Rabbi orders follower to smash smartphone, telling the man that doing so is a "kiddush Hashem," and that it is also a fulfillment of the biblical verse, "Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones." (Deuteronomy 7:5)
Haredi Rabbis Wage Anti-Smartphone War On Simchat Torah
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
On Monday evening, Israelis held what have become a traditional event – hakafot sheinit, a second round of dancing with Torah scrolls and celebration that marks the beginning of Simchat Torah in the Diaspora but which is technically a a regular workday in Israel.
Because the day is not an official holiday, work is permitted – so is playing musical instruments and using electricity. So the dancing of hakafot sheinit are usually accompanied by live music.
But Ynet reports that this year’s celebration took a strange turn at Jerusalem’s Sefardi Porat Yosef Yeshiva when rosh yeshiva Rabbi Moshe Tzadka ordered one of the revelers to smash his smartphone, telling him that doing so would be a “kiddush Hashem,” a sanctification of God’s name and a fulfillment of the verse, "Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones." (Deuteronomy 7:5)
Immediately after the man complied and smashed the phone, Tzadka told the crownd that they should repeat the following verse after him: "So may all your enemies perish, Lord!" (Judges 5: 31) The crown complied.
Then Tzadaka reportedly said that anyone in need of salvation should get a blessing from the man.
Meanwhile according to Ynet, the haredi news agency Kav Hahasifot reported that in the hasidic yeshiva of Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, a man’s donation was refused after it was discovered that he was the owner of a smartphone. The man purchased an aliya on the actual day of Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah for a pledge of $2,500.
But another congregant rushed to tell Wosner’s son that the buyer owns an iPhone. Wosner’s son immediately cancelled the purchase and the aliyah was put up for sale again.
The original buyer’s claim that he only uses the phone for work was reportedly ignored.