QUESTION:
1) What is the connection between the final nisayon (test) of Klal Yisrael which is in the area of emunah (as the Gemara explains in Talmud Bavli Makkos 24a), with the nisayon of the Internet which is also called the final nisayon? What does the challenge of the internet have to do with a test to our emunah?
ANSWER:
These [internet] devices give a person the feeling that he is in charge of everything, from wherever he is in the world. Through internet devices, a person can be sitting in one country and turning on an appliance in a different country. When a person lives like this, it is the opposite of feeling how everything is in the hands of Hashem.
QUESTION
2) The Gra says that anyone who has emunah and bitachon will survive chevlei Mashiach. If a person has connection to a treif phone, can he still have emunah and bitachon and be saved from chevlei Mashiach?
ANSWER
No, because his bitachon is certainly weakened through owning these devices.
QUESTION
3) When a person uses Internet only if it’s filtered or if he only uses it for Torah purposes or to visit Torah websites, how does this hold him back from pnimiyus and from true avodas Hashem and from having a true connection to Hashem? How is he connected to the 50th level of tumah? You can’t tell on him that he’s connected to the 50th level of tumah. Not only that, but many people who use smartphones and Internet seem to be serving Hashem quite well, and it’s just that they have a mistaken attitude about technology and they don’t see it as a threat to them – while there are many bnei Torah who don’t have anything to do with Internet, yet they don’t seem to be as connected to avodas Hashem as many smartphone users are. How are we to understand this?
ANSWER
[With being connected to Internet and having an internet-capable device], they are inwardly connected to the Internet without even being aware of it, in a way that’s hidden which most people can’t tell. But deep down they are connected to the Internet when they make use of it, whether they are aware of their connection to it or not, and slowly their connection to the Internet becomes revealed outward [in how they behave and talk, etc.]
QUESTION
4) What’s the source that merely having an Internet-capable device makes a person connected to tumah even if he’s not actually on the Internet? Is it because of what Chazal say, “Whatever is connected to impurity becomes impure”, meaning that the very capability of a person to connect to the Internet at any given moment (because he owns an internet device) is tumah in and of itself, even when he’s not actually using the Internet and he merely owns an internet device?
ANSWER
Yes, but even more than that, he is constantly absorbing outside influences by having this device on him.
QUESTION
5) Is there a deeper meaning as to why the final nisayon of Klal Yisrael is specifically through a kli, “device” that blocks him from the truth? The fact that this challenge is coming to us in the form of a physical device that people have on them?
ANSWER
Yes. It is the evil that counters the holiness of Mashiach ben Dovid, who corresponds to the level of Malchus, which is called kli (container, or device).
QUESTION
6) After Mashiach comes will even kosher phones be destroyed?
ANSWER
There won’t be a need for them, when Mashiach is completely revealed.
QUESTION
7) Has the Rav heard of R’ Kobi Levi shlit”a who wages war against the Internet? Is it a mitzvah to widespread his sefarim since he’s the only one in the generation who screams about this in a way that penetrates the heart?
ANSWER
His scream is a scream of truth.
QUESTION
8) I heard in the name of Rav Don Segal shlit”a that the first thing Mashiach will get rid of is the immodest sheitels of today. Why won’t Mashiach first get rid of smartphones?
ANSWER
Please ask him.
QUESTION
9) If I see someone in yeshiva who has a smartphone but I have no idea if it’s a treif phone or not, should I react strongly to him or at least voice my protest at him? I’m not asking if I have an obligation to rebuke him or not, rather I am asking if I should protest actions that are evil.
ANSWER
Cry to Hashem that He purify His world.
QUESTION
10) Is it bittul Torah and a waste of time to learn the proper hashkafah about Galus and Geulah and the period of history we are in, i.e. to learn the sefarim of the Satmar Rav, Rav Elya Weintraub zt”l [and other sefarim of daas Torah] which explain what we’re going through now in the end of Galus and seeing these matters at their root, in the words of the Gra and others about the End of Days, etc. Most bnei Torah that I know would rather learn just Gemara and not look into these matters at all, and I think it’s because they fear that learning about these things will drag them away from regular learning of Gemara b’iyun. However I also think that any serious ben Torah today needs to get the proper hashkafah today on many topics of our generation, such as knowing the mentality to have towards the Medinah, the Erev Rav, the concept of being in Galus, how we should view the goyim, the influences of the generation on the Torah world, and the problems that have arisen in the last couple of years, etc. Because without knowing the daas Torah about these matters, it’s almost certain that a person today will be influenced by the generation and his ruchniyus is in danger because he is ignorant of important knowledge that he should be aware of. What is the proper attitude to have about this?
ANSWER
One should study these topics while remaining properly balanced with regular in-depth Torah learning.
QUESTION
11) The Gra explains that in the period of Galus before Mashiach comes is like death. The destruction of the Beis HaMikdash is compared to the soul leaving the body, being exiled out of Eretz Yisrael is like being buried, and the worms that eat at the flesh in the grave are like the goyim who attack Klal Yisrael during the Galus. The rotting “bones” in the grave are like the yeshivos that remained in Klal Yisrael throughout the Galus, and the bones that remain intact are the Talmidei Chachomim. Then even those remaining bones rot (we are left without true Talmidei Chachomim), and we are left with the decomposed bones, which is us, the final generation, who are compared to dirt. While this metaphor of the Gra seems to imply that the final generation is the lowest level and likened to the dirt, perhaps we can interpret it as encouragement for us, that we are the last remainder after everything has been finished, and that it’s precisely through us that the Jewish people will go out of Galus. Can this interpretation be correct?
ANSWER
Both implications are true.
QUESTION
2) The Gra says that anyone who has emunah and bitachon will survive chevlei Mashiach. If a person has connection to a treif phone, can he still have emunah and bitachon and be saved from chevlei Mashiach?
ANSWER
No, because his bitachon is certainly weakened through owning these devices.
QUESTION
3) When a person uses Internet only if it’s filtered or if he only uses it for Torah purposes or to visit Torah websites, how does this hold him back from pnimiyus and from true avodas Hashem and from having a true connection to Hashem? How is he connected to the 50th level of tumah? You can’t tell on him that he’s connected to the 50th level of tumah. Not only that, but many people who use smartphones and Internet seem to be serving Hashem quite well, and it’s just that they have a mistaken attitude about technology and they don’t see it as a threat to them – while there are many bnei Torah who don’t have anything to do with Internet, yet they don’t seem to be as connected to avodas Hashem as many smartphone users are. How are we to understand this?
ANSWER
[With being connected to Internet and having an internet-capable device], they are inwardly connected to the Internet without even being aware of it, in a way that’s hidden which most people can’t tell. But deep down they are connected to the Internet when they make use of it, whether they are aware of their connection to it or not, and slowly their connection to the Internet becomes revealed outward [in how they behave and talk, etc.]
QUESTION
4) What’s the source that merely having an Internet-capable device makes a person connected to tumah even if he’s not actually on the Internet? Is it because of what Chazal say, “Whatever is connected to impurity becomes impure”, meaning that the very capability of a person to connect to the Internet at any given moment (because he owns an internet device) is tumah in and of itself, even when he’s not actually using the Internet and he merely owns an internet device?
ANSWER
Yes, but even more than that, he is constantly absorbing outside influences by having this device on him.
QUESTION
5) Is there a deeper meaning as to why the final nisayon of Klal Yisrael is specifically through a kli, “device” that blocks him from the truth? The fact that this challenge is coming to us in the form of a physical device that people have on them?
ANSWER
Yes. It is the evil that counters the holiness of Mashiach ben Dovid, who corresponds to the level of Malchus, which is called kli (container, or device).
QUESTION
6) After Mashiach comes will even kosher phones be destroyed?
ANSWER
There won’t be a need for them, when Mashiach is completely revealed.
QUESTION
7) Has the Rav heard of R’ Kobi Levi shlit”a who wages war against the Internet? Is it a mitzvah to widespread his sefarim since he’s the only one in the generation who screams about this in a way that penetrates the heart?
ANSWER
His scream is a scream of truth.
QUESTION
8) I heard in the name of Rav Don Segal shlit”a that the first thing Mashiach will get rid of is the immodest sheitels of today. Why won’t Mashiach first get rid of smartphones?
ANSWER
Please ask him.
QUESTION
9) If I see someone in yeshiva who has a smartphone but I have no idea if it’s a treif phone or not, should I react strongly to him or at least voice my protest at him? I’m not asking if I have an obligation to rebuke him or not, rather I am asking if I should protest actions that are evil.
ANSWER
Cry to Hashem that He purify His world.
QUESTION
10) Is it bittul Torah and a waste of time to learn the proper hashkafah about Galus and Geulah and the period of history we are in, i.e. to learn the sefarim of the Satmar Rav, Rav Elya Weintraub zt”l [and other sefarim of daas Torah] which explain what we’re going through now in the end of Galus and seeing these matters at their root, in the words of the Gra and others about the End of Days, etc. Most bnei Torah that I know would rather learn just Gemara and not look into these matters at all, and I think it’s because they fear that learning about these things will drag them away from regular learning of Gemara b’iyun. However I also think that any serious ben Torah today needs to get the proper hashkafah today on many topics of our generation, such as knowing the mentality to have towards the Medinah, the Erev Rav, the concept of being in Galus, how we should view the goyim, the influences of the generation on the Torah world, and the problems that have arisen in the last couple of years, etc. Because without knowing the daas Torah about these matters, it’s almost certain that a person today will be influenced by the generation and his ruchniyus is in danger because he is ignorant of important knowledge that he should be aware of. What is the proper attitude to have about this?
ANSWER
One should study these topics while remaining properly balanced with regular in-depth Torah learning.
QUESTION
11) The Gra explains that in the period of Galus before Mashiach comes is like death. The destruction of the Beis HaMikdash is compared to the soul leaving the body, being exiled out of Eretz Yisrael is like being buried, and the worms that eat at the flesh in the grave are like the goyim who attack Klal Yisrael during the Galus. The rotting “bones” in the grave are like the yeshivos that remained in Klal Yisrael throughout the Galus, and the bones that remain intact are the Talmidei Chachomim. Then even those remaining bones rot (we are left without true Talmidei Chachomim), and we are left with the decomposed bones, which is us, the final generation, who are compared to dirt. While this metaphor of the Gra seems to imply that the final generation is the lowest level and likened to the dirt, perhaps we can interpret it as encouragement for us, that we are the last remainder after everything has been finished, and that it’s precisely through us that the Jewish people will go out of Galus. Can this interpretation be correct?
ANSWER
Both implications are true.
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