“One must find a prayer leader who fears Heaven. If you know that the prayer leader has a TV at home and watches videos of abomination or [has] a TV in his pocket [i.e., a smartphone] and watches these types of abomination videos, how is it possible that they will lead the prayers in front of God? It would be like someone sending their children to a non-religious school and teaching them abomination. It’s forbidden for someone like this to lead prayers, and if he did [so], then you need to organize a new [prayer] service.”
Above: Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef
Don’t Let Men Who Own TVs Or Smartphones Lead Prayers, Chief Rabbi Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Sefardi haredi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef has again lashed out against smartphone use, telling a radio audience owning a smartphone or a television disqualifies a man from leading synagogue prayer services, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“One must find a prayer leader who fears Heaven,” Yosef said during his weekly Torah lesson to be broadcast on Kol Barama Radio. “If you know that the prayer leader has a TV at home and watches videos of abomination or [has] a TV in his pocket [i.e., a smartphone] and watches these types of abomination videos, how is it possible that they will lead the prayers in front of God? It would be like someone sending their children to a non-religious school and teaching them abomination. It’s forbidden for someone like this to lead prayers, and if he did [so], then you need to organize a new [prayer] service.”
Yosef previously ruled that “if a yeshiva student has an iPhone you need to remove him from the yeshiva, without doubt.”