Dati Rabbis Use SMS Messaging For Torah — Extensively November 27, 2006

From the frum news source Vos Iz Neias:

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, writes and receives an average of no less than 3,000 cellphone text (SMS) messages a month. Almost all are questions of halacha, to which Aviner responds in short, permitted or forbidden, without giving the reason.

The questions vary: Is it permissible to prepare tehina on Shabbat? Only if it is watery, Aviner responds.

‪Can I have physical contact with my three-year-old niece? Up to age nine is the answer.

Can one steal from an Arab, who probably stole one’s merchandise? No, stealing from a thief is prohibited.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis prohibit the use of SMS even for secular purposes.

I do use SMS, though I do see the danger in its usage. However, one can do nothing but laud Rabbi Aviner — his text message, I’m sure, to some Jew somewhere, meant the difference between observance and sin. An SMS is often obtainable where regular cell phone reception is too weak to make a call.

Perhaps the SMS also reaches neshamos — souls — unreachable by “normal” means.