“I’ll have to ask my off-the-derekh friend abou- I mean, if I had any off-the-derekh friends, I could ask them about it.”
Jerusalem, June 7 – Posters denouncing the use of personal computers and various mobile devices appeared in Haredi areas of the city overnight, a humdrum occurrence, save for one confusing detail: the inclusion of a pattern of boxes in the lower-right corner of the paper that users may scan with their devices for more information.
“Internet and movies destroy families and your relationship with the Holy One,” warned the posters, known as pashkevilim. “All the great sages agree that anyone who uses a ‘smart phone’ has no portion in the World to Come.” The text continues for several more lines of admonition and the dire consequences of consuming internet content or merely owning any video-entertainment-related device, followed by the names of several prominent rabbis in the Haredi community. Next to those names appears a QR code.
The mystery of where the QR code leads – and, to the sincerely devout, what a QR code even is or does – became the immediate subject of conjecture and debate. Small knots of men gathered on street corners, pointing at the posters and speaking in low tones. Some speculated it might direct the reader to an approved shiur expanding on the prohibition. Others feared it could be a prank by outsiders to ensnare the unwary. A few simply stared in silence, as if the square itself might be an independent spiritual test.
By midday, foot traffic near the most prominent postings had increased noticeably. Residents insisted they were only ensuring the posters were properly affixed or rereading the text for edification. Yet eyes kept drifting to the lower-right corner. One yeshiva student, who declined to give his name, admitted he had stood before the sign for nearly fifteen minutes. “The words are clear and holy,” he said, “but then there is… that thing. It feels like it is looking back at you. I’ll have to ask my off-the-derekh friend abou- I mean, if I had any off-the-derekh friends, I could ask them about it.”
At the small print shop believed responsible for the run, workers offered little clarity. One shrugged and muttered about “a new computer program” and an apprentice who had been “too eager with the templates.” The owner quickly closed the door, saying only that further inquiries should be directed to the Vaad.
Soon an emergency meeting of community askanim convened. Proposals ranged from removing the offending posters (using gloves to avoid any indirect benefit from the technology they condemn) to pasting over the QR codes with smaller corrective notices — which would themselves require yet another set of pashkevilim warning against the first corrective set. No clear consensus emerged.
Senior rabbinic figures have so far declined public comment, though one elderly rebbe was reportedly seen examining a poster at length through his glasses before walking away. “This reminds me of that time more than twenty years ago that a Haredi newspaper put up a whole website, and their first and only news article was about the ruling of the biggest rabbi that the Internet is forbidden.”
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