Reply To: Assur to HOLD a smart phone ???

When someone bought an iphone he showed it to his friend how cool it was, His friend say, Hey this is cool and got one himeself and so the allure of the iPhone spread everyone said it was cool and everyone wanted one.

Its the same with this chumra. The man took a personal chumra . he then tells his friend about his personal chumra and the friend says, Hey thats a great idea and also adopts this chumra and so it spreads.

At some point it hits the leadership and they say , hey this is a great idea and impose this chumra on the entire community even among those who do not like it.

And Yes the SMASHER does owe for the phone, You cannot break someone elses property for your own personal halacha. BTW it was a chassidic rov so its unlikely a non-member of that chassidic group would break a non-members phone