A question I received: I heard that you are getting more involved with inner dissemination and work on building a system of virtual (Internet) connection that will allow those who pursue spiritual growth to stay connected, develop, and to receive reminders and programs for their spiritual development.

What about other people who have never heard about the possibility of salvation and have never been exposed to the idea that suffering is here to help us correct ourselves and attain the Light and bliss? Aren’t you cutting them off?

My Answer: We are not slowing down the pace of external dissemination. But consider the following example: We are on board a plane and a flight attendant announces an emergency landing. She reminds us to first put our own oxygen masks before we put them on our children, which could be construed as a cruel requirement.

Here we are in “a plane crash situation” and we must put oxygen masks on ourselves before our children can take a breath of air (Light). Instead of doing so, we try to put oxygen masks on the children first, and don’t think about our imminent death. But will our children stay alive if we collapse first? There is no chance. They can only survive together with us.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 66-71 that dissemination of Kabbalah should radiate in waves from the center, from those who are interested in Kabbalah to those who are completely indifferent. All people are connected into a single soul of Adam. If those who have a point in the heart (are interested in the revelation of the Creator) build the spiritual connection among themselves and discover the Creator in it, then everybody will begin to feel that we have acquired the Upper Force and wisdom. It will then attract them to us and the Source.

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A question I received: What should a person do, if he feels that the environment which he chose for his spiritual development does not promote his growth?

My Answer: Today, two conditions make our physical association with a particular group unimportant. The first condition is that, at this time, the whole world has to attain correction. Because of this, the second condition is that a virtual connection among us gives everybody an opportunity to contact us through the Internet, books, and television. That’s in addition to having an opportunity to connect to or join us physically for training, coming to a convention in order to participate in various activities together, or studying at one of our campuses.

It’s not like in prior times when a person was limited by living in one place and could bond only with his immediate surroundings. Today, you can stay connected with the whole world. You can see and hear us, or come and visit us; the rest depends on you.

Today is the time when everybody in the world has to attain correction. Places and distances do not limit us at all. We desire to clarify who we are and what we belong to, under whose influence we live.

Everybody is granted freedom of will and, thus, everything depends on an individual. At this time, we’re in the process of building a virtual system on the Internet for Kabbalah students that will enable everybody to stay truly close.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: How will the method of correction and dissemination of Kabbalah change when the entire world is transitioning toward a virtual connection?

My Answer: We need to quickly build a system of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah through the Internet, a system that will exude warmth and give a person a feeling of universal connection. This system needs to teach us how to be connected with one another, and to provide virtual education for both children and adults. Presently our Learning Centers focus more on theory and intellectual development, but now we need to put greater emphasis on educating and “forming” a person.

A spiritual connection is when I feel another person within me as my inseparable part, even closer than a mother feels her child through her maternal connection. A spiritual connection is even tighter.

A virtual connection is a stepping stone to the spiritual one. Additionally, we need to accumulate a certain might by uniting together a multitude of desires. Indeed, our success depends on a global awakening, and the primary means of achieving that goal is the Internet. It was created for this very purpose. The Internet didn’t develop in order to disseminate sales or other petty nonsense, but to create a connection between people. That is the purpose of the world-wide web.

This connection may only be one of love. Therefore, as soon as we begin to create this web and wish for these electronic cables to transmit a feeling of connection and love, we will understand how to properly construct it.

Subsequently, humanity will feel that the Internet is changing, that is possesses an Upper, spiritual force, and it will truly become a web covering the world – a spiritual web, and not simply a means of conveying information or reaping profits. The Internet will cease to use people for profit; instead it will be used to elevate people to a new degree.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, Article “Exile and Redemption”

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As Baal HaSulam states, the whole world is one family. Hence the on-line system that we want to create must work on each person like a Kabbalistic group that helps him build new connections and new attitudes about himself, his friends, and the world at large.

We would like to lay the foundation of this structure on the Internet so that we all connect in one system regardless of user language, location, or any other factors whatsoever. It should be an independent self-driven structure that helps all of us advance spiritually.

In other words, we need to create an artificial system of spiritual connections among us, which is identical to the union that exists between our souls. Kabbalists advise us to join a group and begin to build relationships with it as if you were already in spirituality.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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Lately, as the systemic global crisis becomes more apparent, there is a sense that it’s necessary to create a proper system of global functioning. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to transform our society according to new conditions, which are nature’s demands. The crisis is making it apparent that we have to become similar to nature or the general interconnection.

I see that it is possible to gradually implement relationships of love and bestowal which are similar to nature. This can be done in the virtual realm; there all the people in the world can feel connected with one another and experience their existence together. Out of all the existing means of communication, only the Internet can serve as this place of connection; it can’t be done through television, newspapers, or books.

Only the World Wide Web, the Internet, can satisfy the demands of dissemination and unification in order to create a global system of upbringing for children and adults alike. Only it can provide the global connection in order to form a common force of unity. Then we will all feel each other through the channels of connection, and reach a spiritual connection.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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In the News (from Physorg): “Twitter ain’t cool, British teenager tells global investors” 15-year-old Briton has set the financial world abuzz with a research note penned for a major US bank in which he reveals teenagers’ media habits – including that Twitter is just not cool. The research note – which has been circulated to Morgan Stanley clients – reveals that while teenagers consume a huge variety of media, from television to computer games to the Internet and music, they are unwilling to pay for it. “They rarely listen to the radio or buy CDs, preferring to use websites that stream music or to download it illegally,” teenager Matthew Robson wrote in his report.

Robson says teenagers watch television but do not have time to watch regular programs, particularly when they can watch them afterwards online, and says his peers have no time for outdoor advertising or banner ads on websites, preferring instead viral marketing. The report concludes with a helpful list of what is hot and what is not: anything with a touch screen, mobile phones with large capacity for music and “really big tellies” are desirable.

My Comment: People don’t even imagine how much technology will change their lives, culture, relationships and preferences. Ten years from now, the world will be very different, emptier. As people become more and more interconnected, they will expose the emptiness between them, and thus they will face a crisis of man living in an empty world.

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A question I received: Modern society is reliant on information. Now, in this time of crisis, the question of information overload becomes very real. Information overload refers to a situation where a person becomes a slave not only to material things but also to information; a person loses himself, drowns and detaches from his “I.”

My Answer: Actually, a person has yet to acquire his “I,” so he doesn’t have anything to lose. He is born into a specific situation without having any say about it. He has no choice as to his natural abilities, his personality traits, his family or upbringing. The clothes he wears, the way in which he sits, the food he eats, the way he speaks and the way he thinks are all things he absorbs from the society around him. Society teaches him to behave the way he does, and he acts according to the examples, conventions and values that he absorbed. Therefore, he does not have his own “I.”

Now, getting back to your question: When I go on the internet, I am not overloaded with information. I look for the things that interest me: a synopsis of today’s news or the latest in science. I am not overloaded with information because everything else on the Internet – 99% of its resources, just don’t exist for me. If a person is focused on an important goal, then he does not want to waste time on things that are less important.

In other words, everything depends on a person’s desires. If one’s desires are a level higher than what the current sources of mass information are able to offer (and frankly, today’s huge supply of information does not offer people anything but garbage), then a person does not see this information. Rather, he sees beyond this supply of information.

Thus, I would once again like to emphasize the importance of education, because it is the only means to change the society.

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In the News (translated from ami-tass.ru): RuNet (the Russian Internet) is proud to open up a competition called, “Fighting Dirt,” for the best positive Internet-resource for youth.

My Comment: A person is a product of his society. He is constantly under the influence of society, and therefore, the only thing we have to care about is the social influence. This is what we must change, rather than the individuals.

The mass media must have freedom and diversity when it comes to how they present their information, but the information presented has to be useful. It has to tell people about the global world and it has to be amicable, to match the system of Nature. We have to develop all the things that favor altruism, and eliminate all the things that favor egoism.

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A question I received: You are saying that nature demands that we reach the right kind of connection between us. This week hackers attacked and almost destroyed a web community, Facebook. If nature, the general system of creation, desires to establish a connection between people, why doesn’t it support this network, which reveals a connection between people?

My Answer: Maybe Facebook has exhausted itself in its current form. Instead of trying to protect Facebook from hackers, we have to change it. I believe there is a time, place, and purpose for everything. If forces of opposition are emerging, it means the phenomenon needs to change or disappear. These are just forces of influence, and there is nothing artificial in the world. We have to accept that this is how change and development take place. We shouldn’t react negatively to anything, but rather treat everything as the revelation of evil. When new states cease to emerge, it is a sign that you have reached the Final Correction. However, before that, even the worst state to be revealed isn’t bad in and of itself, but rather, it only reveals the evil to you.

This is how we should view everything. Our greatest enemies reveal the evil in us, and they are not evil on their own. Still, for now you have to eliminate them in order to have an opportunity to perform corrections in our world as quickly as possible. You must eliminate them because they don’t allow you to be corrected, and not because you hate them. You should hate them because they don’t allow you to perform the correction. Then your actions will be justified.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

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In the News (from MacArthur Foundation): “New Study Shows Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development” There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.

My Comment: This positive effect is not actually coming from the inanimate internet network or from the communication that’s stupid and pointless for the most part, but from conformity to the law of Nature, which drives us toward globalization and integration.

If the world wide web will incorporate elements of authentic cooperation, such as games based on interaction instead of virtual violence, simulating the corrected world (even for an egoistic reward – Lo Lishma), then we will advance and reveal the benefits of cooperation. Then, according to the rule, “habit becomes second nature” (Ergel Naase Teva Sheni), we will help the young generation progress toward the quality of Nature – bestowal and love (Lishma).

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