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Text Messages? Not in Shul!
HaGaon Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Schorr shlit’a of Flatbush prohibits anyone with a ‘non-kosher’ cell phone from entering his Beis Midrash
This plague strikes the entire chareidi community and especially the youth in America. Although most of the cell phone consumers among the chareidi public don’t use cellular internet service, the SMS messaging is still very popular. This causes a huge waste of time from Torah study (bitul Torah), because even those who won’t answer the phone in the middle of a seder limud don’t see any problem in answering text messages; not to mention the great spiritual danger inherent in the system.
This state of affairs caused HaGaon Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Schorr shlit’a, rav of “Khal Tiferes Yaakov” in Flatbush, to make a rare and strong move against using this feature, and asked those who use text messaging not to come anymore to daven in his Beis Midrash.
HaGaon HaRav Schorr, who is one of the prominent rabbis in the chareidi community of the USA and is very active in the field of chinuch, decided not to rely only on his strong remarks and even put up a hand-written note in his Beis Midrash. He wrote: “Any bachur who has a telephone with ‘text’ should not come here to learn,” followed by his signature.
This sharp move shows the reality in America that the rabbis and educators are at a loss of how to deal with the situation, and in the meantime there is no solution for preventing the spread of this spiritual plague. There, they have not progressed like here in Eretz Yisrael where the kosher cell phones have been developed.
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