The following made the rounds. Of course, most reported them irresponsibility and with the usual anti Jewish venom. Some salient points.
- This is not a letter from R’ Chaim Kanievsky
- It is from a Charedi organisation that sets itself up to “purify” communication. It has an agenda, and will never tell you about a Rav who has no problem with proper use of an iPhone
- There is a footnote which is their own fodder for the masses and can be misread to be the words of R’ Kanievsky.
- Even if this is true, R’ Kanievsky isn’t making decisions for you and I. A Rav paskens (if he did indeed pasken) for the people in front of him. Frankly, those people aren’t looking for a Psak at all. They are simply look for another bazooka to hold at people’s heads
- Anyone who extends the use of such a letter to the “conclusion” that wedding witnesses or mikvah ladies who use iPhones are Pasul even B’Dieved, doesn’t need a Rabbi; they need therapy
- There are plenty of Av Beis Din’s around the world who use smartphones.
- This has nothing to do with phones, it’s all about the improper use of the internet. Who has an argument with improper usage? My iPhone contains more Shiurim than I have time to listen to.
- Of course, toilet blogs like Scott Rosenberg’s blog and others, breed piranhas using such stories. They are irresponsible.
- Rabbi Kanievsky defers to Rav Shteinman anyway (the latter of whom isn’t a Posek of note, unless I’ve missed his Tshuvos)
- They neither live, nor know about my world, and simply don’t have the information required.
- I didn’t ask them for their opinion, and am not obliged to do anything with their letter.
- A Rosh Yeshiva is not a Posek anymore than a Posek is a Rosh Yeshiva
- There is no such thing as Daas Torah anyway. Speak to your Posek when you have a Shayla. That’s the way it was and ought to remain.
- End.
