Chaim Kanievsky is an ultra-orthodox rabbi very influential in Israel and recently he condemned the use of iPhone terminals and suggested his followers to set fire to the terminals produced by Apple. His message was given shortly before the start of the Yom Kippur holiday and comes as a warning to those whose lives and minds are being taken over by these terminals. The rabbi's influence is so great that some Israeli newspapers published the message right on the front page in an edition, the attack coming after the popularity that the iPhone 5 terminal has gained lately.
An influential ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbi ordered his followers this week to burn their iPhones. The decree by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 84, came ahead of Judaism's holiest day, Yom Kippur, which begins Tuesday. It said that it was forbidden to own the smartphone, and those who already had one must burn theirs. The religious Yated Neeman newspaper published the ban on its front page this week, as mainstream Israeli newspapers were gushing about Apple's eagerly anticipated new smartphone, the iPhone 5.
Rabbis consider the internet to be a temptation for people, they consider it to be dangerous and to be honest they are partially right. At the moment the internet has become a drug, it generates addiction and I know that many of us cannot resist for too long without being concerned about what is happening on various websites on the internet. Although we are peaceful, the followers of the Israeli rabbi made several protests in the ultra-Orthodox communities, kicked out people from seminars if they used iPhone terminals and warned their relatives not to leave their children near those who own such a terminal.
The iPhone prohibition comes amid a push in recent months by ultra-religious Jewish leaders around the world to steer their flock away from the temptations of the Internet. Tens of thousands of black-suited Jewish men gathered in a New York stadium in May to hear some of the community's most famous rabbis lecture on the dangers of what they deemed immoral content accessible via computers and smartphones. The rally was broadcast live to other crowds in stadiums in London and Jerusalem. After this week's decree, large posters sprang up throughout Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, calling iPhones "an abomination 24 hours a day." They called on community members to kick iPhone owners out of religious seminaries, and warned them to keep their children away from the children of iPhone users.
Unfortunately, smartphones are frowned upon by communities of this kind, they are not very open to technology and sometimes the differences between their members can generate violence.
