Internet, Social Media and Digital Technology: A Perspective of Matter and Rectification

Introduction: The Context of This Lecture

The Lecturer:

Dear brothers, dear Jews, it’s already erev Pesach, we’ve already burned the chametz. A bit early we burned the chametz, because it’s erev Shabbos, and we still eat it. So I want to speak a bit about this.

And this is the continuation, the third lecture, and apparently it will be the last part in this mini-series that we have here, regarding the internet, regarding the internet and the phones and all related matters (inyanim neluvim), social media, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and all such things.

This is a continuation, the main point is in the last two lectures, which were in a certain sense theoretical introductions, and we will try today to begin more from a practical perspective. I will say one more such foundation, but practical things that one can see in light of the foundations that we have laid out, and one can understand why these are the solutions, why these are the ways how to advise oneself.

Chapter 1: Review of the Foundations – Reality, Matter and Evil

First Foundation: Only the Holy One Blessed Be He Has True Reality

The Lecturer:

The first lecture was the general principle, the simple meaning of this is that there is nothing in the world that has reality. Only God Blessed Be He has reality, everything else is empty, that means it doesn’t have the attribute of existence (havaya), as the Maharal (Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel, the Prague Rabbi) says in the introduction to Gevuros Hashem. The Almighty is called Y-H-V-H, the name Havaya, He is Havaya. All other things have secondary havaya, they receive from Him existence, or in our language, they are vessels or means (heiter timtza) to come to Him.

But the ultimate goal, also the beginning and the goal, is as it were the Ein Sof, the One. And therefore it’s not relevant to say neither good nor evil, according to the truth, about anything, only about the Almighty must one say good. All other things, to the extent they bring to Him, to the extent they help – and one must understand what it means to bring to Him, it’s not just something to say – to the extent they help, they are good, that means they are secondarily good, they are good from the aspect that they are connected to God. And to the extent not, that is what we call evil.

What Does “Evil” Mean?

The Lecturer:

But evil doesn’t mean that it has an existence from itself alone, evil means it’s a void (chalal), as we elaborated more in the second lecture, that one has used that which is a thing that is not God, and therefore it doesn’t have to be. It must ultimately be, but meanwhile, in the world of choice (olam habechira), in this world, it doesn’t have to be God, it doesn’t have to be any way to God. It can be as if a thing in itself (davar bifnei atzmo), or it can even be distancing or separating as one calls it, and one must also know what these things, what these words mean.

And from this aspect, this is what we call evil. In other words, as the holy Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, the founder of Chassidus) said, it says in Toldos, there is no such thing as evil, evil is a term of “mera.” Mera, just as there is a word “mileil” and “mera.” Mileil means above, mera means below. Mera means that it’s below.

What does below mean? In our language it means matter or a shell (kelipa). What does matter mean? And this we elaborated more on, the aspect that one explains what matter means, and from this one can understand what specific solution it needs to have, how indeed one brings this to the good.

Second Foundation: What Does “Matter” Mean?

The Lecturer:

That the word matter doesn’t mean that it’s bad, not like a desire, not that it’s absurd, a desire. The foundation, when one says that there is indeed, and the kabbalists say that there is indeed a point which is called evil as it were, which is called the sitra achra (the other side), the chametz, the Amalek, the yetzer hara, like all things which they indeed call the name evil upon this, “yotzro kra’o ra” (his Creator called him evil), yes, it says in the Gemara about the yetzer hara, he is called evil. Or isn’t he evil?

The simple meaning is, that which a thing can be everything, it can be anything. In other words, it doesn’t have from itself a boundary, as one calls a limit, a boundary. It’s not limited to be a certain thing, it’s not designated. Yes, designation (yichud) and boundary is not designated. It’s called holy. Holy means designated, belongs to something, designated, as “designated for me,” “designated for me.” It belongs for something, a certain thing.

And the entire world, the aspects where it is matter, and the more a thing is called material, the less designation it has, the less boundary it has, the less it is one thing, one can say it is more potential, it is more many things. Not that it is many things in actuality, it can be many things.

Matter is the Root of Sin

The Lecturer:

And this we explained, and this is the word when we say that matter is evil as it were, that it’s impurity, it’s not impurity, it has no sin, but it’s the root of a sin. And we spoke about this, we spoke here in another place about the impurity of death (tumas meis), that a corpse is not a sin to be dead, but the root of all sins is to be dead. The root of all sins is the knowledge that matter can be and it isn’t.

Chapter 2: The Problem of “Vessels” and Freedom

Why “It’s Just a Vessel” Is Not Enough

The Lecturer:

And this is the problem. And according to this we went a bit further and explained that if so, it’s not enough simply to say that everything is vessels, there are no impure vessels and no good vessels, it depends on who uses it. Such a question one must understand how one uses the vessels. The Almighty made the vessels, if one won’t know how to use the vessels, how to rectify them, one won’t be able to bring them to God. Therefore one must understand that the problem of the vessels, the root of the vessels is that it is matter, that it can be anything.

The Parable of Freedom and the Yetzer Hara

The Lecturer:

And we explained how the parable of the yetzer hara which is called freedom in the language of the foreign tongue (la’az, English), the simple meaning of freedom, right? The common name (shem hameshutaf), freedom, liberty, has many meanings. And when people think that liberty means, and youth and young people (bnei hane’urim) think that freedom means one can do anything one wants, the idea of lawlessness (hefkeirus), until meanwhile when one gets older one understands that this is youth’s theory, it’s not true freedom. It can be that there’s a stage that it seems so, but it’s not true freedom. This is from the aspect of matter.

Chapter 3: The Two False Solutions

Solution A: Making a Wall

The Lecturer:

And the solution for this matter is not, as we said that it’s already not to place a wall around this, then it’s not rectified, or even not. Yes, one will be able to see clearly the two solutions, children. Yes, there is the approach that says one must make a wall around this, this is not a solution. Why? Because it doesn’t rectify the matter. It’s another world, and because the problem that exists remains the whole time. It can be one stands outside of this, but it remains the whole time.

Solution B: “It’s Just a Vessel”

The Lecturer:

And the same thing, the other one, the anti-approach that says it’s just a vessel, is also not a solution. For the era it’s not fitting, both are not fitting, both are analog worlds, both don’t understand the digital revolution. Both of them are not fitting for the matter that there is something a new type of matter, or as we said that one should explain that it’s a new level of matter, this one must understand well. But it’s certainly a new type of matter, something a new form of the matter, but it’s essentially in the way how it comes out to us, at least it is a more material matter, a thing that can be many more things, like the difference of a digital screen from paper.

Chapter 4: The Difference Between Paper and Screen – A New Type of Matter

The Parable of Paper

The Lecturer:

Paper can be many things, for paper is paper that can bear everything (niyar soveil es hakol), but what one writes can only be one thing. Whereas a screen, even while it writes can still be many things. It’s a completely different type, one can look at it, it’s more alive.

The Screen Doesn’t Accept Form

The Lecturer:

As we say, this is apparently also freedom, but it’s very different. The screen with its essence doesn’t accept form (mekabel tzura), it doesn’t become anything ever. This is like, not to take a parable, like a young man or a bachur, such a seeker, he goes to everyone, he hears from everyone, but he doesn’t become anything, he doesn’t want to become anything, because he wants to always keep the freedom.

And about this, that same one looks at the screen the whole time, it’s terribly attractive, because there is in this the freedom, he can come to everything, he can bring everything here, he can be everything.

Chapter 5: The True Solution – The Question of a Wise Man is Half the Answer

Understanding the Problem is the First Step

The Lecturer:

And what we need to do therefore is not to not understand this. If we don’t understand this, whether we make a partition around and around, and whether we say, therefore there’s a difference, we don’t need to be fitting, we don’t need to have any topic, there is no topic called internet at all, there is the same old topic of do good and not bad that there always was. These are not correct, both are not correct. Why? Because both of them haven’t understood what it means to be a screen, what it means to be a computer, what it means to be this type of matter.

If we understand yes, and always the question of a wise man is half the answer (she’eilas chacham chatzi teshuva), the Mah Nishtana (what is different), Mah ha’edus veha’chukim veha’mishpatim (what are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws), what we ask, if we understand clearly the problem, almost always it opens up, at least we know in which direction we need to go to seek the answer. So now that it has become clear to us the problem, we can see very clearly, it opens up very simple ways how to find the answer.

The Answer is Not a Wall and Not Lawlessness

The Lecturer:

The answer which is not an answer from the aspect of making a wall, not the answer of saying that there’s no difference, there is no, therefore there is no law of filter, there is no non-filter, there’s nothing here, everyone should do how he tries to be good. Rather there is indeed a way that we can try to solve the problem of this.

And we understand, by the way, if we can, and it’s certainly a problem, I’m not saying that a full solution doesn’t take away the problem. Yes, a full solution means that there always remains the problem, I don’t have a solution, let’s say, clear. I mean that the perspective that I brought down last week shows almost immediately the way to the solution, but this type of solution doesn’t mean that further there won’t be any trials.

Chapter 6: The Parable of Marriage – The World of Rectification

Marriage is the Solution for Lustful Desire

The Lecturer:

Like to say that the solution for lustful desire is to have marriage. To be an ascetic is like saying, to say simply what I want, like the liberal approach that says “do what you want, don’t bother anyone,” is not an approach because it has too much freedom and it doesn’t lead out, one doesn’t make, one never becomes anything, nothing ever becomes of this yetzer hara. But what is indeed the solution? To have marriage.

Marriage Doesn’t Take Away the Trials

The Lecturer:

And to have marriage means that the trial doesn’t go away, yes? That one says that the solution is to have marriage, not to be an ascetic or to be lawless, so if so what? Does one remain with the yetzer hara? The yetzer tov with the yetzer hara? Because he tried to use it the right way, the right time? It won’t go away, there will still be trials when he sees another, there will still be trials in himself, and at times when one is not allowed, and so on. There will still remain all these trials that exist.

But Marriage Gives a Way Out

The Lecturer:

But, this is the only true solution, and whoever lives this life, the truth is, even when he falls through, that means, someone who is not one who has bread in his basket (yatza lo pas besalo), and not one who has bread in his basket, even if he indeed has forbidden thoughts, he has a way how, that means, he lives this, one can say he has a way, yes, as one says simple language, someone who is like one who has bread in his basket, someone who has bread in his basket, and what about one who has bread in his basket?

The Story of Rav Amram

The Lecturer:

As one sees in the Gemara, for a whole story of Rav Amram, in tractate Kesubos, he becomes aroused by a woman in the street, can he go home and say to his wife, his home and his wife, say okay, now he will do it in holiness. This advice doesn’t have any bachelor who doesn’t have a way to express the desire in holiness. It can be that he still had improper thoughts (meharher), he still had improper thoughts about another, but he has a way out. This is one thing that one can say, this is the meaning, yes, he remains with the problem, but he has a solution for the problem.

Chapter 7: The World of Rectification – When the Yetzer Hara Has a Form

The World of Rectification is Not a World Without Yetzer Hara

The Lecturer:

But deeper I would say, that a person who has married, he already lives in the world of rectification (olam hatikun). The world of rectification is not the world where there is no yetzer hara. Right?

The world of rectification is the world where the yetzer hara has a form, where the yetzer hara serves his wife (meshamesh es ishto), for the purpose of purity (letzorech nivul), for the purpose of man and wife, for the purpose of having children, for the purpose of maintaining a Jewish home, he lives in the world of rectification.

Even With Trials, He Cannot Become the World of Chaos

The Lecturer:

Therefore, the yetzer hara that he has, he goes out in the streets and has a trial, or even actual trials that a person can have, even when he has a trial he cannot become the world of chaos (olam hatohu).

—

[End of Part 1]

Demons, Dybbuk, and the Foundation of Matter Without Form: Understanding the Danger of Unformed Forces

The Difference Between a Groom and a Bachelor in Trials

The Story of Rava: Rectifying Desire in Holiness

As one sees in the Gemara, a Gemara of Rava in tractate Kesubos, that he becomes aroused by a woman in the street, can he go home and say to his wife, “prepare for him.” He says, “Okay, now he will do it in holiness.”

This advice doesn’t have any bachelor who doesn’t have a way to express the desire in holiness. It can be that he still has improper thoughts here – he still had improper thoughts about another – but he has a way out.

The Simple Meaning: A Married Man Lives in the World of Rectification

This is one thing that one can say, this is the meaning: he remains with the problem from 1917, but he has a solution for the problem.

But deeper I would say, that a person who has married, he already lives in the world of rectification. The world of rectification is not that the world has no yetzer hara. The world of rectification is that the world where the yetzer hara has a form where the yetzer hara serves his wife, for the purpose of purity, for the purpose of man and wife, for the purpose of having children, for the purpose of maintaining a Jewish home. He already lives in the world of rectification.

Therefore, the yetzer hara that he has goes out in the street and has a nisayon (test), or even actual nisyonos that a person can have, even if he stumbles in a nisayon, he cannot become olam hatohu (world of chaos). Even if he is nichshal (stumbles) in the nichshal. I must have been a bachur (young unmarried man), someone who doesn’t have the keli (vessel) at all, doesn’t have at all the… yes, what does it mean, the churim (holes) for tziyurei (forms), at all a perek gufa (a chapter in itself). When he falls into it, you can see him, he falls into it, he gets thrown out. Because he falls completely out of olam hatikun (world of rectification).

The Situation of a Bachur: Far from Olam Hatikun

When someone has a nisayon, except one who can return to his wife, by Yisrael he has his rectifying person. A married man, in a certain sense he can say, but a bachur has something of being completely a parush (separated one) – he doesn’t live at all, the sugya (topic) he lives in the olam hamalachim (world of angels), he doesn’t live at all the whole thing. He can see it as words of the nisayon where in a certain sense it’s true, but on the other hand, and we can be every pure one.

The True Focus: Not the Nisyonos, Rather the Yesod (Foundation)

The Mashal (Parable) of Internet: Not Only Pornography

This is what one must understand about the same thing. This is a good mashal: the world thinks many times that the main problem of the internet is pornography, but it’s not. The same way but I want to say, that the sort of solution that we’re going to think about is not the solution that takes care of nisyonos. It’s not the nisyonos of the things that it’s perhaps only one problem, when one looks at it as if the problem of this brings to that.

No, we want to tell you the yesod of the thing itself, right? And not the problem of bitul zman (wasting time), of lashon hara (evil speech), of the sort you become addicted, and all kinds of other shtusim (foolishness) of distraction and so on that exists in this.

Prishus (Separation) Is Not the Eitzah (Advice)

Rather what yes, what I want to say is, and not to go away, not to be a parush. To be a parush is, we’re speaking of that which there is a makom (place) for this, but it’s not the eitzah that we’re saying, it’s not the olam hatikun. Olam hatikun cannot be a parush.

Olam hatikun is that we will say the way how we are to be metaken (rectify) this thing. And this is that we are vessels, that our tzurah (form) will come, perhaps it’s not completely mekabel tzurah (receiving form), but can in our life, this is life, yes?

The Entire Olam Hazeh (This World) Is Chomer (Matter) That Needs Tzurah

The entire olam hazeh, in a certain sense it’s a chomer that is like not, yes? We said about the internet it’s more unique like that, but the entire world is like this, the entire yetzer hara also. He is not mekabel tzurah on his own, but we put him into a tzurah, and he understands himself, and it becomes something a tikun (rectification).

Living Like a Mature Person

The same thing, I want to say about how do we do it b’tzurah (in form)? We do it like a mature person, a mature ben adam (human being), and afterwards you know that there can be nisyonos. It means however that we won’t need when we become nichshal, not also, go further, because we will burn it – this is not a solution.

And the same thing we won’t be like a bachur that when he becomes nichshal he becomes lost, he becomes lost. Fine, he didn’t succeed today, he’ll succeed tomorrow, because I already have a certain organized derech (path) how to live with this.

Okay? This is our plan.

The Yesod of Shedim (Demons): What Happens When Potential Remains Without Form

Introduction: Understanding the Sharpness of the Problem

Before I say this, I want however to add, to understand a bit clearly how sharp, how far goes the problem of such a sort of thing which is a chomer she’eino mekabel marus (matter that doesn’t accept authority), a freedom that doesn’t want to accept authority.

And I want to say a yesod that stands in kabbalah sefarim (books of kabbalah), and contemporary ones, and I’ve seen in different people who explain it more this way.

The Definition of Shedim V’ruchos (Demons and Spirits)

The yesod is called that there exist in the world shedim, shedim v’ruchos. The yetzer hara is called a shed, we’ve seen this in the Gemara, the yetzer hara the Gemara calls a shed. The yetzer tov (good inclination) is called a malach kadosh (holy angel), and the yetzer hara is called a shed.

What is the meaning of a shed? And so explains the Ramban in his way, and the Rambam and the mekubalim (kabbalists) in a bit a different way, and I’m not dealing now in the sugya to understand, but I want to understand however practically.

The Explanation: A Strong Potential Without Form

A shin-dalet is what happens when there is a thing that has a strong potential, there is a strong force, like electric energy is a tremendous force, and no one gives it any form. There are certain forms, such as kiveyachol (as it were) half forms, not really forms with substance, but such nefashos (souls) that become from that. This is the meaning of a shed.

The Rambam’s Interpretation: A Person Who Doesn’t Use His Daas

In other words, says the Rambam for example, the Rambam says in the simple way: a person has daas (knowledge/intellect), every person has daas, even if he doesn’t use the daas in the proper way he has daas. When he is an adam hashalem (complete person), a proper person, he uses his daas and builds with it buildings.

If he’s not a good person, it’s not simple that he stops being a person, he doesn’t become a behemah (animal). One says that a person who is not a person is a behemah, it’s not correct, says the Rambam, he is much worse than a behemah.

Why is he worse than a behemah? Because he is mo’il l’hazik v’lo l’ho’il (useful to harm and not to benefit), right? He can use his intellect to make all kinds of deep tricks and confuse people and do injustices, but with his intellect he doesn’t help to build a world, an olam hametukan (rectified world). This is called a shed, says the Rambam, this is called a shed.

The Explanation of the Mekubalim: Actual Forces

In kabbalah it stands more sharply, kiveyachol that there exist actually, so the mekubalim imagine, perhaps it’s actually so, that there exist actually such kiveyachol forces, there are such…

The Rule: Neutrality Doesn’t Exist

In other words, one can say thus: That which the chomer is potential, doesn’t yet mean that it remains neutral. Because in order it should become from… it’s neutral from the side that it’s the potential, but in order it should become from neutral, from the potential, become something a davar tov (good thing), needs to be with intention, needs to be that one should specifically work so it should become so. In other words, one needs with intention b’machshavah techilah (with forethought) to bring a neshamah (soul).

Whereas if one doesn’t go with intention, it’s not simple that it remains neutral, it remains as it is. This is not how the world works. Whoever will look around in the world will see that it doesn’t become so. When it remains neutral, will grab hold…

The Mashal of Chametz (Leavening): How Bacteria Grab Hold

The Idea of Chametz

What is chametz, yes? This is the idea of chametz, right? That one takes dough, dough essentially is not chametz, it’s not that chametz is bad, I just want an image for this sort of idea.

One takes dough, seemingly it would remain dough. If one wants one can make it chametz, if one wants one can make it matzah. Meanwhile, this is called shehiyah (waiting), right?

The Reality: Yeast Bacteria in the Air

But the reality is, as one says factually physically how it works, that there are different bacteria, yeasts, that fly around in the air always, and one doesn’t notice them because they don’t have where to hold. But they fly around in the air the whole time. It happens, perhaps there are places where not, then it actually doesn’t happen, but generally speaking, in the air there always turn such yeast bacteria.

What Happens When One Lets the Dough Stand

And you leave dough for a few hours, for a bit of time, for more than eighteen minutes, whatever, this is perhaps a chumra (stringency), but one leaves for a piece of time dough, will grab into it the yeasts and will make it chametz.

To Make Matzah Requires Active Guarding

In order not to make it chametz one needs an extra shemirah (guarding), or to make a different form. You want specifically to make a matzah differently, you need to put in your own yeast, you need to make something explicitly an action so the spiritual bacteria, the chiyus (vitality) that turns in the air, shouldn’t grab into it. This is how it works.

The Nimshal (Application): Lower Life Forms Grab Into Potential

And the same thing, when there is a potential, especially when it’s a strong potential, if one doesn’t put with intention into it a form, one doesn’t put with intention into it a neshamah, happens somehow that there are other lower life forms, lower sort of forms, that they grab into it.

In other words, kiveyachol, one cannot say from the side of the form, but somehow, when one looks around the world how it works, why it happened, it’s actually because there is like there are bacteria physically, there are perhaps such forces spiritually that turn and grab hold, or it’s about people are so, as it lies in the neshamah of the people, the yetzer hara of the people, whatever it is exactly.

The Fact: Great Forces Don’t Remain Neutral

The fact is that things, actually great machines, great forces that don’t have any form, don’t remain neutral. It’s either one puts in a tzuras kedushah (form of holiness), then it’s tremendous, zachah mesamchin oso (if he merits they gladden him), it becomes tremendous, zachah Shechinah beineihem (if they merit the Divine Presence is between them), lo zachah eish ochaltan (if not fire consumes them), eish ochaltan. It cannot remain neutral, because here is such a strong force, and there is always, one cannot say with an excuse, but there is always such a piece of bacteria that wants to grab in, and how one lets it in.

The Mashal of Dybbuk: Neshamos Without Bodies That Seek a Host

The Idea of Dybbuk

Or like a dybbuk, yes? Let’s understand it another way, you can understand it like a dybbuk. What is a dybbuk? So go the stories, the world works this way. Whether there are dybbukim actually literally, literally so or not, but the idea is a true idea.

Neshamos Ertlin: Forms Without Matter

What is a dybbuk? A dybbuk is there are neshamos without bodies, so he calls them, neshamos ertlin (wandering souls). Neshamos without bodies means such forms, such tzuros, about how one can live, that they cannot do anything with their daas alone. An idea doesn’t do anything. An idea needs to be like a parasite.

An Idea Needs to Have a Body

An idea needs to have on what to live. An idea needs to have a piece of body, a piece of chomer to eat, like parasites, like viruses and bacteria and all sorts of life forms work approximately. One needs to have on what to live. Yes, a bacteria or another bacteria is not necessarily good, a virus is not necessarily bad, but it’s a life form that lives only on a second one.

A person is a davar chai (living thing), a living biological thing, it’s good that he lives. And this means such things that they turn around and they grab hold, he cannot live alone, therefore his interests is to grab onto one who lives with this.

The Story of Dybbuk: A Neshamah Seeks a Body

The story of dybbuk always shows that there is such a neshamah without a body that turns, he is stuck, he has no action, he can do nothing in the world. Why? Because he is a neshamah without a body. Or perhaps not really a neshamah, you can call it a ruach (spirit), a form, something such a form without a body. And therefore he always seeks where there is.

The Difference Between Dybbuk and Insanity

And when a person is with full daas, and this is the difference between one who has a dybbuk and one who is insane, there’s no contradiction, already says the Degel Machaneh Ephraim, the son-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov.

When a person is normal, he is baal habayis (master) over himself, his neshamah and his body are together as they should be, then there isn’t how that sort of chiyus should grab in.

When a Person Is Somewhat Open

But when a person is a bit open, a bit broken, a bit not with tikun, but he is a person, he still has all the abilities and the forces, the forces of daas, the forces of yetzirah (formation), the forces of intellect, the forces of will, all the forces of a person, comes the dybbuk and he grabs into him somehow, he will be grabbed, and he uses him to carry out all sorts of things that don’t fit for a person alone. When this is called a dybbuk.

This Means: A Crazy Idea Seeks a Body

And this means, it’s something an idea, it’s a crazy idea. It’s an idea, in any case, but it’s a crazy idea. A crazy idea by itself does nothing. It always grabs into potentials that haven’t become properly with form, that don’t have any protection in form.

This Is How the World Works

This is the fact how the world works, and the idea of shedim, the idea of dybbukim, is literally the idea, and one can understand it by way of mashal. But whoever looks into the world how the world works, both between people and also between all other things too, will see that it works literally so. Like we will say the mashal of chametz, it’s a very good mashal.

The Beginning of a New Point: A Chavurah (Group) Needs a Rosh (Head)

Yes, there is a saying of Rebbe Elimelech, I think, one says such a place, that every chavurah needs to have a rosh. A rosh doesn’t mean that one needs to make an idol of him, but a chavurah, people come together, needs to be a rosh. It can be a bit wild.

Shedim in the Digital World: From the Idea to Practical Advice

The Yesod of “Rosh” in a Chavurah – The Teaching of R’ Elimelech

I say that the idea of shedim, the idea of dybbukim, is literally the idea, and I can understand it as a mashal, but whoever looks into the world how the world works, both between people and also between all other things too, has to see that it works literally so. Like one says the mashal of chametz, it’s a very good mashal.

Yes, there is a saying of R’ Elimelech I think, one says such a place: every chavurah one needs to have a rosh. A rosh doesn’t mean that one needs to make an idol, but a chavurah, people come together, it needs to have a rosh. He can be a bit less formal, more formal. Whoever looks around will see that this is true almost always, except if really people are on a very great level, a true group of talmidim (students) who love each other very much, and even then there is a rosh, only he conducts himself nicely with everyone, no problem.

And he said thus, because if there isn’t a rosh, the sitra achra (other side) becomes a rosh. So there is a saying of R’ Elimelech that says.

Yes, there are false rabbis who use this, cult leaders, that a mild one needs he should be the rosh, one doesn’t mean this. But it’s a true thing that he brings out, and whoever looks around at groups of people sees.

Why a Good Rosh Is Necessary

Why if there is a rosh can he be an enemy sitra achra? Yes, it’s not a proof. But when there is a good rosh, he leads it, there is a seder (order), he decides what time one davens (prays), or in the beis medrash (study hall) he decides what time one davens, and which hanhagos (practices) one does here. Understood, he may not be a dictator, but this is the form of the group of people.

When there isn’t a rosh, certainly seemingly it’s neutral, and no one decides, okay, we’ll take votes. And who will count the votes? Yes, it’s not so simple.

When the Sitra Achra Becomes the Rosh

But the fact is, almost always when there is such a group, comes something a sitra achra. There are such bacteria, such parasites, that they grab hold, there becomes there a great dispute, or it becomes completely a twisted group.

I can be that one will say a cult leader, this is the bad sort of leader, is essentially already a parasite. He is not… many times he uses the people, but essentially he is the sitra achra that became the rosh, because there wasn’t a normal rosh.

The Same Yesod by Individual People

And so people, one sees people who are leaderless, yes, people that they cannot lead themselves, he doesn’t have any power of daas, he doesn’t have any independence, he doesn’t have any backbone, he cannot lead himself, and he always seeks a rebbe.

And if he has a good rebbe it’s good, or he can himself become his intellect should be the rebbe over his body is certainly good. But if not he becomes crushed in head, and he grabs hold.

Parasites That Seek Broken People

Translation

There are such parasites, there are people who go around, they search for where there are broken people, who certainly have potential. People are people, all people have an extraordinary potential, certainly relative to other creations. A person is a person, he can make enormous buildings, he can make enormous destructions.

And there are always such parasites who go around, they want to latch onto the etz shelo nechmad [tree that is not desirable], onto that which can become nechmad, it is nechmad. This is the way the world works.

I think that in our shiurim perhaps we have explained a bit the foundation of the neshamos [souls] being trapped, this is how it works.

Internet and Computers as “Chomer Bli Tzurah”

Now, whoever looks at the internet, as we have explained, now I want to go through an overview in any case of this.

We have explained that the internet and computers are an extraordinary chomer bli tzurah [matter without form], it has even from its very essence tremendously more, it can do more things, but it does nothing until you tell it to do something. Until you don’t tell it, it can do everything, not literally everything, but simply you learn exactly how it works, it can do very much.

Why will it? Because it is very basic, it grasps at a very basic level, a very low level, the basic level of existence, which therefore it is not yet defined in any particular thing. Yes, a screen is just something that can, but it can do otherwise.

The Derech HaTeva: Shedim Latch On

So the derech hateva [natural way], there are all kinds of parasites, shedim [demons], mazikin [harmful spirits], ruchot ra’ot [evil spirits], that latch on. This is the reality.

Shedim on Social Media and Internet Platforms

And therefore, whoever looks at social media, or at YouTube, which is perhaps a sort of social media, or even more so like heimishe [insular Jewish community] forums, there is a different sort of shedim that lead them. All of them are led by certain shedim. This is the, one must say this.

Why Memes and Ruchot Drive In

Why, in other words, people communicate, yes, one communicates. Why in social media suddenly there becomes such a ruach [spirit], something a meme, something a ruach, something a meme, something a… something a… what do you call it? A bubble… something an idea drives in, suddenly everyone thinks something crazy. Everyone thinks differently, or everyone who is exposed to this.

It’s like a parasite, a shed has latched on.

And the shed, of course, doesn’t live alone, it lives in the people who write it, it lives among the people who fight, who curse each other on Twitter, and so forth.

This is a shed.

And the hanhagah [conduct/administration] of Tiferes [a Chassidic organization], whoever is against it is literally a shed, or something a shed has latched onto him, I don’t know.

It’s all shedim.

A Clarification: One May Go There, But One Must Know

Don’t think that one may not go there.

I’m just saying, that one must realize that there are many shedim there.

And in all such places shedim circulate.

The Mashal of a Churvah

It’s like a churvah [ruin].

A churvah tells an athlete what it’s not… it can be something, but it’s not a built house.

There are stones there, there are all kinds of objects, chomrei binyan [building materials] as it’s called, the materials from which one builds.

And there shedim circulate.

One must know that shedim circulate there, one must know how to be nizhar [careful/avoid] from there, one must know the eitzah [advice/solution].

Concrete Examples of Shedim in the Digital World

One of the great shedim is called advertisement, right?

One of the other great shedim is called machlokes [dispute], or all those what do you call them, dopamine hacks, and anger hacks, cortisol hacks, which always make you nervous.

This is a shed.

One Doesn’t Blame a Single Person

The shed has such a sort, as it were, one can’t even blame a certain person.

This is what I also do when I say a shed.

It’s not to say, Musk is a rasha [wicked person], Bill Gates who made Windows is a shaygetz [derogatory term for non-Jew].

He’s not a shaygetz.

He’s an extraordinary strong machine that he drives, that he is part of.

When There Is No B’machshavah Techilah

And the teva hadevarim [nature of things] is, that if one doesn’t put b’machshavah techilah [with initial intent] that it should be a certain way and not other ways, almost by itself the shedim latch on and they begin to lead the world.

This is how it is.

I have already been lengthy enough on this, aleh lema’alah ein sham [see above], everyone can look in, and I just have a desire I have given a certain way how one can understand why it looks this way and why I call it a shed.

I’m only saying this so that one shouldn’t become lost.

Shedim and Zenut: The Old Stories Become Literal

And everyone knows, all the old stories about shedim say that shedim love very much… this is indeed the story of Lilit lamed yud lamed tav, and all those stories that say that all shedim love very much zenut [sexual immorality], they love very much zenut, and everything around zenut.

Zenut and Fantasy

A great part of the zenut is with a fantasy, as it says in the old stories, that there are such stories that there was a young man who was caught, he thought he was going with a beautiful girl, the whole story, until he discovered that it was a shed, or other names that the sefarim [books] call it, leitzim [jesters/mockers] and the like.

The Dimyon Has Been “Enslaved” in a Screen

And when it comes into the internet one sees that it’s literally so.

Perhaps once it was a mashal [parable/metaphor] in dimyon [imagination], today it is also in dimyon, but the dimyon has enslaved itself in a screen, right?

When someone looks at a website there where there are devarim asurim v’yafim [forbidden and beautiful things] and the like, and through this he does, he makes himself fertile, he makes, I know what he brings himself literally close to other things, and meanwhile it’s a sheda [female demon].

A Tzelem Is Not a Person

A picture of a person, on the other hand, a picture of a person is also a tzelem [image].

A tzelem, a shed is called a tzelem, right?

A tzelem, a shadow of a person, right?

It’s not a person, it’s not a person, it’s an old fantasy.

Of course, the fantasy lies as it lies in your brain, it’s quite foul literally.

But the idea of it is a fantasy, it’s not such an olam [world] of dimyon.

Fantasy Doesn’t Build a World

Not from this does one build children, not from this are children born, not from this is the world built.

One makes a lot of money on the fantasy, a great part of reality connects here, one must understand.

This is not simple, but I find it illustrative that the old supposedly Zohar for this is an important thing, the Zohar’s mystical ways of thinking are actually helpful, because this way one can understand what’s going on in the story internally, someone who was caught there in the moshav leitzim [seat of scoffers], there he came to the Rebbe and the Rebbe gave him some segulah [spiritual remedy] that he should say.

Yes?

This is how the story goes.

The Dialectic of Shedim: Dimyon with Koach

In other words, I don’t want to go into the topic of whose fault it is, but it’s a fact that it’s a shed that latches onto people.

Shedim Love Certain Sorts

The shedim have, shedim love certain sorts.

Also, one thing, besides they love just to confuse a head, waste time and trap people to trap people’s people, because supposedly the shedim can’t live alone, he always needs a carrier, he needs a person to carry his madness, because shedim, it is not nothing.

Shedim Don’t Exist But Have a Koach

It’s just a dimyon, but the dimyon has a koach [power/force].

This is the dialectic that I’m saying here the whole time.

It doesn’t exist but it has a koach, and the fact is this is how the world turns.

From the Problem to the Eitzah

Until here we have presented another problem, another… it’s useful because this way it helps, instead of saying you’re a rosh [head] who has become a fool, or you’ve become twisted.

Understand, you’re fighting with a shed.

It has a lot of power, and one must find the way how to give oneself an eitzah with this. There are certain segulot, and now one can come to find ways how to give oneself an eitzah here in the pasuk [verse].

Torah as Protection from Shedim

The Zohar says many times that baruch Hashem [blessed is God], lehodot u’lehalel leshimcha hagadol al hakol [to thank and praise Your great Name for everything], that He has given us a Torah.

Mitzvot Aseh and Mitzvot Lo Ta’aseh

The Torah has mitzvot aseh [positive commandments], mitzvot lo ta’aseh [negative commandments].

Mitzvot aseh in general is how one builds upon olam hatikun [the world of rectification], yes:

– Having a wedding

– Having children

– Putting on tefillin

– Davening [praying]

– Doing mitzvot

– Learning

This is the obligation.

Mitzvot Lo Ta’aseh: Protection from Shedim and Ruchot Ra’ot

And the mitzvot lo ta’aseh, what are the mitzvot lo ta’aseh in general? And we have written about this in our article on the corona.

In general, mitzvot lo ta’aseh is how a person is nizhar from all sorts of shedim and ruchot ra’ot.

All the rationalists come and say that there were never any shedim and ruchot ra’ot. Now we understand that they’re quite present.

Concrete Examples of Mitzvot Lo Ta’aseh

And the Torah, here one must listen, one must learn from the Torah.

The Torah, a great part, all the mitzvot lo ta’aseh, for example:

– Not eating chametz on Pesach

– Not eating pig

– All those afflictions on Yom Kippur

– All those things

Are not simply that one doesn’t do nothing. It’s a shemirah [protection], it’s a caution from certain klipot, certain evils, certain shedim, ruchot ra’ot, all kinds of filth, all kinds of not good things that circulate.

And the shofar prevents the prosecution, yes, all sorts of things where one must find a way, one must know what are eitzot.

One Needs Eitzot, Not Just Say “It’s Nothing”

And one needs eitzot, one can’t just say, “Ah, it’s nothing.” This is one eitzah, a certain eitzah, it’s not.

The Gemara in Sanhedrin: “Ein Od Milvado” – Is This Enough?

The Gemara says, so let’s say the eitzot, and here we come to the eitzot.

The Machloket Between Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Chanina

A well-known Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, a machloket:

Rabbi Yochanan said: “Lo menachashim k’ovdei avodah zarah, ela k’shemachishim pemalya shel ma’alah” [They are not diviners like idol worshippers, but rather as those who deny the heavenly retinue].

Rabbi Chanina said, he doesn’t hold this way: “Ein od milvado” [there is nothing besides Him] literally, there is only God. The magic is just sleight of hand, someone comes with a pasuk and he says it does nothing, “ein od milvado”, there is only God.

The Conclusion: “Shani Rabbi Chanina D’nafish Zechutei”

And the Gemara says that it’s not so simple. Why? Because “shani Rabbi Chanina d’nafish zechutei” [Rabbi Chanina is different because his merits are abundant].

The eitzah of saying “ein od milvado” doesn’t… doesn’t

The Eitzah of “Ein Od Milvado” and Its Practical Application

The Gemara of Rabbi Chanina: When Does “Ein Od Milvado” Work?

The story was in practice, someone came with magic, he says, go, it does nothing, “ein od milvado” [there is nothing besides Him], there is only God. And the Gemara says, ah, it’s not so simple. Why? Because “shani Rabbi Chanina d’nafisha zechutei” [Rabbi Chanina is different because his merits are abundant]. The eitzah of saying “ein od milvado” doesn’t work for everyone. It works for Rabbi Chanina who “nafisha zechutei”, but it doesn’t work for just any person. One sees that people are indeed harmed. This is a piece of Gemara.

What do I want to say from this in practice? In practice I want to say this, and afterwards I want to say a bit of a practical thing that comes out from this, and afterwards even more practical things that come out.

“Ein Od Milvado” – Truth and Path

One eitzah, perhaps the best eitzah, which is closer, the most close to the truth, but it’s not so simple to do it. Yes, the Nefesh HaChaim says, and of course in sifrei Chassidut [Chassidic works], certainly so, that if one thinks “ein od milvado”, as it says in the Rambam at the end of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, one thinks of God, all klipot become nullified, all troubles. A fact. If one says “ein od milvado”, kishuf becomes nullified.

In other words, the first shiur in Avnei Barzel of the series, a Jew is stuck unfortunately in the internet, stuck, he struggles every day, he gets up and his head immediately becomes twisted from it. What is the eitzah? He should say Shema Yisrael. It’s always an eitzah against everything, right? He should say Shema Yisrael, remind himself of Hashem Echad, and it’s “yisaper dikdusha yit’orer” [when one speaks of holiness, it awakens], everything becomes nullified, and he doesn’t use the benefit, but all the problems become nullified. This is one derech.

And I will say that it’s not only b’bechinat emet [in the aspect of truth], but b’bechinat derech [in the aspect of a path/method]. This is an eitzah, it’s a certain eitzah. It’s an important eitzah, perhaps without this eitzah no other eitzah works. But it’s an eitzah. It’s the greatest eitzah.

The Limitation of the Eitzah

On the other hand, in a certain sense, the eitzah, first of all, one must understand it. The… one must hold, the nafisha zechutei doesn’t mean he does mitzvot. It means, he was able to hold onto this emunah. A normal person, like that Jew was at a farbrengen, to understand “ein od milvado” he went out to the street, he bumped into the wall, he says, “I still see things besides You.” He bumped in. Right? It’s yes, the world is not literally a fantasy.

So, it’s not so simple, it’s not just a thing, it’s not a slogan that one says, it’s not a bumper sticker that one sticks on the car, “ein od milvado”. “Ein od milvado” is a thing that one can understand, and yechidei segulah need to understand it, one must live it. Perhaps for a few minutes a week a Jew can live it, perhaps Pesach at night. Perhaps those who learned last year the shiur before the Seder, that is dilug truly.

The Eitzah of Ignoring: “Father Is Not Home”

The Foundation of the Eitzah

In the Chassidic sefarim they explain the secrets of the Arizal. The Arizal says that this is not the truly only way, but sometimes there is such a strong klipah, that this is the only language. And this is truly, the only solution is to know that everything is nothing, only God is truth, and normally everything that one doesn’t need to reckon with.

This was the way of many Chassidim, it was in the Ropshitzer dynasty, it was the custom, all the customs of Kriat Shema shel HaMitah, all things that deal with klipot, they didn’t say. Why? Klipot don’t exist. I didn’t understand, there’s another explanation, that there shouldn’t be fear of Gehinnom, but they said, “It doesn’t exist!” They didn’t want to get involved.

The only way, in other words, if one has started to get into eitzot, it will never end. The eitzah is, ignore. By the way, ignoring is a tremendous eitzah. Whoever deals a bit in science between people, one must know when to use it and how, and certainly with the middot hayetzer hara [character traits of the evil inclination], and certainly one must know at which stage to use it, but “I’m not home, father is not home.” It’s a tremendous eitzah. It comes, he says, “Yes, I think I should do the other thing.” “Father is not home now. Come later, we’ll see each other.” We’ll see each other later, we’ll see further.

The Secret of Leil Pesach

This is the secret of Leil Pesach. Leil Pesach, comes, comes, comes the Almighty, “v’avar Hashem lingof et Mitzrayim” [and God will pass through to smite Egypt]. “V’ra’iti et Mitzrayim balailah hazeh” [and I will see Egypt on this night]. This means one understands, “ani v’lo malach” [I and not an angel]. There is only one God.

Pharaoh comes, “Yes, where is…?” “I don’t know, father is not home.” “Yes, Moshe, go search.” “I don’t know, I’m not home. Now I’m engaged in ‘ein od milvado’.” I did an aveirah [transgression] yesterday, I also don’t know. I’m not home now. Yes, this means… this means refusing the invitation.

The Practical Advice from the Perspective of Torah: Internet and Digital Technology

The Second Advice: Temporary Separation – The “Matzah” Model

The Parable of Chametz and Matzah: Medicine, Not the Essential

When a person prays, as it says in all the Chassidic books, but this works more commonly when one is already standing in something good. In other words, when one already has some spiritual merits. I’m going to pray now, I’m going to learn now. Ah, the whole… all the choleras, all the things, all the evil viruses in the world exist. What should be? Father is not home. Come back later. Tonight is Pesach night, today is not teshuva. Today is not to take care of all the problems. Tonight is Pesach night, today one thinks of the Almighty. All problems, Father is not home. Come back later.

The Story of Lot

This is one of the ways how it works. It is certainly the absolute truth, and therefore it is also the advice, even when one is not… Yes, this does come up. I can ask you the question of the Gorlitzer Rebbe, “Well, the world has problems, it’s not me, it does come up.” Indeed, Father is not home. He may knock. “And the men of the city surrounded the house” – this is the story of Lot on Pesach night. Entire generations turn around and around. Well, well, let them turn. I am here, I am not… I’m not talking to you.

And Lot made a mistake, he tried to speak with them. “The daughters of Lot” – this is stated in the Zohar, the secret of the departure of soul and spirit, the lower portion of those who tried slaughter. I am not in any way, I am not here. The angels said, “Tonight is Pesach night, today is not here, one does not perform slaughter, one does not speak with them.” That’s how it is, you know what one speaks. I’m not speaking with them now, I’m not home. He cannot see me, because I live in another world. Tonight there is a screen between the night of Pesach and the entire world. From this one goes out and makes “Shfoch Chamatcha” (Pour out Your wrath), because there is indeed a world. Okay, “Pour out Your wrath upon the nations.” But generally there is no world, and that’s it, and I’m not home.

The Limitation of the Advice: An Emergency Solution

This is advice, it’s wonderful advice, but it’s emergency advice. That is, on one hand this is the ultimate purpose, this is the absolute truth. On the other hand, this is advice, as understood in Nefesh HaChaim, that the advice can only be used in times of pressing need.

Why? Because the Master of the Universe created a world, and the truth is that it’s not in the entire world. Whoever lives only in this is not one who merits the World to Come. Ah, the world is not made. It doesn’t work, the truth is it doesn’t work. It works as first aid, like when a person has a heart attack. One shocks him, it’s a very strong shock, and it helps to revive him, but it doesn’t mean one can keep shocking a person. At some point, it stops working. And at some point, the heart must be able to work on its own. One must know the other ways, the secret of Sefirat HaOmer, the secret of the other seven days of Pesach. One must know the multitude of paths, the multitude of matters.

Two False Understandings of “Ein Od Milvado”

The First Error: Everything is Permitted

Another thing that is connected with this path of ein od milvado (there is nothing besides Him). It’s very important, one must understand, this doesn’t mean that it’s connected, but it doesn’t mean that. Right? We once spoke about Iyov (Job) on Pesach, that it doesn’t mean that this is the truth. But, connected with this way is somewhat the way of burning chametz.

If someone will say that there is only God, one can understand this two ways, right? And one must understand it very well. One can say, therefore, no difference, one may sin, there may be all transgressions, there may be all distractions. There is only God anyway. It’s all just garments, it’s all just… as one says, “nothing and nonsense.” It’s all nothing and nonsense, it’s all not to worry about.

The Second Error: Burn Everything

And there is such a one who comes more extreme and says, if so, one must burn everything else. If there is only God, it means one must burn the smartphone in the chametz fire, because there is only God. This is the idea of burning chametz.

And who is right? Who better understands ein od milvado? Both of them not, right? Ein od milvado is above the distinction of whether one must indeed burn the chametz or not burn the chametz.

The True Middle Path

But what? Just as we say that ein od milvado itself is not the complete ultimate purpose, which is a difficult thing to say, but this is the reality, whoever has tried sees that it is so.

And just so there are certain garments for opinions. One garment is, one doesn’t care about the whole thing. Sinned, didn’t sin, it’s all the same God. And the second way, which is also like advice, as I say that advice which emerges from Shema Yisrael, and not Shema Yisrael. Like a great question, that if one is in a place of danger he cries out Shema Yisrael, that you use the greatest thing for your foolish problem. How does it fit? Yes, it fits. But it’s an aspect of advice.

Burning Chametz: A Temporary Advice

And the same way there is advice of burning. The advice is very important to know, very important to know that the advice is temporary advice, as we learned from the entire secret of chametz, chametz is the counsel of the evil inclination, chametz is materiality, chametz is the root of all sins. If one should not eat chametz a whole year? No.

Burning the chametz is temporary advice. Separation is a way, but it’s temporary advice. Why is it temporary advice? Because it’s only a certain garment of service. The service doesn’t mean that the Almighty didn’t create the world, it doesn’t mean the world should be burned. It can be separated, and there is truth in the connection, but it’s not the truth.

The Rebbe May Not – But the Almighty May

Why Great People Must Abstain

Therefore, there is one advice. Let’s say the second practical advice. The first practical advice is to ignore, this is like mixing pride for the sake of humility. But the Almighty, as one says, yes, it’s stated in the Arizal, Petachei She’arim brings from the Arizal, it’s stated in books thus, why did the Almighty lower an angel? If not, is he no longer a king? Because the king would have become degraded. True? Yes.

In other words, this is not Torah, this is his path of service. This is the Chassidic path of service, that one cannot go down and go over. In other words, the Rebbe with the Rosh Yeshiva with the Mashgiach with all the tzaddikim, they cannot go on the internet, they cannot go where we are, because they would become degraded. Therefore they burn against it. When someone says one may not have a smartphone, the simple meaning is he is like the angel who became degraded. Indeed a great angel, but there was a great angel, Aza and Azael, who became degraded and went through the flood, he became degraded.

The Simple Jew Goes with the Almighty

Tell them very well, the Rebbe cannot go. The Rebbe indeed may not go, because the Rebbe would become degraded. But I am not with the Rebbe, I am with the Almighty. The Almighty may indeed go. The only one who may go on the internet is the Almighty Himself, or the Jew who goes with the Almighty Himself. The Almighty Himself can indeed go, He does not become lost. “All movements do not affect Him” one says in the lesson on Divine Unity. The Almighty does not become lost, He is also before this, and this is advice, therefore one goes to the Almighty Himself, He dances over the whole thing, the Almighty is also there.

The Rebbe is indeed not there, as it states in the Torah that it’s forbidden, but the Almighty doesn’t need to follow the Torah. But wait, yes, He is above the Torah, He is there also. This is one advice.

The Last Advice: Finding Food as a Remedy

Another advice, which the advice looks like the Rebbe was also more in agreement, but the truth is that it’s not the world of rectification either, it’s only temporary, as the Zohar says that finding food is a remedy, the world doesn’t grasp what he means.

The Internet and Digital Technology: Practical Advice from Torah Perspective

The Second Advice: Temporary Separation – The “Matzah” Model

The Parable of Chametz and Matzah: Medicine, Not Essential

The Rebbe is indeed not there. It states in the Torah that it’s forbidden, but the Almighty doesn’t need to follow the Torah. Wait? Yes, He is above the Torah, He is there also. This is one advice.

Another advice, which the advice sounds like the Rebbe also more agrees, but the truth is that it’s not the world of rectification either, it’s only temporary. As the Zohar says that matzah is food of healing, the world doesn’t grasp what he means. I have an answer why one doesn’t need to eat matzah a whole year. What he means to say is, that it’s not a good thing, matzah is not in itself better than chametz. On the contrary, chametz is originally better. Matzah is a medicine, as it states in Rambam, and everyone knows, that here is a thing that one must do for the sake of healing.

Essentially it’s not good to go radical, one doesn’t need to go to the other extreme, one doesn’t need to give all the money entirely for charity, or entirely in humility and so forth. But since there are such problems, it is the exodus from Egypt, one must go to the other extreme. And this is the meaning of the Zohar, that the Zohar says that not eating chametz is an aspect of medicine, it’s not an aspect of good in itself, it’s not better to eat matzah essentially, but there are situations where it’s better, one must do for the sake of healing one must do so. Therefore for a whole week one doesn’t eat any chametz at all, afterwards, this will give us the truth, that this draws up, this is a medicine, this gives the person that he receives back a balance in his soul, through this he can after Pesach indeed work with the chametz and fix it.

The Practical Application: Temporary Separation from the Digital World

The same thing, someone has become in a certain sense, one says inner foolishness for younger people, or people who are in the aspect of fools, or women which is the aspect of fools and so forth. He says, “I don’t agree to the whole thing, I’m going to burn the whole thing.” It’s advice, it’s advice. I will burn, he makes a very strict filter, or he throws away the whole thing. And he says, “I know it’s not the ultimate purpose, I know it’s not good, yes, but I’m doing it for a while for its own sake, it’s also a certain world above the land of Egypt, for a while for its own sake I must separate myself from the whole thing temporarily, because I’m completely mixed up.”

This is advice, practical advice. Many people, I don’t mean only many people, as the Torah, you see advice, you see how deep the Torah is. Yes, Chazal say that the Torah is deep counsel, counsel from afar like merchant ships, deep counsel from the great ones of the land. It’s deep advice. We would have thought that the advice is always away, or one person, and the Torah comes and makes a tremendous order. There is chametz, this is indeed a huge problem, the entire Egypt is itself the aspect of chametz, the entire sitra achra is chametz. Therefore what should one do? Ah, he says so, okay, the first, once a year, for seven days, one should not eat any chametz. This is the advice.

The Skverer Rebbe’s “Digital Detox” – A Thought Experiment

One must enter, one must respect a bit, one must appreciate a bit the sort of advice that the Torah gives, because we don’t know to think this way. Yes, imagine, the Skverer Rebbe came, and he contemplated the black shell of the internet that he saw in heaven, and he says, you think the advice is such that all Jews, yes, there is a problem, and one speaks truth, it’s a nice thing that one must have it, it’s a nice thing, not that one must have it, yes, it’s a mitzvah, it’s an obligation, one cannot turn away. Should I tell you what one must do? I contemplated the matter of chametz, I studied this, I looked in the writings of the Arizal what one does when there is such a shell. The Arizal says that the advice is thus, the Torah says that the advice is thus: seven days a year all Jews go on a digital detox.

One doesn’t touch any, as the Skverer Rebbe says that one does it a whole year, but he didn’t hold out. But for seven days a year! One doesn’t touch any screens, one doesn’t touch any phones, one will sell it with vows of boundaries, one will sell it to a gentile. If someone needs it strongly, he will sell it to a gentile. Understandably, there is always a way that one shouldn’t become stuck. But this is his approach, one will cover with papers, one will put, one will find all sorts of things to do instead of the chametz. For seven days one doesn’t touch it.

Someone will ask, what does it mean, it’s forbidden? No! But we need to find, we need… What I understand is, a person must have in his soul a certain distance, he cannot be sunken, right? He cannot be sunken in the depths of the sea, he cannot be like a pit full of snakes and scorpions, he cannot, he must find distance. Therefore, he fasts. For seven days he doesn’t touch it. What will be in the seven days, will one burst? For seven days one cannot survive? No, everyone survives almost seven days without chametz. As far as the soul can, as far as the soul can.

Shabbat as an Example: Once a Week Without Technology

But almost everyone survives the same thing, once a week a year one doesn’t touch the phone at all. We already do this on Shabbat. All Jews conduct themselves this way once a week, not only once a year, and it’s certainly one of the great rectifications. One can deduce, generally we are told on Shabbat one may not have a phone, it’s not clear which prohibition it is. But all Jews conduct themselves this way, and it’s without doubt that this is a rectification.

That is, this makes an entirely different sort of person. It makes that the whole week he doesn’t crave. Why? Because he knows that Shabbat he’s not there, not because he knows, he has like a level in his soul where he doesn’t touch it. And understandably, it doesn’t mean it’s pride God forbid, because it’s difficult sometimes. The person for whom it’s difficult not to touch, he indeed uses his phone on Shabbat. Well, perhaps only one Shabbat a year, one week a year, perhaps in honor of Pesach.

I thought many times, to introduce such a custom that Pesach one doesn’t look. I cannot, perhaps it’s not practical. But perhaps certain things, I was years that Pesach I didn’t go on social media. I said, Pesach is a holiday, it makes a lot of sense, not because I’m holy, it’s a holiday, one wants to spend with the family, I don’t want to use a computer. I cannot, I don’t want to.

Freedom Means “I Am in Control”

We will speak more practically how one can carry out such advice in practice. On that website I don’t go. Ah, there they only speak words of Torah. Very good. It’s a great mitzvah to go a whole year. It’s also a great mitzvah to eat chametz a whole year, but Pesach not. And so one receives freedom. This is what freedom means. Freedom means, I have space, I am in control of the thing, not it is in control of me. And this is the second practical advice.

Why Is It Temporary? The Question of “Ein Od Milvado”

The Third Advice: Making the Vessel Holy – Unifying Matter and Form

It certainly comes up, now what makes many people uncomfortable, yes, it’s built on the “ein od milvado” (there is nothing besides Him) from the land of Egypt. But it’s temporary. Why is it temporary? One could say, on the contrary, the true “ein od milvado” is temporary. We in this world cannot have it permanently. But one doesn’t grasp this, because that’s not the truth. The true “ein od milvado” is that even this is good. But fine, but there’s a certain time when one throws the “ein od milvado” through the way. And therefore one may do it temporarily, so that one shouldn’t err. Rabbeinu Yonah doesn’t eat chametz the whole year, he knew it was an addition. That’s the second thing. The second advice.

These two pieces of advice are closer to known things that everyone knows. Now I want to continue to advice that not everyone knows. In other words, what TAG [Technology Awareness Group] has never heard of. About these two pieces of advice, presumably we’re already talking.

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The Third Advice: Making the Vessel Holy – Unifying Matter and Form

A Story with a Head of TAG: The Anti-Thesis to the “Treif” Approach

So, the story is like this, I once met one of the heads of TAG, who davens in my shul. Once I met him on Purim at the seudah, and I told him like this, I hold that he’s making a big mistake. He turns around and says, I have my own, and I say at my shiur that I have a plan for him. He turns around and tells everyone that a phone is treif, it’s tamei, and the internet is treif, it’s tamei.

I have a plan for him, let’s make a switch, on the contrary and on the contrary, just think, we think this way. And actually one tells everyone, actually one says that it’s completely holy. It’s completely holy.

The Phone as a “Holy Object” – All of Torah in One Vessel

A phone is such a kind of holiness, the entire service lies in the phone. It can reach the entire world, all words of Torah fit in. Imagine, yes? It’s not simple. A normal siddur can only be one siddur, it can have all nusachos, all siddurim, all kavanos at once. It’s not normal. It’s a holiness without parallel. All of Torah with the entire treasure of wisdom, with everything… with tzedakah, with a tzedakah pushka, with a shofar, one can put everything together. In short, almost all mitzvos fit into the phone. All of Torah certainly fits in. And it’s certainly a very holy object.

Prayers and Blessings for the Phone

It’s not at all a proof to tell the people, for example, it’s a very holy thing, a phone. One may not touch the phone before washing one’s hands. And in the morning, first, one must do differently. And afterwards, and perhaps one should make an order of blessings. Asher kidshanu (Who has sanctified us), I don’t know, asher asah li es ha’internet, asher asah li es haphone bikdushah (Who made the internet for me, Who made the phone for me in holiness). One makes a blessing. The Sages instituted blessings on every action. It’s a thing, yes? And for us, this is advice. The Jews struggled with a big problem, how does one live? A person eats and sleeps and everything, how does one live? But one makes a blessing on everything. What is a blessing? One makes formulas.

We are accustomed, actually, we cannot make new blessings. Okay, I don’t know. If one can make the internet, one can perhaps make new blessings too, I don’t know. But as Reb Motele of Debrecen says, the goyim may, but the Chassidim may not. We may not make a new blessing. One actually needs a blessing in the morning before opening the phone.

With the blessing should be a prayer. Just as one says when eating for the eyes, “shelo targileini besoref ochel ve’al tevi’eini lidei chet” [Don’t accustom me to fine foods and don’t bring me to sin]. Certainly in writing, there needs to be a prayer.

The Proposal: “Seder Techinot L’Internet”

Why doesn’t TAG put out a siddur “Seder Techinot L’Internet”? Which prayer, which supplication one says when going to such a website, which supplication one says when going to social media, “shelo yachshiluni bachavrei ve’esmach bahem” [May my friends not trap me and may I rejoice with them]. Simple prayers, that one needs to say. Just as the Bnei Yissaschar says about other things, if there’s no prayer in the siddur, one can make it oneself. One doesn’t need to be an Arizal, one doesn’t need to be an Arizal, “bechol lashon she’atah shomea” [in any language that you hear]. You can’t be obligated to make something like the holy Zohar text. One needs to make.

The Deeper Point: Taking the Vessel Seriously

But what I want to say deeper, I want to say deeper, that one needs to take the vessel seriously. Making it holy is a joke. Making it serious. In other words, let’s go back to our plan. We said that the great trouble is, the secret of the trouble is, that here is matter that can do everything, but it doesn’t know what it wants to do. It always wants to be able to do everything, it doesn’t want to do anything.

Unifying Matter and Form – Changes in the Physical Form

Therefore, the advice for this is, perhaps it’s not… I mean that one can, and the truth is that there are several theoreticians, people who work on this, but the problem is that there’s not enough money in it, so it doesn’t become so publicized. But one can, everyone at home can do certain such kinds of things, and it makes a truly huge change in the entire relationship.

What does one need to do? One needs to begin to unify the matter with the form. To unify a good one. For example, it’s perhaps technically not so true now, but it’s a fact that it is so true. This is for example, an iPad, a tablet, which one says one can have everything on it. But what’s the problem? One can also have other things. True? So there are solutions. I don’t know, I mean that the filter is backwards.

The Innovation: Not Just Software, But Physical Limitations

But the advice needs to be the other way. One needs to take this, this, iSchool sells such an iPad that has on it very nicely. I mean that it’s also a proper iPad. One needs to make, there is, one sells today such devices, it’s actually for the giants. One needs to make a device that is not made, perhaps it doesn’t work at all, or there needs to be a law in the matter, not just in the form. This is an innovation. A filter is still everything, and you’ve only pressed a “block”. No, one needs to have the form, the shape, the piece of plastic.

One needs to take seriously the piece of plastic, because the piece of plastic, technically it’s said, it will be created in the same computer that lies in the large and in the small, it makes no difference. Because our people, even with great knowledge and everything, we still live in the world of objects. In the world of objects I mean the world of reality, but in the world of objects.

Hardware Level: Actions in the Body of the Vessel – The Third Advice

The Foundation: People Live in the World of Objects

Teacher: This is an innovation. A filter is still everything – one can do everything, but one puts a block. No. One needs to have the form, yes, the body – the piece of plastic. One needs to take seriously the piece of plastic. Because the piece of plastic – technically what’s the difference what shape it is. It’s essentially the same computer that lies in the large and the small. It does make a difference.

For us people are – it goes, we have great knowledge in everything – we still live in the world of objects. Objects means the matter and forms, but in the world of objects. So naturally, how one sees the object makes a big difference. One needs to have certain objects that are certain things.

The Difference Between Vessels: Phone, E-Book, Tablet

Phone Versus E-Book – The Matter Is Not Made to Be a Book

So the first thing, for example, practically speaking – I for example, very much like a phone which is very practical to read on a screen or on a screen. I need to buy it an extra difference for this. A phone is not there. First of all it’s too small. Second, the light is not proper. Wherever, there are unlimited platforms where one can see not just from the form. From the matter, it’s not truly made to be a book.

Yes, there are e-books, which are made more so one can read. When one can technically read on everything, but it’s not made! The matter, it’s not made! It’s made for everything, a thing that’s made to be everything ends up being nothing, and this is, God forbid, the dwelling place of all demons.

The Necessity of Designation – Designating the Vessel for a Purpose

Therefore one needs to make, perhaps one needs to make intentions, here are whole questions, how must it be designated. One needs to search about, this is not fully solved things, a large part because the vessels that we buy are made by the demons. But there are certain, for example one should be able to buy, in stores everyone should buy. One can buy an e-book, e-ink, whatever it’s called, which more or less one can technically do everything on it. The stage that this whole thing is busy, that technically the book can, it can. This is not our problem. Every thing one can. With a nail one can hammer into a person’s head, and one can build a house. One can, on a large scale one can.

One needs to have designation, and one needs that the form factor, the vessel, the very matter of the thing, should be a book. And the truth is that there’s not enough, one can need to make even more. It will be missing a cover, and one needs to make that it should be, and it has to do with a whole discussion about skeuomorphism and stuff.

Actions in the Body of the Vessel – Not Just in the Soul

One needs to do more for the body than for the soul. It’s not a topic of the inner dimension, it’s more a topic of the external dimension, the other is of the body, the vessel of the thing. It should be that it can be designated, first of all one can designate it, then it doesn’t work.

A person buys a certain tool, then he designates it, he says “hareini koneh lishmah” (behold I am acquiring for its purpose), that means for its purpose. One takes a matzah and makes it for the purpose of the commandment of matzah. When he buys a book and says “hareini koneh sefer zeh, this e-book, for the purpose of Torah study, for the purpose of studying wisdom,” he’s going to read in this, even for the purpose of pleasurable study. This should be the newspaper, no problem. Ah, it’s not really a newspaper, and every time the newspaper comes automatically. Certainly, it’s more enjoyable, even better.

But now, this should be the newspaper, and one needs to make an action, the law is from designation usually one needs to make an action. One needs to make an action in the body of the vessel, in the body of the thing, which is designated for the thing.

The Effect of Designation – How It Changes Reality

When the Vessel Is Designated, the Other Thing Doesn’t Exist

And suddenly, you’ll notice, that if someone has such a kind of thing, the other thing doesn’t exist. Technically he can. Technically, everything is technical. But we don’t live in a world of technically. We live in a world of things, of objects. This object now, it’s a book. Now he’ll say, “ah, this is my book.” If he’s not in the mood for reading, he doesn’t do it. Technically one can also read on a phone, and technically one can also do many things. He’s not talking now about technically, he’s talking now about the way people actually live, which is in the world of objects.

The Same Thing in Reverse – A Phone Is Made to Be a Phone

And the same thing is in reverse, yes? That means, if for example, and here it becomes more complicated, a phone is made that it should always be in your pocket and it should follow you. It should be “follow you like a dog.” And it turns out, unfortunately it turns out in many situations, but it doesn’t turn out so strongly. And nothing happened. And one needs to do the action in the body of the thing, which I’m doing here on the point of the third advice, which is truly one can make a whole shiur just on details of this advice, but I feel that everyone needs to do trial and error for themselves, and there’s also a lot of work to do truly.

Practical Advice: Working with the Body of the Vessel

Working on the Hardware Level, Not Just on the Software Level

And if someone wants to make kosher technology, he should know that what he needs to do truly is work on the body instead of working on the heavens, making sure that one shouldn’t be able to access. And then one will indeed be able to access, that’s not the problem. But it needs to be clear, perhaps for example the device that one makes has even such a thing, yes, the 24, what’s it called? It’s a music thing, that’s what it is. It has a certain color, a certain size that’s well made for this, perhaps yes, perhaps not. And that’s what it is. It’s a tremendous fact. It’s not much about… one can’t there the technique, perhaps one can technically, yes, I don’t know if one can yes or one can’t, that’s not the topic. It’s giving a form to the matter, he gave a form to the matter.

The Matter Receives the Form from the Vessel

Backwards, but in a certain funny sense, the matter is what receives here, it gives the form, the matter gives the form to the matter, because the vessel makes it that it should be such a kind of thing.

The Importance of Where the Vessel Lies

Or if someone has a phone and puts it in a certain place. I saw in research and I checked it, it’s absolutely true, that a person has a phone and it just lies on him, he’s already in a certain sense in his mind he’s there, he’s available. This is a fact, most people. Again, technically, everything. I’m not talking about technically, I’m talking now about how people actually work. The kind of advice that the Torah always gives. And he noticed that the Torah always gives such kinds of advice.

I’m already too long and I’m already too lengthy, so… But if for example a person wants to not be distracted from his phone, research has been done, one needs to put the phone in another room. Perhaps even in another corner of the room already helps.

The Old Picture Versus the New Picture of a Learning Jew

It’s on my table, when I sit down to learn and next to my Gemara is a phone, so that’s the simple meaning, you don’t need to look, you don’t need to… What is there a picture of a Jew who learns? The old picture of a Jew who learns looks like a person, okay, a coffee, a cigarette with a Gemara. That’s what a Jew who learns looks like and he’s there, right? He already has a cigarette and he doesn’t need to go anywhere.

A contemporary picture looks like a Jew has a cigarette with a phone. I had, a simple phone is just as bad as a smartphone in this sense. I have a lot of experience with this, I’ve been learning in chavrusos for tens of years, tens of people with this, and I do it too. But that’s what it is. Now what’s happening? It means simply a new kind of picture. Not the picture technically what one can do, it’s a new kind of picture of reality, and people live in the world of bodies, not just in the world of what one can radically do technically.

The New Reality – Learning with All the Demons on the Side

Wherefore, if one sits down with a Gemara and a phone on the side, you’re sitting with the Gemara and with all the demons on the side. No problem, certainly you’re not going to look, you’re going to answer me a call only on emergency pickup, everything is fine and well.

Practical Advice for Digital Self-Control: Time Limitations and the Power of Vows

But with research and ministers, research has been done on this, that everyone can make a line’s features so that it will be a bit less. As you recognize, you don’t need any great which, your servant can be that on Shabbos there are many who are not weak to deal with a cellphone or a book or a Gemara. No, because even on Shabbos too, he has teeth to be clever first, also needs to pick up the phone truly, and the same thing from being awake. No, it makes a difference. And this is another example of what one needs to do – a concrete action.

More Practical Examples: Stickers, Yichud, and Kissing the Vessel

One Must Do an Action – Put the Phone on a Different Table

One must do an action, it will learn itself, take your phone, ignore it, on the next table. People have done this. No, one buys a lock. One must find strategies for this. Such schools that have such… lately, I think it’s a wonderful strategy. It’s also a good thing, I tell in the cold… I become in a shul that doesn’t allow. And certain ones see, I won’t be worth in so many details. These are two strategies that I say practically.

The General Principle: Hardware Level, Not Software Level

But the general principle is that instead of seeking strategies on the software level, one must seek strategies on the hardware level. Strategies on the hardware level means that one must do, certainly if we want, the first two strategies I mentioned, going completely beyond in wealth, if we want to go into living with this world, one must find strategies on the hardware level.

Practical Examples: Stickers, Kissing, and Yichud

Perhaps put a sticker, one must do actions in this world that designate the material to a certain form. Just as a woman doesn’t become betrothed with nothing, she becomes betrothed with a ring, and the custom is that she wears the ring always, now she is a betrothed woman. The same thing, one must take the phone and put on it a sticker, not the sticker that says tags, kosher device. Perhaps also. In a certain sense, they’re not crazy for thinking this way.

Buy a Special iPad Only for Torah

But this should only be a beginning to start running. One must make this be, the tablet is a Gemara. This should mean that it’s a Gemara, one gives it a kiss. Why doesn’t one give it a kiss? I’ve seen people learning with taste with an iPad, he sometimes doesn’t give a kiss to the iPad when he finishes learning, or he starts like he does with the Gemara. Why is it lacking?

Very good. And buy a special iPad, immerse it, okay, one can ask whether it goes down in the mikvah, find some way. Take a special iPad, and on that iPad should only be Torah. Why does this perhaps work? Because sages once had to look something up? I don’t mean technically. I mean it’s the yichud.

And put on it a big sticker, “This is a Gemara.” Put it in the Gemara closet, and take it out and give it a kiss. It’s a holy thing.

The Difference Between Phone and Tablet – The Heimish Wisdom

A Phone Is Made to Run After a Person

And if a person has a phone, it’s not so purposeful. A phone, the form factor is that it should be a thing that runs the whole time after a person. One must know what it’s made for. But it’s an important thing, I communicate with other Jews, it’s a great mitzvah. One must make all the safeguards and it should be designated for this. And it’s not for…

The Heimish People Grasp the Foundation – Tablet, Not Phone

I mean for example, many of the Heimish people grasp this thing a bit, and say, one makes a tablet, not a phone. I hold that there’s great wisdom in this. One must go much more, much deeper, much further with this sort of understanding, right? Perhaps a phone isn’t made to… There’s a technical reason, it’s another thing that I’m not fulfilling any…

A Phone Isn’t Made to Watch Videos

A phone isn’t made to watch videos. For example, it’s very small, it’s not pleasant to watch videos. If one must watch, one must watch really like this, in front of the eyes. It’s really like this, you block yourself out from the whole world. It’s a very problematic body.

So one can see, a phone is very good at being a phone. It’s very not good for other things that have been put into it. And the truth is, one must, not all things, perhaps for WhatsApp it’s good, and for certain things. But it’s very not good to watch videos, and one can see that it’s…

Summary: The Foundation of the Third Strategy

One must speak about this much more. I see that here there are very many details that perhaps should already be a whole educational lecture. But the main foundation of the matter is this, that one must attend to, one must be engaged in this sort of hardware, not just this sort of hardware, but where it lies.

Example: Where the Phone Lies in an Office

If someone for example has an office or a place, and his phone lies on a certain shelf, and when it rings he has to pick it up and go with it, he has already given a certain form to this. Perhaps which sort of apps he puts, other various technical strategies that the world knows and understands and people who are involved in this, these are all ways how one can live with this, when one must live with this, and these are all strategies.

This Isn’t a New Shulchan Aruch – Everyone Must Do Trial and Error

And I don’t know if it’s worthwhile, it’s perhaps appropriate yes to make several details, but I won’t make too much that it becomes another whole Shulchan Aruch, I won’t make new Shulchan Aruchs. But the idea, the basic idea is this,

Practical Advice for Digital Self-Control: Time Limitations and the Power of Vows

Time Control and Availability

And one must also, by the way, when people need to control their schedules, it can’t be that a person must be available on his phone from early morning until night.

If there’s a bad boss or a bad rosh kollel, I don’t know what, a bad rosh yeshiva who says, “In this next office no one may be available on social media” and so on, I think he’s doing a favor for everyone. He’ll go afterwards, nothing happened that he’ll be limited in a certain way.

The internet is certainly useful, doesn’t yet mean that one must be there the whole time. If someone is really crazy, he only looks at the… sorry, I also have distractions now.

One must for example make time like Shabbos. Perhaps Shabbos is enough, by the way, I’m not saying Shabbos, perhaps Shabbos is more than enough. But these are the sort of approaches that one can think. One can think much more.

The Foundation of Vows – A Torah Method for Self-Control

The Basic Concept of Vows

The whole topic of vows which is built on this, that a Jew can sanctify a certain object. Although from the Torah there are oaths, there are things that you have forbidden yourself and you have sanctified yourself. But the meaning is that a Jew can himself make “a vow upon myself regarding this thing.”

The Difference Between an Oath and a Vow

And the great advantage, what is the thing, right? A person makes a vow. Why shouldn’t he be able to say, “I will make an oath”? What is the difference between an oath and a vow?

He makes an oath, “I won’t eat this week except such and such.” No. He makes a… a vow is different from an oath. A vow is simply I say, “This thing is forbidden to me.”

Now, when he sees this… what is the difference? Why do people make vows and not just oaths? Because this helps much more.

The Power of “This Thing Is Forbidden to Me”

When a person says, this piece, this sort of meat, this meat, or this sort of meat, or this piece of meat, now it is forbidden to me, now it is for me like pork. It’s not pork for everyone, for me it’s pork.

Suddenly you’ll see, there’s much less chance that he’ll transgress his vow God forbid, than now telling him, “I don’t want to eat meat this week.” It’s a great difference.

Of course, a person can himself permit his oath, there’s also a way. These are all distant remedies and amulets, that one must learn.

Conclusion: The Practical Message of Pesach

And I hope everyone should have a joyous Pesach, and learn from the Torah, from the ways that the Torah gives itself advice with the contradiction, with Haman, with Pharaoh, with chametz, one can learn practically for our life for our sort of problems.

A joyous Yom Tov.