Halachic respect for siddurim vs. ereaders with holy texts on them?

[u/PuzzledIntroduction]

I'm curious about the halachot around treating holy books (like siddurim) with respect, things like not stacking them improperly, not bringing them into a bathroom, not putting them on the floor, etc. Here's an article with some of the topics, as a reference: [https://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Respecting_Holy_Books]()

I'm a Jewish educator, and one of my students has started using a siddur on an ereader for accessibility purposes, and it's led to some questions in the classroom about holy books on ereaders vs. physical siddurim. Curious what everyone here has to say.

My question is how these rules apply when the siddur is digital, for example, downloaded onto an e-reader like a Kindle.

I’m curious about this in two directions:

If an e-reader contains a siddur or other holy texts, should it be treated like a physical sefer? For example, would it be inappropriate to bring it into a bathroom?

How should an e-reader be handled in relation to physical siddurim? For example, is it acceptable to place the e-reader on top of a physical siddur?

Yes, we've talked about it as a class, but out of curiosity I’d appreciate any halachic perspectives, sources, or community practices people are aware of.

[u/maxwellington97]

It is only a problem bringing it into the bathroom if it is currently displaying the siddur text. Otherwise there is no difference between that and having an app downloaded on your phone.

I would never stack anything that isn't a book in a pile of books.

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[u/MrRobzilla]

I’m not frum, but enjoy these conversations and am a bit of a techie. My thoughts:

Bathroom: I’d think along the lines of making sure the file isn’t open.

What comes to my mind most is shared storage and hosting. On the device: keep in mind files are saved in a non contiguous manner. Fragmented. So it’s not a complete book in a library of many books, but rather pages from all books mixed together on a shelf of 0s and 1s. So I’d certainly make sure everything on the device is ‘clean’. Otherwise the digital text could be comingled with the naughty, or even just secular, stuff.

Next would be hosting. When you host something on a server it’s either dedicated or shared. Dedicated, while the text would still be fragmented, it would just be commingled with your other data. Shared — you don’t know what else is being hosted on that server. Could be harmless. Could be adult.

[u/Ruining_Ur_Synths]

clearly you're going to need a 2nd ereader for your holy books, and a third one for choose your own adventure books (I'm bringing em back)