Lakewood Man Dumps Tablet into Lake Ahead of Rosh Hashana

As Yom Ha’Din approaches, a Lakewood man felt that ‘lip service’ alone wasn’t enough to show Hashem how serious he was about Teshuvah (repentance), so he took it a step further.

The man confirms to TLS that he in fact took his Samsung Tablet and threw it into Lake Carasaljo today – with obviously no hopes of retrieving it.

After owning it for just six months, he felt it was the right thing to do after finding himself wasting his time with games, and looking at inappropriate content, the man tells TLS.

Though he still owns a smartphone, the man says he has had a monitoring program installed on the device to avoid any future pitfalls. [TLS]

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56 COMMENTS

  1. y cant he sell it and get his money back or give the money to tzedakah would be A bigger mitzvah.

    or maybe he was just desperate for attention

  2. He polluted the lake, He could have drowned it in his kitchen sink if he wanted to destroy it. What if now everyone decides to do what he did? It would be terrible for the environment!

  3. it is 100% illegal to dispose of an electric device in a freshwater lake it can give off toxins that can kill the fish and the waterfoul this (moderated) was possibly oiver baal taschis and tzar balei chaim. i hope he’s happy that he saved himself but at others expense. the lake is a beautiful place and we cant have people ruining and polluting it.

  4. I know him. The part that he was looking at wrong stuff is not true at all. I am surprised that you would write that.

    He felt that it was a dangerous tool and in the spirit of the Yom Hadin he sank it.

    But, as good of a guy that he is, it seems to me to be a case of bal tashchis. He should have sold it on ebay or something and given the money to tzidakah.

  5. it is illegal to dispose of an electric device in a freshwater lake. that lithium battery is polluting Gods creatures as we speak, and will for years. (moderated) if he didnt want it, he could have sold it – and donated the money to any local charity.

  6. When Avraham Avinu took the hammer and smashed his father’s idols, would people here have reacted the same way? Would they have asked questions like “why blame the device?” or “why didn’t he give it away?” or “is it legal to smash idols?”.

    Maybe they did ask all these questions.

  7. There are times I’m embarrassed by the absolute nareshdike comments some of you guys make and this is one of those times. If you haven’t got anything sensible or worthwhile to say then please keep quiet. Siag l’chochma shtika.

  8. There once was a man who owned a Tablet and did kol davar ossur.
    He couldn’t bear to swallow it so he drowned it in the water. But then he realized his mistake and began to stamp the floor.
    “It was the Vehicle that me did it take to the Tablet store!”
    The cause of his sinning was not the little electronic machine
    but rather it was his Lexus, the one colored green!
    He drove his Lexus into the lake and recited shehechiyanu, and proclaimed out loud with a shuckle and shake, “I sinned because of YOU!!!”
    The moral of the story is plain for all to see,
    just flunk your driving test when you’re at the DMV!
    You will always have to hitch a ride because you won’t have a car,
    but one thing is for certain, you’ll be the frumest guy by far!

  9. This guy absolutely did the right thing. Just like Yosef who left his garment and did not grab it back, as he was afraid that he would be tempted in that extra few seconds, this guy dumped the device without making all the stupid cheshbonos many commenters wrote.

  10. so jealous of his zechus, and I am glad that Hashem is more benevolent a judge than this pathetic panel here. Should he have thrown it in or not, who cares?!?!?! someone has the strength, the courage and the conviction to take such a drastic step and all we can do is point out his pitfalls? wow

  11. Big difference between Abraham and this guy. Abraham smashed idols since they are 1) intrinsically evil and 2) he kept the whole Torah before it was given. In the Torah there is an explicit command to smash idols (in the land of Israel at least).

    In our case there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this technology, only that it can be used for wrong purposes or to waste time and such; it can also be used for productive things like making a living.

    As such this act probably falls under the prohibition of Bal Tashchis. As someone pointed out, he should have sold it on ebay and given the money to Charity.

    A guy says that these cheshbonos are stupid. Is keeping the Torah stupid? Just because a person gets a strong desire to do something holy does not mean that there is not a right way and a wrong way to go about doing it. When Yosef left his garment behind that was because he was being grabbed to sin. What else should he do if not run? He had no time to wait! Here, this individual had a holy desire, but could certainly have gone about implementing his will in a better way.

  12. The new technological devices are great for business etc. but are very dangerous as well! He made the right move to get rid of it and we should all learn from his actions! Throwing it in a natural lake though was not the best option yet the action itself is praiseworthy. Kol Hakovod!

  13. To all you narrow minded biggets out there!!! This Tzadik was saving his soul and broke through his taavos and yetzer harah and did a monumental action by throwing it in the lake!!! This isn’t a town of left wing liberals that care more about the fish in the lake than another persons spiritual growth!!! Relax!!! I promise you the fish will be more than fine!!!! They have lived for hundreds of years in polluted waters.

    If you care so much about the environment go clean up cedar bridge. Do you know what all that pollution is doingto us?? One tablet at the bottom of the lake will not kill any fish, calm down.

    I think this was a beautiful action. The technology is killing us left and right. He and we all know that if he wouldn’t have taken action right away it would have sat in his house for two more years and caused who knows how much more damage to himself and his family.

    Good move. Good luck on your continued growth!!!

  14. I feel that if the man’s private action was with pure intentions then it is to commended. There are many times in our personal lives that we can’t afford to miss the opportunity to take drastic action in order to change our life for the better.

    On the other hand, as far as TLS posting the story – I believe it was ill advised. Had I been asked, I would have advised in the negative.

    The comments ridiculing the individual’s action were quite predictable. And besides, why give these self-righteous commenters the right to pass judgement on another individual who has taken a private approach to bring himself to repent from his wrong behaviors.

    Imagine witnessing an addicted alcoholic take a stand to free himself from his addiction by taking a $200 bottle of fine alcohol and smashing it to bits. This would be his own statement to himself that he’s finally done with his self-destructive lifestyle. Would anyone sensible start screaming that he should’ve sold the bottle and donated the funds!?

    The proper reaction would obviously be to understand the individual’s specific context and congratulate him for undertaking the costly drastic action that he needed in order to save himself and move forward with his life. The loss of money would in fact be considered money well spent and for a good cause.

    In short, a minimum level of a mature understanding of human psychology is a necessary prerequisite to appreciate this episode..

  15. Here at Tent City, we would gladly accept as donations any and all material possessions that you feel may be holding back your spiritual development.

    A tablet can make it a bit easier for someone to pursue educational opportunities, and help improve their life.

    You might even avoid a littering fine (as all the minerals in electronics aren’t particularly good for lake-dwelling critters) – and even get a tax write-off too!

  16. As someone wise says, :If Moshe Rabeinu would be here, he would have broken all the tablets.” He is learning from Moshe!
    Instead of bashing the Jew in the story, let’s give him some respect. He had pure intentions an wants to grow. Let us cease judging people and labeling anyone who is not exactly like us.

    We can use the zchusim.

  17. the end of the story was that a meshulach who mamosh didnt have a cent to his name was forced to go fishing erev shabbos just to have food for Shabbos. Wouldnt you know it – he caught a big fish and when he was cutting it – he found a 64GB tablet loaded with every app under the sun inside of it. He was able to sell it for a huge sum of $$ on ebay and pay off his choivos

  18. It appears that many feel passionately that Reb Yid shuodl have sold the tablet and given money to tzedaka. There is something cleansing about throwing it in the water. (No, he did not throw in the towel as well.) Imagine a frum woman had a very expensive dress that was not tznius so she decided to cut it up and never wear it. It’s a similar example.

  19. 36 – wow, what a thought-out, well said and so-true comment! you should win an award for that. One thing: I was so inspired by reading this story it motivated me to make changes that included a personal sacrifice, albeit on a smaller scale. was it worth the scoop posting it just for that reason?

  20. Jack, the yid wanted to give tzedaka in a hidden way so he threw the tablet in the lake, as not to embarrass the meshulach. Mitzva gorerer mitzva

  21. Quote “smart says:

    September 2, 2013 at 11:15 pm

    The new technological devices are great for business etc. but are very dangerous as well!
    Dangerous ? not sure I can grasp why you would say that ,a knife can be dangerous, a hammer can be dangerous, a baseball bat can be dangerous etc if all are used a weapons and not for the intended purpose by the user so do we throw out everything we own? its called personal responsibility

  22. Maybe people think he polluted. But all that shows is how far you all are from the true reality of the world. I guarantee the tablet was more polluting to this world while it was working than while its sitting at the bottom of the lake. Its a shame people jump down somebodys throat when he does something out of love for hashem. We should all be zoiche to be on such a level. Maybe not throw it in the lake but there should be a siyum for people who smash devices. It can be a true kiddush hashem and can be a kaparah for all the negitivity we’ve spoken thus far.

  23. Furthermore,@lakewood resident id like to tell you that you dont have a teivah to hit yourself in the head with a baseball bat or stab yourself with a knife. But say you were given a box of chocolates, you would most definately have a teivah for them (unless you dont like them) but now what if those chocolates were so bad for you that it can ruin you as a person and sever your relationship with God? Would you throw it away? Internet devices are dangerous and I am to big of a loser to throw mine away. I wish I can disconnect myself from this world and try to get closer to hashem. I wish my time was spent more doing productive things rather than putting my neshama in a sakana. Nobody is born without teivas.if we didn’t have teivas we wouldn’t be able to work on ourselves. So yes these devices are dangerous.

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