I have irritable bowel and I spend maybe up to an hour a day on three or four visits to the bathroom.
I receive a daily email in Ivrit on Pele Yoetz on my Pelephone. If I don’t say the words out loud, are there any poskim that hold that it would be permissible for me to read same in the bathroom. If the answer is no, would the answer be different if I was reading an English book of Musar on my Pelephone.
Would the answer be different if I was listening to a Musar Shiur on my Pelephone whilst in the bathroom?
Would your answer be the same if I learned Halacha from my Pelephone in the bathroom without saying out the words.
I saw in one of the notes to one of the Artscroll Gemaras that Rabbi Yochanan held that one could think Torah thoughts in unclean alleys and I thought that maybe this might help me to learn in the bathroom.
Thank you.
Answer:
Speaking,reading, and even thinking Divrei Torah is prohibited in the bathroom. This incudes halacha ,mussar, English and Hebrew.
You can read books of worldly wisdom – science, nature etc..
Sources:
SHulchan Aruch O:C 85:2 [this halacha comes from the teaching of R’ Yochanan, Shabbos 40b].
