The Viznitzer Rebbe has banned listening to the news on phones, according to a report in the Haredi World.
The rabbi delivered his new ruling during a Tu Bishvat seuda held on Thursday. Thousands of the rabbi’s followers attended the event. Tu Bishvat is the Jewish new year for trees.
The rabbi attacked those who report the news on phone lines, and ordered his people not to call and listen to them.
"If your life and the lives of your children are dear to you, do not listen to the news,” the rabbi said.
This was not the first strict ruling issued by the Viznitz grand rabbi.
The Viznitzer rabbi told a group of followers that those men who wear watches, should also wear earrings because they look like women.
During a recent speech for yeshiva students, the rabbi said that his followers need to fight modernization because it destroys everything that is holy.
He told his yeshiva students to wear only old-fashioned plastic eyeglasses. He also said that he recently saw a yeshiva student wearing a watch and he told him to remove it.
"Those men who wear wristwatches should wear earrings as well because they look like women," the rabbi said.
