Star K now gives Supervises Kashrus on... Phones?

Ok so before you may have worried about where to buy Kosher meat. It seems that many are worried about where they can purchase a Kosher phone! Well worry no more they are now available with a hashgacha from the Star K!

The Latest Ban: Shabbos Ovens

I'm not sure how I missed all the talk but evidently the latest ban from some of the Gedolim in Eretz Yisroel is about the Shabbos Ovens. You can read the Kol Koreh here. I spent a good part of the yom tov listening to several drashas concerning the complexities of the whole issue regarding electricity and why it's assur etc.. It would seem on the surface that using electricity on yom tov is less problematic on yom tov then on shabbos but why it's assur is perhaps part of the issue. The interesting point this particular rav mentioned was the following: Rabbi Shmuel Heinemann is certainly a posek in his own right. People certainly rely on him regarding laws of a bibical nature i.e. kashrus. In a case that may be rabbinical in nature certainly there is room to rely on his p'sak ( and if you consider the problem a bibical in nature it's no different then kashrus perhaps). He felt that perhaps bans such as these facilitated a "Fear Mongering" as it were. In other words, to make it known you don't agree with a p'sak is one thing. Don't you have the right to rely on your own rav? There is a story he told regarding Rav Yaakov Kanmietzky who when visiting Miami for some down time was greeted with many Shielos and his response was: you have rabbanim here, ask them. Evidently Rabbi Moshe Feinstein felt something along the same lines regarding the building of an eruv in Manhattan. When he was asked about the building of the eruv on the West Side his response was he would not allow it. However he said if there were other poskim who would consider putting an eruv up and he would not overrule them since they are poskim but would disagree with their p'sak. He did not try to ban anything. It is certainly an interesting point of view and brings a new perspective to the whole issue.