Vosizneias–Frum Jews addicted to their smartphones won’t have to go cold turkey on Shabbos and Yom Tov because of a new, controversial Shabbos App from a company that says it is keeping people on the derekh by koshering the use of smartphones on Shabbos. They are even setting up a Kickstarter campaign. The app does a technical work around Halacha by building on existing decisions, some of them rejected in the past, and rejecting decisions based on chumras from the past.

Developer Yossi Goldstein, who considers himself an Observant Jew, told Vos Iz Neias, “Our main goal is to let people who are already texting on Shabbos know that they can text on Shabbos and not completely fall off the derekh. Many people are already keeping a half-Shabbos because they find that they can’t get off their phones and they feel like once they are already breaking Shabbos they might as well give up on other mitzvohs too,” said Goldstein, using the word for commandments. “Hopefully this will alleviate that.” Goldstein and the other developers identify as Orthodox Jews.

Rabbanim are not happy with the app. Though the app may resolve “technicality” (yes, not technical) problems, the OU’s Rabbi Moshe Elefant told Vos Iz Neias that it is not very Shabbosdik to text on Shabbos. Texting he said, “is very distasteful and not permissible on Shabbos.”

The Shabbos App website says those kinds of objections should not be reason enough to resist the app, which it says will be available on the App Store and Google Play for $49.99, starting on February 15. It plans to seek $25,000 on Kickstarter.

“In fact, there are lots of things that we observant Jews keep today that are not based on anything other than some stringencies according to a very small number of opinions,” the site says. “Our goal is to change that and empower people with the knowledge that they can be good, fully observant Jews and still keep up with the times.”