Israel Decides iPad is Kosher and it is not the Biblical Ephod

Israeli authorities determined that the iPad is Kosher and may be imported into the country.

Officially the government had circulated a dubious explanation for the three week ban based on claims that the iPad's wifi conflicted with bands used by the IDF.

Big cynics had come up with another explanation, summarized by Fortune's Brainstorm Tech:

Meanwhile a different, far more cynical explanation was gaining traction. Time magazine on Tuesday picked up a line of reasoning floated five days earlier in TG Daily by Aharon Etengoff, an Israeli-born journalist who spent a year doing public relations for the Israeli Defense Force:

"It is worth noting," Etengoff wrote, "that Apple's Israeli distributor, iDigital, is run by Chemi Peres, the hyper-entrepreneurial son of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

"Clearly, iDigital wants its lucrative cut of every iPad brought into the country — which it will undoubtedly receive when a modified European version of the iPad is approved for import over the next two or three months.

"But in the meantime, iDigital can't make money off the slow trickle of iPads entering the country via private citizens, tourists and international businessmen. (link)

The idea that the money and power at stake would be sufficient to influence Ben-Gurion custom officials seems a stretch.

We cannot resist offering our own (tongue-in-cheek) explanation.

At first religious authorities believed that the device was the sacred Biblical Ephod and would not permit it into the country fearing its power. In Exodus the bible describes the Ephod as a garment worn by the high priest upon which rested the Hoshen breastplate containing Urim and Thummim.

We note the close lexicographic similarity between the labels iPad and Ephod. And beyond that we note the eerie resemblance in appearance between the  Urim and Thummim on the priestly vestment and the way the app icons or photos display on the new Apple device.

We assume the authorities consulted with rabbinic experts and university scholars and decided that there was no biblical danger.

So bottom line the iPad is kosher for import into Israel.

We bring you the theories - you decide.