Smoke Screen, Part I

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

The World We Knew 

Sometimes one must speak about simple and clear matters, for as simple and clear as they are – so too they are out of sight, hidden, and no one relates to them, as it says in the introduction to Mesillat Yesharim: “…to the degree that these rules are known and their truth self-evident, they are routinely overlooked, or people forget about them altogether.” 

There were times when everything looked different. When I had the heavenly merit to do teshuva, it was clear to me and to many other baalei teshuva of my generation that there are Torah and mitzvot, that one must do what is written without playing games, and that every halacha is like a wall. And in addition, our rabbis’ instructions were cast-iron and not to be trifled with.  

As baalei teshuva who accepted upon themselves the yoke of mitzvot, we never dreamed of eating something if its kashrut status was not clear. We only ate food with hechsherim (kashrut certifications) that were mehudar (strict), and we never thought to act differently. No playing games. No shenanigans. 

And just like we never dreamed of putting questionable food into our mouths, we did not want to put wrong thoughts into our minds. And so, listening to the radio? Who would ever do that?! Who would dare utter such an idea?! In our eyes, it was completely wrong and forbidden. What G-d fearing Jew listened to the radio in those days? Because already back then we understood that we were not to allow into our minds any “viewpoint” of some wrong-minded and confused person, any mixed-up ideas and improper world-views of mistaken people who mislead others, speaking out of a mind full of all abominations and, of course, lacking any form of emuna (faith) and yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven).  

Since then, the radio has only gotten worse. Back then, even among our distant brethren there was some level of self-respect and modesty; but today anything goes; there are no boundaries. It is very clear that turning on a radio and exposing oneself to the danger of hearing forbidden and abominable speech – is completely forbidden.  

A Clear and Sharp World 

I purposely brought the radio as an example. For, if it’s like that with the radio, how much more is it so regarding television sets, which have been rejected by all Jews loyal to Hashem and His Torah. Even today you will not find a God-fearing Jew with self-respect and respect for Hashem who has a television in his living room or in any other place in the house.  

The great rabbanim understood the danger. The public was smart and sensitive enough to feel only disgust for the shows that made their way into every house of our distant brethren. The Torah culture and the Jewish world supplied us with joy and purpose in life, and we did not even think of becoming consumers of the twisted, sewer-like culture, which causes its consumers to become like it.  

Things then were clear and sharply delineated. There were two clear sides, and no one would alternate between them: Whoever worshipped the Ba’al – followed him, and whoever chose Hashem had no connection at all to the culture of Be’alim and Ashtarot (both ancient forms of idolatry). 

This is not ancient history. It was not long ago and in our lifetime. It was clear and simple for everyone. Everyone understood that consuming secular culture in the old-fashioned media of those days was in complete opposition to Jewish life, and what business could we possibly have in engaging in it? 

The powers of tumah (spiritual impurity) have a strategy known as “let us deal wisely with them”¹. If the door is shut and locked, let’s blow up the entire wall. But if we blow up the wall, that will start a war, and therefore it is better to do things step by step, slowly and gradually. Like wicked Pharaoh, who began by making bnei Yisrael work with a “peh rach”² (a “soft mouth”, gentle speech) and slowly and gradually intensified the bondage. By the time bnei Yisrael realized that they were enslaved, they were too deeply sunk in their avodat perech³ (hard labor) to rescue themselves.  

The Concealed Truth 

Dear Bnei Yisrael, what is going to be written here is written with tremendous pain; it is a scream: What have they done to us? What has happened to us? 

Wherever I go, I see around me Jews with beards, peot (sidelocks), yarmulkes; I see pious and God- fearing women who observe Shabbat and Kashrut completely. They are all walking around with devices bearing the misleading name of “smartphone” — a device that has within it all the abominations in the world. It is a gadget full of aveirot (transgressions); compared to a smartphone, television and radio look innocent and harmless. 

My shock only grows when I speak to Jews that these devices are forbidden, and they have no idea what I’m talking about! There is no one to talk to! Jews don’t sense any clash between the gadget and Judaism and yirat Shamayim. Complete hastara (blindness), complete darkness. Complete disregard of the Torah. I have no words for it. I just ask myself, as tears fill my eyes: How did we get to this situation?! 

Everyone will say: “Rabbi, one can’t manage without it. It’s so helpful. I learn Torah from it and even use it to spread Torah to others. There’s no chance that I’d be willing to throw it out,” etc. etc. 

My answer is: “Fine. I haven’t asked you to break the smartphone. I haven’t asked you to throw it out right now. We’ll see, with Hashem’s help, what can be done and how we can do it. But first, what I am asking – indeed, pleading – for you to do is to just stop one moment and think about it, understand this simple truth.” 

Accept the Truth from Wherever It Comes  

Over the years I have written and spoken at length about shmirat einayim (protecting one’s eyes from unsuitable sights), about the clear Torah prohibition to look at women, and certainly to look at immodest women. So, it is clearly prohibited to watch television in any form. Now let’s stop for a moment and think together about what is on this small and despicable screen that, unfortunately, many people have in their pockets twenty-four hours a day. It is so much worse! 

Even when a Jew really doesn’t intend to sin and even goes into a Torah class website, pictures and videos and temptations can pop up, uninvited, plus thousands of other abominable sights.  

Believe me, I have not yet touched even the tip of the immense iceberg of problems that this gadget produces. The problems include not only immodesty and wrong notions. A smartphone has within it kefira (heretical thoughts), bad middot (character traits), destruction of one’s shalom bayit (peace in the home), and destruction of the children’s education. Even worse, this gadget can bring enslavement and terrible addiction, sometimes even worse than substance addiction. Even non-Jews today understand that the key to quality of life is to free oneself of dependency on these devices. 

Therefore, please accept this simple truth, even if it seems to you that there is nothing to be done about it. In the following essays, we will discuss what one can do, but the beginning of the beginning, the first step, is to understand that it is forbidden. Having such a device is simply to jump into a spiritual abyss; it’s really holding all the aveirot (transgressions) in the Torah in your pocket, plus ruining one’s derech eretz  (proper behavior). Let’s join in understanding this and accepting the truth that this gadget completely negates Torah and mitzvot, Judaism, and the concept of a simple, G-d fearing Jew.  

Please, don’t fall into the trap of the yetzer hara and say, “If I can’t do it, then what you are saying is probably not the truth, and it couldn’t be prohibited.” That is a big lie. The fact that having such a gadget is completely prohibited is clear as day; there is not the slightest doubt that we are talking here not only about a spiritual danger that might manifest itself, but about the total destruction of everything that we hold as sacred.  

So, say straight out: “The truth is that to have a smartphone, which is a source of aveirot and abominations, and any connection with the internet – is completely forbidden. But it is very difficult for me. I don’t know how to get out of it, but I admit the truth.” To admit the truth is the key, the first step.  

It is forbidden to open the way even slightly for the yetzer hara. And one must stay away from a hundred permissible things in order not to come to do even one forbidden deed. Multiply that by a thousand, and you get an idea of the distance you should keep from the screen; whoever has it in his hand falls into a million forbidden sinkholes. 

The Greeks Gathered Round Me 

The holiday of Chanukah is approaching. The phenomenon of Hellenism is not merely history, because in every generation there have been those who wished to annihilate us. They are the Pharaoh and Egypt of our generation, which are Hamas and Iran, who wish to destroy our bodies. 

And in every generation there are more sophisticated wicked people such as Lavan Ha’arami (Lavan the Aramean) in our parsha, who is outwardly so nice and moral and he provides Yaakov Avinu with a family and a living – but never stops trying to influence him negatively and to insinuate himself into the house of Israel, to destroy it from the inside. He is the most dangerous. And his counterparts over the years were the Greeks and the Haskala (Enlightenment Movement) that wanted to cause the Torah, the simple truth, to be forgotten. And in our days, it is those impure and forbidden devices that threaten the Jewish home.  

And, as always, it is not our way just to call out and scream and say what is forbidden; rather, we search and find in the ways of the tzaddikim wonderful pieces of advice and good and true substitutes that will give us the strength to free ourselves from these gadgets and to live according to Hashem’s will; more about that, with Hashem’s help, will be found in the following essays. 

Editor’s Notes:

¹ Shemot (Exodus) 1:10 

² Sotah 11a-11b 

³ Shemot 1:13