The Do’s and Don’ts of Digital Displays

792. The Do’s and Don’ts of Digital Displays

to technological advances, digital display boards have become common fixtures in shuls. Their function is to inform shul-goers of davening times, halachic timetables and shiurim taking place in the shul; at times a dvar Torah associated with the particular day may also be posted.

In the past, display boards, notices and decorative wall hangings were deemed muttar (permissible) in shul with particular guidelines for their placement: they should not be placed on the mizrach wall since the mispalellim (those praying) face there while davening and they should be placed higher than the average person’s eye level on all other walls, so as not to cause distraction during the tefillos. If these criteria are met—optimally, both non-mizrach and of appropriate height—a digital display screen would also be muttar.

There is a heter (leniency) for placing posters in a shul that already has paintings or other wall hangings decorating the mizrach wall or any wall below eye level. Poskim allow displays there b’dieved (after the fact), since kvar dashu bo rabim (the masses are already accustomed to it) and as such, it is not disturbing their kavannah (concentration).

This heter would not extend to a digital display board. Electronic screens differ from immobile posters and pictures since the messages change regularly—if not at intervals of several times per hour, than at least from one day to the next. The eye is drawn to the movement and variation—and its placement cannot be correlated with non-digital placards, pictures or wall-hangings.

Even when properly placed above eye-level on a non-mizrach wall in a shul, it should be ascertained that all content that appears on these screens is suited to the kedushah (sanctity) and proper decorum of a House of Tefillah.

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Practical Halacha: One minute a day. By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, shlita, Mara D'asra and member of the Badatz of Crown Heights.