Far safer to burn the Talmud

[Rochel]

Great, imagine the toxins released into the atmosphere by burning iPhones.

[Jeff]

Good idea. They should collect a bunch of them burn them in Kanievsky's study with the windows closed. Surely such a heilige gadol is operating at a sufficiently high madrega that he'll be protected from the toxic fumes.

And if he isn't - I suppose he was a witch.

[jancsipista]

THeese rebeleh would be better of if they commit themselfs into a lunatic asylem there at least they will fit their sorroundings.

[David]

Baabaaabooooooey

Posted by: baba boooey | September 23, 2012 at 07:39 AM

Well argued, as usual.

[Jeff]

Bababoooooey

Would it be possible for one of you who lives in New York to find out which basement in Brooklyn this mental defective inhabits and make a foray there with a baseball bat?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Put the defective in the same Beit Midrash with Kanievsky and the burning Iphones.

[Jeff]

Good idea.

[nachos]

Why not just borrow an iphone for the use of a pen. That would be fraud. Oh wait, isn't that the whole chometz scam for Pesach.

[WoolSilkCotton, rock star and sports superstar]

++David | September 23, 2012 at 07:05 AM++

If the frumma thought they could get away with it, they would already be killing and burning people.

[Isa]

To baba boooey

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

YOU WILL BE ASSIMULATED

[SkepticalYid]

Betcha Kanievsky has investments in Motorola or Microsoft.

[seymour]

“it is forbidden to posses” [an iPhone]. And not only can’t you own or posses an iPhone, if you have one, you must burn it. “[O]ne must burn it,” Kanievsky wrote, adding that “just as it is forbidden to sell a weapon to a non-Jew,

that means all the frum electronic stores cannot sell iphones to the public

[Jeff]

that means all the frum electronic stores cannot sell iphones to the public

Good point, seymour. I assume we can expect to see the masses descend upon B&H Photo with torches after the holidays?

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Haredi rabbis say burn iPhones.

Apple stock hits $700 per share.

Correlation?

[Eli, what me messiah?]

this is just crying out for someone to invent a burning iPhone app....

[Jeff]

They should keep the phones and get rid of the rabbis.

[Rochel]

Is Shmarya not able to ban this baba boooey person?

[esther]

it is forbiden to give it to a non jew, but nobody said anything about giving it to a jew!
bring them all to me!

[Rochel]

I guess they would not be in agreement with this:
For Young Jews, a Service Says, ‘Please, Do Text’ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/us/for-young-jews-a-service-says-please-do-text.html?_r=1
It is an interesting article.

[Isa]

To baba boooey

You dis-obeyed your rebbe to stay away from the Internet

You get to go to hell and be with all of us

[seymour]

the same thing was said when the printing press was invented and the phone

nothing new

[Russian PhD]

Why doesn't Apple throw some stone to these dogs (one-two millions donation for their dirty Mikves, Yeshives and Hevre Kadishes)-to make them stop barking?

[dh]

A printer scuttling under a swinging rubber mallet is extremely refreshing.

[ah-pee-chorus]

Kanievsky should stick to what hes good at, like signing letters insisting that horrific,sadistic child abusers are innocent. (elior chen)

[soso]

Isn't burning an i-phone a hasard?

[Joe]

Please dont believe what you read online with out checking the facts.
http://matzav.com/source-rav-chaim-never-said-to-burn-phones

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

Rav Kanievsky wishes the thank the great askan R. Android Samsung for bringing this terrible sin of an apple as bad as Chavah's etz hachayim to his attention.

B'zchus zeh may he have parnassah and many more children, grandchildren all b'derech hatorah.

[Rocky]

Esther: I'll take one. No need to be greedy.

Does this rabbi have a Tomas de Torquemda complex? Hasn't there been enough burning in Jewish history?

As Heinrich Heine might have said had he been born 175 years later, "Wherever they burn iPhones, they will also, in the end, burn human beings." The rabbi should be careful.

[MR]

Just as well you wrote "reportedly", because it is not true, he did not say this, the whole report is rubbish.

Maybe the newspaper which published it is worried people will see the news online and stop buying their paper!

[Shmarya]

Just as well you wrote "reportedly", because it is not true, he did not say this, the whole report is rubbish.

Maybe the newspaper which published it is worried people will see the news online and stop buying their paper!

Posted by: MR | September 23, 2012 at 02:00 PM

Well, the 'report' in Matzav.com – hardly a bastion of truth itself – relies on one unnamed source close to Rabbi K who says Rabbi K never said to burn iPhones.

Of course, this lone source does not account for how Rabbi K's teshuva saying to burn them ended up on the front pages of several haredi papers.

Past that, he does not deny that Rabbi K holds that it is forbidden to own one and forbidden to sell or give one to a non-Jew.

That leaves a current iPhone owner with several halakhic options: burn the iPhone, throw it into the ocean, destroy it with a hammer, etc.

All this unnamed source is saying is that Rabbi K didn't specify which option to choose.

[Ken P.]

Funny how I never heard the gadolim leading any fight against Israel selling weapons to third world tyrants.

[A Yid]

I-phone burning video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7e19MUe7Y

[Jack]

Thank god the Android phones and Blackberry phones are ok.

[put a square into a hole]

The story behind the story!!

Anthony Wiener the NY politician that got caught sending pictures of his wiener via cell phone, went to Kanievsky for a bracha to be able to re-enter the political areana. This was a "PRIVATE" teshuvah to A. W. from Kanievsky.
The torah world can get back to learning daf yomi via internet/cell phones

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: Yerachmiel Lopin | September 23, 2012 at 01:54 PM

Methinks Kanievsky may have a lg. ego, but his brain is micro-soft.

[Korbendallas72]

YWN shows the posters.

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=140417

Maybe the newspaper which published it is worried people will see the news online and stop buying their paper!

Posted by: MR | September 23, 2012 at 02:00 PM

Yeah, no.

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: MR | September 23, 2012 at 02:00 PM

YWN has a photo of the poster on their site. It clearly states: "Lisrof" - to burn.

[BaltimoreYid]

Silly rabbi iPhones are for Yids!

[Larry]

Burn iPhones, Haredi Rabbi Rules

Relax, it won't be long before Apple will approve Google's map App.

[Chief Hole-in-the-Sheet]

It seems to me that the simplest solution is to sweeten the situation. After all iphone is Apple, so all you have to do is dip it in honey.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Ok, I didn't want to have to go there but you people are leaving me no choice.

Yes, it is true that burning iPhone may release dangerous toxins.

Therefore, as a service to friends on FM, and especially the trolls, I hereby offer to burn your iPhone for you. To avail yourself of my FM-only offer of pre-YK self-sacrifice, just send your iPhone to me via Shmarya

PS: new iPhone 5's burn best for redemptive purposes but I can also burn 4S's and even iPad 3's and new MacBooks, in case you're feeling the need for full detox. A new iPod Touch 5 64 GB should burn pretty well, too. Please include the original box and sales receipt so I can burn the warranty as well.

[Ed]

The iphone is part of an Apple cult. Its not about "useful" its more than than. What did the "fanboys" call Jobs? i-G...? And taking that role to heart.. Apple tells people what they can and can't do with the phones they buy. Apple controls the devices.
Nearly everything they developed they only claimed to develop. Jobs used to sell Blue-Boxes to make a fast buck. Windows was taken from Xerox. That did not stop them from sueing Microsoft claiming that they own the Windows/Mouse interface. IOS features were taken from Xerox, GRiD and Go Corp (Penpoint)... and that has not stopped them from suing Samsung-- in lieu of Google.
Fashionable design? Maybe.. But so where SS Uniforms..

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: Ed | September 24, 2012 at 04:45 AM

You were actually making some sense until that last sentence.

[evanstonjew]

At 11:35 CST, Apple is down 13.75 from Friday's close.If Friday was the top, would those who make fun of Rabbi Kanievsky psak have at least the thought that the world is stranger than we think?

[spacedout BT]

Did R. Kanievsky really endorse this message? Or did some over-the -top "askan" go ahead and create a pashkevil after asking the Rav a loaded curve ball kashe?

[Jake24]

If anyone wants to get rid of an iPhone 5 you can give it to me since I am Jewish and not covered under the ruling, additionally if you have purchased one of the adapters to connect the new battery port to existing iPhone accessories I would appreciate you sending it along.

[God is not amused]

"Should you, take this mission, and decide to read this blog in its entirety, this Iphone will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck in your mission."