Teens love texting. Cellphones don’t jive with Shabbat. A new app seeks to address this uniquely Jewish case of “unstoppable force meets immovable object.”
In 2012, teens were sending an average of 60 texts per day, according to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
That number was up from 50 in 2009, so it is probably even higher in 2014. Orthodox teens are no exception. In 2011, an article published in the New York Jewish Week drew attention to the high percentage of Modern Orthodox teens for whom “half Shabbos” is a way of life. Half Shabbos is when one refrains from all of the 39 Shabbat prohibitions except when it comes to texting, which falls under the prohibition of using electricity in non-emergency situations.
Yossi Goldstein and a like-minded team of smartphone app developers, however, think they have a solution to half Shabbos, one that enables teens to text on Shabbat without compromising halachah (Jewish law).
“It’s to make life easier for Orthodox Jews,” said Goldstein, a partner in Shabbos App (www.shabbosapp.com).
The company website lists the halachic challenges related to texting, such as muktzah (the device has no use on Shabbat), mavir (turning the screen on and off may be considered making a fire), and koteiv (writing), among others. It also explains how the Shabbos App technology works around these challenges, making it possible — for $49.99 — to text permissibly on Shabbat. Instead of a keyboard, the app displays 120 commonly used words, and it allows the user to add another 30 words. The user then can create messages during Shabbat from those 150 words.
The company, according to Goldstein, does not yet have rabbinic support or approval but is “working with several rabbis.”
Could the Jewish world be seeing widespread smartphone use in synagogue by next Rosh Hashanah? It’s unlikely, say all those who spoke about the app — Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. That’s because the app goes against what is commonly referred to as “the spirit of Shabbat,” explained Rabbi Daniel Rockoff, who was ordained by Yeshivat Sha’alvim in Israel.
“The observant community won’t go for it,” he said.
Nonetheless, Rockoff isn’t surprised such a technology was invented. He said Jewish law develops with the times and that technology is playing an ever-increasing role in our lives. He said this role is heightened for teens, and that it’s the responsibility of the Jewish community to listen to, understand and address the next generation’s concerns.
“But we also need to keep it in perspective and realize the things we think are necessities may not be, and we have to consider their place in relation to the whole idea of Shabbos and that Shabbos is a sanctuary in time,” he said. “We need to show the next generation Shabbos is something to be preserved.”
Rockoff drew on a rabbinic dialogue that dates back to 1917, around the time when telephones were invented. He said rabbis at the time examined telephones from a scientific perspective to determine whether they could be used on the Sabbath. By 1930, rabbis had determined that while use of the telephone might work out on a technical level — “the circuits are open, so by picking up the phone you are not really doing anything substantial” — using them was not something the Jewish people chose to accept.
“Just because something is OK in principle, that doesn’t mean it is something that should be practiced. We don’t use electricity because of minhag Yisrael [tradition],” said Rockoff.
Elie Klein — who from 1999 through 2003 served as an adviser for NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union, and today is raising his own two children, ages 7 and 5, in Jerusalem — said he was taught from working with teens was that one should empower them, help them create their own Jewish path, and meet them on their level and at the locations they like to frequent. But one shouldn’t water down faith on their behalf, he said.
Klein said the Shabbos App should force the Orthodox community to examine itself and how it conveys the message of Shabbat observance to youth. He said Jewish teens should be taught to feel the beauty of Shabbat, and to understand their history as well as the depth of the religion and tradition.
Meredith Jacobs, author of “The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat,” expressed a similar sentiment. She said that even for nonobservant families, Shabbat can and should be seen as a day “that we do things differently, where we spend more time at dinner, where we have a different kind of meal, linger at synagogue with friends — spending time with each other.” The Shabbos App, she said, “would ruin Shabbat.”
Jacobs thinks today’s teens are losing the ability to communicate in person and that family celebrations of Shabbat can serve a role in helping teens — and parents — to unplug and be present.
And what of the future of technology and Shabbat?
“I don’t know how technology will evolve in the next five years,” said Rockoff. “Could I see even in 20 years that there is some way to read literature or learn on some type of electronic device on Shabbos? Yeah. The Shabbos App is making waves and that will lead to something — at a minimum the process of a good conversation.”
Maayan Jaffe is senior writer/editor at Netsmart and a Kansas-based freelance writer. Reach her at [email protected].