A short while ago, along with other rabbis, I threw away the who-knows what generation communications device I owned. In its stead, I spent 100 IS (about $27) on a small, uncomplicated mobile phone that can be used for calls and regular text messages – and that's all.
When a person doesn't have a smart phone, he becomes the smart one. He notices nature, children who desire his attention, he is free to study Torah, talk to his wife after work, gaze at the sky and the horizon – and he regains peace of mind.
The smart phone is not only the cause of a pornographic disaster, it also destroys the Divine Spirit found in the soul. A user becomes unable to observe the world around him, waiting instead for another instant source of excitement in the news or anywhere else, no matter how far removed they are from him geographically.
If G-d would have wanted us to know what is happening every second in every place in the world, he would have created us with built-in antennae. But Creation is not like that, it is a delicate balance between that which is near and that which is far away, what our eyes can see, our ears can hear and our minds can imagine.
Man's responsibility is for his life, his family's, his people's and the world's. However, these exist in moral concentric circles, where ethical responsibility exists first of all for what is happening in one's life and only later for those around him and the rest of the world.
When a person doesn't have a smart phone, he becomes the smart one.
The smart phone mixes up these circles, so that a person finds himself sitting opposite his own child, a youngster who has just returned from school, and instead of listening to the child's experiences and taking an interest in them, hugging him and showing him affection, he is busy with a tsunami in Asia, elections in the USA, or a stupid video clip of a dancing monkey.
Technology is not an enemy in principle, quite the opposite, there are ways to serve G-d through technology just as in all of creation. Claiming that G-d would have created us with bodies capable of containing technology if that were so does not really hold water. After all, we use technology for positive ends all the time, in medicine, security, banking and so on
We simply have to differentiate between technology as a tool and technology as a value. When technology is a tool which we can control, it is blessed (as long as it is within the framework of halakha). A simple mobile phone, for example, a car, kitchen appliances – these are all examples the average person can control rather than his being controlled by them. On the other hand, when technology takes over our lives, it is fighting a war against humanity's spiritual soul.
It must be realized – the smart phone is really a value, not at all a tool. It looks like a tool, but it packs a powerful behavioral message, one that confuses the soul's sense of place and time, leads to man's imagination transcending the world that G-d created to surround him. It is but a small step from that to pornography, media gossip, low-level culture and more. The problem in this case doesn't start with the content, but with the lifestyle the device demands, one that stands against the Torah's precepts of walking humbly with G-d and taking responsibility concentrically in the immediate environment in which He has placed you.
\When a value is in contradiction to our humanity and our religion, we are appalled. The claim that had G-d wanted it, He would have given us a built in antenna is a valid one in this case. G-d implanted the world of values in man and therefore, external devices that confuse this world of values are unacceptable. Had they been positive values, they would have been an intrinsic part of our being.-
The smart phone is the quintessential example of estrangement from one's inner self, it involves our spiritual selves in the lives of others, keeping us from noticing whom we really are.
Rabbi Kook wrote on the need to look inward with integrity and unsullied, pure human thought rather than through broken and external mediums - 'vessels':
“I am within the exile” (Ezekiel 1:1).
The inner, essential “I”—whether individual or communal—does not appear by itself. Rather, it appears in relation to our holiness and purity. It appears in relation to the amount of supernal power that, with the pure light of an elevated illumination, burns within us.
“Both we and our forefathers sinned” (Psalms 106:6)
This refers to the sin of Adam, who was alienated from his essential being. He turned to the consciousness of the serpent, and thus he lost himself. He could not clearly answer the question, “Where are you?”, because he did not know himself, because he had lost his true “I.” He had bowed to a strange god.
And that was the sin of Israel, who “ran after foreign gods” (Deuteronomy 31:16). We abandoned our essential “I” “Israel rejected goodness” (Hosea 8:3).
In the days of creation, the earth itself sinned. It denied its own essence. t constricted its power and went after limited goals and purposes. It did not give all of its hidden power so that the taste of the tree could be equal to the taste of its fruit. Instead, it raised its eyes to look outside of itself. It considered a trivial future and way of being. At that time as well, the moon complained. As a result, it lost its internal orbit, the joy of its portion. It was dreaming of a superficial beauty of royalty.
Thus does the world continue, sinking into the destruction of every “I”—of the individual and of the whole.
Learned educators come and focus on the superficial. They too remove their consciousness from the “I.” They add straw to the fire, give vinegar to the thirsty, and fatten minds and hearts with everything that is external to them. And the “I” gets progressively forgotten. And when there is no “I,” there is no “He,” and how much more is there no “You.”
(Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 140-4)
I call on all rabbis and every parent: let us be an example for everyone and throw those intrusive devices away. Let us return to being involved with real people.
What could possibly happen? You will not be available every second to receive an email? So what? Is a rabbi and educator a service provider? He is supposed to be a model, a leader of his family and congregation, an example of deep thinking and inspiration. Of course, it is important to be available, to answer questions or respond to children, but how quickly? The rapidity of the responses cheapens them and lessens their worth.
Nothing will happen if we check our email every few hours on a computer instead of looking at it every minute on a mobile phone. Nothing will happen if we get used to talking to people instead of sending them broken sentences and idiotic icons.
How will you manage without a camera? Fantastically You might even be able to look at what is happening instead of documenting it. You might touch things instead of seeing them in pixels. You might yearn, you might experience flights of fancy. You might have experiences filled with sanctity and love. Buy a camera the way you did once, take it with you to special events only. Take one photo and stop. Be a person, not a tool.
Leave whatsapp behind. Those whatsapp groups do not connect people lovingly, but are actually a loud technological appeal for meaning. They are an appeal for closeness with others, coming from people who feel they are in need of being awakened. And what is most absurd is that becoming addicted to these groups is like digging a deep personal grave. After all, you are not communicating with a live creature but with broken sentences that fill up your entire day, allowing you to avoid any time to yourself where you can really think about where you want to go and who you really are.
Your employer wants constant contact with you? Let him wait a few minutes, let him make a phone call. That will make him see you as a person, maybe even be impressed by that and maybe try to do things differently.
Dear reader, when was the last time you felt that you actually had some time to yourself ? You know the answer – there is no free time when you have that phone. You are not here, you are somewhere else, and when you finally blink and lift up your head, it is too late.
Give it up, set yourself free, throw that thing away, and you will not believe what you will discover in your immediate environment. You won't believe the beauty of the flowers, the excitement of actually longing for something. Think for a few minutes before you send out idiocies. Wonder at your forgotten spiritual sensibilities – memories, gifts, real books, glancing at passersby, the smells of cooking, setting time aside to learn. You will be a liberated man, a servant of G-d instead of a slave to a cellular image.
Be brave. Do it. Try it for a month and taste a fresh, simple life once again.