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Dear Matzav Inbox,

I recently conducted a brief, informal survey of about twenty people. No experts. No studies. Just conversations with ordinary, functioning members of our communities.

What emerged was not just troubling, it was downright disturbing.

We have people among us who are spending five, six, seven hours a day on their phones. Every day. Not once in a while. Not during a crisis. As a routine. Some knew it. Some guessed it. Others were shocked when their screen-time data forced them to confront the truth.

This is not a minor habit. This is not “just the times we live in.” This is sickness, normalized.

We have quietly trained ourselves to be incapable of silence. A free moment feels unbearable. Standing in line, sitting in a waiting room, even walking from one place to another … the reflex is immediate: reach for the phone. Not because we need it, but because we cannot tolerate being alone with our thoughts for more than a few seconds.

And then we wonder why people feel anxious. Why attention spans are shot. Why conversations feel shallow. Why we are impatient, irritable, and perpetually distracted.

We talk about chinuch nonstop. About children who can’t focus, teens who feel disconnected, families that feel fractured. But no one wants to say the obvious: We are modeling obsession. We are teaching our children that reality is something to escape from, not engage with.

We are sick!

Imagine a parent who spends seven hours a day reading magazines. Or pacing the house with a radio pressed to their ear. We would call it unhealthy. We would intervene. But scrolling? That gets a pass.

Why?

Because it looks productive? Because it’s “news”? Because it’s “work”? Because it’s “hock”? Because your checking Matzav and all the brilliant comments?

You’re sick!

Let’s be honest. Much of it is mindless consumption dressed up as necessity. Endless updates, outrage cycles, dopamine hits, and trivialities we won’t remember an hour later.

We have become a community that cannot sit through a meal without glancing down. That cannot daven without checking messages. That cannot have a conversation without half-listening, eyes darting toward a screen.

And the scariest part? We don’t even feel embarrassed anymore.

We used to worry about bittul zman. Now we carry it in our pockets and defend it aggressively. Anyone who dares question this addiction is dismissed as “out of touch.”

This isn’t about banning phones. It’s about reclaiming sanity. About asking whether five to seven hours a day glued to a device is something we want to accept as normal, or whether, at some point, we admit that something has gone very wrong.

Because if this is what adulthood looks like, what chance do our children have?

Name Withheld

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{Matzav.com}

A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from U.S. airlines, authorities said. Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October. He pleaded […]

Rav Ben Zion Mutzapi, leading Sephardic posek and rosh yeshiva of Bnei Tzion, delivered a forceful message addressing what he described as mounting decrees against Torah learners, set against the backdrop of the ongoing struggle over the draft law and the legal status of yeshiva students.

Rav Mutzapi’s remarks came in response to a question from one of his talmidim, who described the severe financial pressure facing many kollel families. The avreich explained that while the men learn in kollel throughout the day and their wives work and earn limited incomes, the cost of placing infants in licensed daycare facilities has become overwhelming. For families with two young children, he said, the expenses are often impossible to meet, leaving many avreichim without a viable way to support their households.

In his response, Rav Mutzapi said the hardships are not incidental, but intentional. He stated that the aim of the authorities is to break the spirit of Torah learners, distance them from Torah study, and secularize the chareidi community. He added that those advancing these policies neither recognize nor believe in Hashem or His Torah, and he sharply criticized what he described as rampant incitement against yeshiva students who are already struggling to obtain even basic necessities.

Rav Mutzapi went on to say that the Torah community has been brought low and called on the public to cry out to their Father in Heaven. He expressed hope that Hashem will hear their voices, have mercy on them, and bring salvation. He davened for better days, asking that Hashem overturn unjust rulings and disrupt the plans and schemes directed against Torah learners.

He concluded his response with words of faith, stating that just as Hashem saved Klal Yisroel from Paroh and his forces, He will save them again in the present time as well.

{Matzav.com}

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UTJ party leader MK Uri Maklev sent a letter to Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana on Wednesday, demanding that an emergency Knesset discussion be held on an urgent proposal for the agenda on the topic: “A severe phenomenon of the ramming of protesters—two dead and four injured.” This follows a series of serious incidents that […]

Mrs. Brochi Goloventzitz, the mother of Leah Goloventzitz a”h, one of the two toddlers who died in the tragic incident at a daycare center in the Romema neighborhood, issued a public appeal, describing the family’s anguish and pleading for restraint amid a wave of rumors and misinformation.

In a personal statement addressed directly to the public, Goloventzitz wrote that the family is grappling with a devastating loss while simultaneously being forced to confront speculation, commentary, and inaccurate information circulating online and in public discourse.

The grieving mother emphasized that aside from those directly involved, no one truly knows the full facts surrounding the circumstances that led to Leah’s passing. She noted that the family has been exposed to headlines, images, and statements taken out of context, some of which are based on partial or incorrect information that does not represent the full reality.

Mrs. Goloventzitz further explained that the public is unaware of the considerations and decisions made following the incident, including the family’s refusal to allow an autopsy. She said those decisions were reached only after in-depth consultations and careful deliberation, based on information received from both the police and medical professionals.

She added that even the family itself does not yet have a complete understanding of what occurred. “We are not sleeping, we are not eating,” she wrote, explaining that their sole focus has been trying to piece together what truly happened.

{Matzav.com}

Mike Woods with the latest on a potential significant snowstorm that could impact multiple states, including New York and New Jersey, Sunday going into Monday.

TRUMP: In 12 months, we have removed 270K+ bureaucrats from the payroll, cut federal spending by $100B, slashed the federal budget deficit by 27%, cut 129 regulations for every ONE new regulation approved, passed the largest tax cuts in history, and so much more.

Trump touts the success of his tariffs in Davos: “In one year, I slashed our monthly trade deficit by a staggering 77%, and all of this with no inflation—something everyone said could not be done.”

TRUMP: “In recent decades, it became conventional wisdom in Washington, and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration and endless foreign imports… Virtually all of the so-called ‘experts’ predicted my plans to end this failed model would trigger a global recession and […]

The roar was deafening inside the train car as it hurtled off the tracks, then slid down a steep slope, ripping open its frame. And then, amid the twisted metal of the wreckage, the cries of the injured and the silence of the dead. Surrounded by bodies after the train accident in southern Spain, one […]

My dear brothers and sisters,For years, my father was the heart of the city עמנואל in Israel. As the head of כשרות and religious life, he spent his days serving the community and helping couples build their homes. He was a man who lived for כלל ישראל.My father passed away less than a year ago, […]

Did you know? The Baba Sali zt”l (yahrtzeit Thursday) gave a special bracha (blessing) to all Yad L’Achim supporters – that’s you! See his letter below! The Baba Sali zt”l was very close to Yad L’Achim and encouraged us in our work every step of the way. Before his passing, he wrote a letter of great inspiration, encouraging […]

Trump in Davos: “The USA is the economic engine on the planet — and when America booms, the entire world booms.”

TRUMP: “Under the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of Stagflation… But now, after just one year of my policies, we are witnessing the exact opposite — virtually no inflation, and extraordinarily high economic growth.”

President Trump has touched down in Davos, Switzerland, where he’ll meet with world leaders and deliver remarks at the World Economic Forum.

IRGC-linked channels have released images purporting to show IRGC trucks moving heavy military hardware, including drones and missiles, to cities across Iran.

Sec. Howard Lutnick: “I didn’t understand why they sent a couple dozen military people to Greenland. I mean, it made no sense whatsoever. They didn’t send those couple of dozen people to Ukraine before Russia came in. So I mean, I think he felt they were just being provocative. If you provoke the president, you’re […]

Sec. Howard Lutnick: “Our antibiotics are made in China. I mean, come on! We can’t have an adversary… that we have to rely upon. It just doesn’t make sense… so when Trump is out talking about pharmaceuticals, he’s talking about protecting us.”

[Video below.] President Donald Trump issued a sharp warning Tuesday, saying the United States would respond with overwhelming force if Iranian authorities kill protesters or carry out assassination threats directed at him.

Speaking in an interview with NewsNation host Katie Pavlich, Trump was asked about reports alleging that Iranian officials continue to burn protesters alive, as well as about a reported assassination threat against him over the weekend.

“Well, they shouldn’t be doing it, but I’ve left notification: Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said.

He went on to criticize President Biden’s silence on the matter, arguing that American leadership must speak clearly when threats are made. “Biden should have said something. When they made a statement, we always said, ‘Why isn’t Biden saying anything?’ Because he didn’t. But a President has to defend a President…like if I were here and they were making that threat to somebody, even not even a President but somebody, like they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard. But I have very firm instructions: Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth.”

Trump’s remarks come against the backdrop of escalating friction between Washington and Tehran, driven by Iran’s violent suppression of anti-regime demonstrations and Trump’s repeated warnings that the United States would retaliate if protesters were harmed.

At one point on Wednesday, the standoff appeared to be nearing a breaking point, with U.S. military action against Iran seemingly imminent. The situation later eased, however, after Trump said the reported killing of protesters had stopped.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump addressed the possibility of ordering a military strike in response to Iran’s actions against demonstrators.

“So with Iran, they were going to hang 837 people…and we let them know that if that happens that it will be a very bad day for them, and they decided not to do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future but supposedly they’ve taken that off the table,” he added. “Is the military option off the table? No.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}