The Daily Strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “The iPhone Causes People to Stumble and Holds Back Teshuvah”

Wednesday, 23 Sivan 5782 — “If there were no iPhone, everyone would do Teshuvah.” These are his holy words:

A person’s whole purpose is to jump into the fire—right now we need to throw away all the iPhones, to jump into the fire.

The main thing is to jump into the fire the way Avraham jumped into the fire. Avraham merited, through this, to purify the entire People of Israel. And then he will throw away his iPhone—throw away the iPhone, and look for something kosher, kosher—completely blocked.

A phone should be only for calling Abba, Ima, or some friend—not for watching forbidden films and immorality, and films that… especially when people are literally seeing forbidden relations—things that are an explicit Torah prohibition.

You have to throw away all the iPhones. It is literally an explicit Torah prohibition; it causes people to stumble—there is no way not to stumble.

A person sees something he is forbidden to see, and then it’s already over—his mind is burned; afterward he can’t do Teshuvah.

If there were no iPhone, everyone would do Teshuvah. Nothing will help him—his mind is burned; he has no mind, he has nothing—he’ll only go around fighting and doing whatever he does.

All those who get started with iPhones end up fighting afterward, because they have nothing to do—they only want to be “tough guys.”

You have to know that throwing away the iPhone is what is called “jumping into the fire.” That’s what Avraham did—he jumped into the fire. Serach jumped into the fire, and everyone jumped into the fire. Once, everyone jumped into the fire—that’s it. That is the entire avodah of a person.

We read about the Akeidah in the morning because the entire avodah is to jump into the fire—the entire avodah of a person is to jump into the fire.