Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky says anyone who owns an iPhone or similar phone or device that has full internet capabilities is halakhicly considered damaged and is therefore forbidden to serve as a witness at a wedding or a divorce. If an iPhone user with such a smartphone had already served as a witness at a wedding or a divorce, then the wedding or divorce is invalid and must be done over again, and this holds true not only a priori, but also as a secondary position (i.e., even b’diavad). And this holds true for many other things, including the validity of women's mikvas.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky
Originally published at 10:40 pm CST 12-24-2013
iPhones Make Mikvas Unkosher, Invalidate Weddings And Divorces, Haredi Gadol Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Rabbi Aaron Feinhandler reportedly heads the haredi Committee for Clean Communications, a group that campaigns against smartphone use by haredim.
He recently visited Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the second most important non-hasidic Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader in Israel, to discuss the issue with Kanievsky, Yeshiva World reported based on a report in the haredi news website Kikar HaShabbat. Also at that meeting was Kanievsky’s grandson, Rabbi Aryeh Kanievsky.
Feinhandler wrote a letter summing up what took place. He quotes Kanievsky as saying that anyone who owns an iPhone or similar phone or device that has full internet capabilities is halakhicly considered damaged and is therefore forbidden to serve as a witness at a wedding or a divorce. If an iPhone user with such a smartphone had already served as a witness at a wedding or a divorce, then the wedding or divorce is invalid and must be done over again, and this holds true not only a priori, but also as a secondary position (i.e., even b’diavad).
Rabbis who certify women’s mikvas also fall under this ruling, Kanievsky said. Therefore, Kanievsky asserted, in cities like Jerusalem where many, perhaps most, employees of the religious council carry a smartphone, this disqualifies the kosher status of women’s mikvas.
Similarly, many employees of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s religious court system carry smartphones, and the same is true for independent haredi beit dins, as well – and all of their rulings would also be voided by this fact, Kanievsky allegedly asserted.
Rabbi Aaron Feinhandler's letter. Please click to enlarge: