When heroin is readily available, when porn is sold in childrens' candy stores, and when parents send their kids to parks where pedophiles stroll around with their unbelted raincoats, then unrestricted access to the internet will be perfectly reasonable.

SOME OF THE FINEST MINDS OF THE 6TH AND 8TH CENTURIES... AND all in one room...HAH! They deserve each other's deep ignorance. Let them have their childish reactions to technology that they can't understand, their ultra-childish "sacrifices " of the phones....so what? It's a democracy, let them rant and rave, it changes nothing, except the loss of replacement insurance on the phone...I thank the Universe I am unlike these monkeys...I have unlimited Verizon! Steve Jobs would have made a far better Rabbi than these clowns, at least he had a creative and mighty brain! And he had forward looking VISION, not the shallow myopic thinking of the pseudo religious "leaders"...so when the eenemies of the Jewish people attack, who they gonna call? G-D?

There is no Ultra-Orthodox idolatry; they don't idolize their "shilita" rebbes. Do they?

Are the rabbis enforcing all 613 laws, commandments, statutes, ordinances, precepts, judgments, ways, and testimonies?

no one treats them as deities. the rabbis are simply saying that it's a tool that can too easily lead you to sin. Judaism. Judaism from the beginning believes in establishing boundaries to prevent transgression. You must put a fence on your roof so nobody falls of it -- will the author also say that G-d doesn't believe in intelligence of followers not to fall of the roof?

" The worshipper, who is following his rabbi's orders, breaks the abominable device as the holy crowd cheers him on. The rabbi then says the man can bless those present, indicating that he has reached a higher level of spirituality. The angry rabbis from the Union of Communities for Purity of the Camp, who organized last summer's mega-rally in New York in which they warned against the "dangers" of the smartphone, can sit back and smile."

Same regressive mentality! Shame on them!

The bigger they are the harder they fall. Even great Rabbis have fall prey of their Yetzer Hara. Even Cohanim Gedolim in times of the temple. The Rabbis are right. All the more so you said is the child's decision what he does with his cellphone watch porn or do some other things. Well he decided to break it so who cares. I just wondered how is that the Rabbi allowed this to be filmed on a Yom Tov. Any one can corroborate this was really filmed in Sheminit Aseret/Simcha Torah????

imprisoning fence, eh? That's the rabbis basic transgression against Tora. The rabbis build, and enforce, imprisoning fences as fast and furious as they know how, and force their zombies to enforce them -- including imposing them on everyone else.

They innovate their own reformed laws (in transgression of Tora) on conversion -- orphaning Jews by choice, leave women chained as agunos, ignore the commandment to work and the list goes on. They enforce medieval European superstitions, NOT Tora! They are sanctimonous hipocrites.

Who knows? I think the computer can be both good and bad. But anything used to excess is not good. I just heard there is a cell phone device that can check someone's pulse, etc. Pretty soon we won't need doctors anymore.....or humans. The computer has taken over and has both helped and, at the same time, taken away jobs from innumerable people. Maybe there should be some limits on the computer.

the retarded, hypocritical, proud and ignorant retrograde rabbis are a curse on judaism; they transgress Torah everyday with their man made laws; ie forbidding the saying of YHVH's name; and cursing science, knowledge and women. They are the blind leading the blind. They curse TANACH and venerate the talmud, they curse the innovations of The Prophets; and worship other rabbis; they consider themselves to be "holier than thou" and refuse to be humble and "to love their fellow Jews as themselves" they are whitewashed graves full of bones...

but any one of the 613 precepts talk about the progres? and the humanity upgrade? I don't know but im some cases the smar fone can be helpful to save a live. it depends how you use it, if there are some perverted haredim than use it to unaceptable thinks is there problem, so far is a machine and you operate it a smartfone can't be autonomus.

Religious fanaticism is Satanic in nature. The devil brainwashes you into believing that you are with God or even god yourself. So that makes you holy in everything you say or do and of course you cannot be wrong or go wrong since you are holy. Then you start doing stupid things and hate and fight the world which is exactly opposite of what God is and what He wants us to be. Religious fanatics exudes hate - not love.Anything that is created by God or man can be turned into either good or bad use by man. It depends on us what we do with them. This op-ed column by Ariana Melamed is great.

Rabbi Forrest Gump said: "Stupid is as stupid does". As a Jew - I am ashamed to think that I belong to the same gene pool as these morons!

The Haredim have many positive attributes high birth rates to keep the demographic balance low crime except Swissease their therm franks type criminality modesty and lack of xcesshedonism but they need to increase their military capacities in the decades. To come and start building nuclear shelters like the cunning Swiss.

You took the words out of my mouth.

We have freedom of religion and are free to worship our portable white shiny media consumption deities. They bring us bliss. /sarcasm Google "reality distortion field" and try rubbing some brain cells together - are those retrograde anti-iphone rabbies that far off?!!

Comunists were right on one thing "religions" Let send all this useless rabbis to hard labor camps ( without cell phones) Just to teach them respect and humility

The childish zombies are the ones who run into you because they can't lift their faces out of their stupid phones... This may be the only thing I agree with the haredi on, but they are 1000% right on this.

That's what our brains are for...and that was the point of the article. Tools can be used for good or bad...computers, books, phones, television. it's up to us to choose. Normal people don't go around smashing the tools. An automobile can be driven to do something wrong, our feet can walk us into a compromised place, if our brains choose it. Destroying the car and cutting off our feet is not the answer.

EVERYONE must cut off both arms!

This concept of a fence on the roof has been used as a means of abuse control and separation from the rest of society for centuries. I look out my window and there is not one house with a fence around its roof and, amazing as you may find it, the ground is not littered with corpses. We learn not to play on roofs, to respect hight and edges. I feel no compulsion climb onto my roof and fling myself off and neither do my children. No chains required, no nanny state rules or nanny minded rabbi either. Just free will tempered by common sense and learned morals and behavior. These fences drive our children and young adults away from Judaism and bring ridicule on us.

Sorry to say your paper shows such hate feelings against orthodox jews that I really feel piety for you! Open the Pirkey Avot and begin to try to learn how to clean your inside to become the person that you can be.

image of the beast ? What device do you possibly have that can cause you to worship the coming world leader, and if you don't, cause someone to come and put you to death ? Voice recognition software, GPS and cell phones will make this all possible soon. But there is a hope in the Creators WORD and those who love their Elohim and believe Yahshua was raised from the dead, you too will he bring to His coming 1,000 kingdom.