u235

I've had a few bizarre incidents involving Jewish people and phones in my life. The one that stands out the most was when I was at college. It was a Friday, late afternoon, and I was in a suite belonging to another student who was semi-orthodox Jewish. I say semi because while he and his roommates lived by the letter of the law, they clearly didn't think much of it's spirit imho. In a nutshell the suite housed 6 people - 5 semi-orthodox Jews and an Indian guy. At first I thought this was a more or less just random arrangement, with the 6th person just having been assigned there. When the phone rang I found out otherwise.

It seems that while they were religious enough to subscribe to the prohibition against using electrical devices after sundown on Friday, there were not against keeping someone there to do it for them. When the phone rang, someone yelled for the Indian guy who immediately scuttled over and put it on a speaker phone for them so they could use it. Same deal with turning on the lights, opening the fridge, driving a car.

Anyway, seems that the idea of "kosher" has gone now to cell phones.

What's a kosher phone? Well it's a phone that's been approved by a rabbinical society as meeting the appropriate social constraints. This means that there's no camera, no text messaging and no, repeat NO way to upgrade the firmware or hardware. Finally it would censor the user from dialing into any prOn or chat lines. Well ok, so the idea is they want the freedom of a wireless phone to use anywhere any time - but at the same time they also want to enforce "moral values". These phone are currently available in Israel, and being considered for marketing here in the US.

I don't get it. It goes back to the Indian guy with the phone. On the one hand people want to embrace their religion and follow it's rules to be reminded of what their ancestors thought, felt and decreed as spiritually uplifting. On the other hand they want what their ancestors never had, the latest technological toys and the freedoms offered by a modern society.... but only the freedoms that someone else with religious authority has approved based on strictures that never anticipated advances modern technology.

If you're not going to movies, and not playing DVD's, why exactly should you need a cell phone? To me it sounds like a case of having your pastrami and eating it too....