Battle for the Soul: Technology – The Greek Culture of Today

THE DAILY CHIZZUK FROM MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A:  HOW SCREENS HAVE BECOME THE SPIRITUAL TEST OF OUR GENERATION

THE HOLIDAY OF CHANUKAH IS NOT MERELY A REMEMBRANCE OF PAST BATTLES BUT A SHARP CALL TO WAGE WAR AGAINST MODERN GREEK CULTURE – THE CULTURE OF SCREENS. SMARTPHONES, MUSIC PLAYERS, AND LICENTIOUS SONGS ARE THE GREEK CULTURE OF OUR GENERATION, WORSE THAN THE ABOMINATIONS IN THE DAYS OF THE FLOOD AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST GREECE IS NOT JUST A MATTER OF THE PAST – IT CONTINUES TODAY IN EVERY AREA OF LIFE, DEEP WITHIN OUR HEARTS.

SUNDAY, 19 TEVET 5785 – IPHONES AND MUSIC PLAYERS: THE GENERATION OF THE FLOOD IN ITS MODERN REVELATION

These are the holy words of Moreinu HaRav Berland shlit”a, taken from the shiur which he gave to the young men of the community at the Chanukah gathering 5785:

All Chanukah is about fighting Greek culture – the Greek culture today is the smartphone, iPhone, Xiaomi, internet, music players.  It’s forbidden to possess any music player.  It’s forbidden to hear any Greek song.  The Rebbe says that whoever heard a Greek song was unfortunate.

One needs to know all of Shas.  90% of Shas is just stories, but instead of stories, you see iPhones, nonsense, abominations that were not even in the Generation of the Flood.

Elisha ben Avuya sang Greek music.  Of course, he became a heretic and was not allowed to enter the World to Come (Chagigah 15b).  He had an iPhone, he heard Greek music, so of course he became a heretic.  He became whatever he became.

https://vimeo.com/1047707032

All of this is written in Lesson 64 (Likutey Moharan), that whoever hears Greek music, songs of secular people, licentious songs, impure songs.  On music players today, people see everything.  A music player is like an iPhone.  It’s possible to see all the abominations, things that weren’t seen even in the days of the flood, nor in the days of the destruction of the First Temple, nor in the days of the Destruction of the Second Temple.

Why was the Temple destroyed?  Because everyone became Greeks in the end!  They fought the Greeks for 213 years.  “HaChazir Gara Lo Gara” – the Chazir (pig) is Greek and Amalek.  Greece ruled for 213 years.  Greek culture succeeded in penetrating after the destruction.  Elisha ben Avuya was after the destruction, after Rabbi Akiva, who was scraped with iron combs 130 years after the destruction.  So Elisha ben Avuya was at the end of the time of Rabbi Akiva, 130 years after the destruction, and he still was singing Greek songs.  The Greek culture continues.  Even though they succeeded in subduing them [the Greeks] and entering the Temple, they didn’t succeed in removing the Greek culture – it’s impossible to remove the evil inclination.  The evil inclination is Greek culture – songs, melodies.

Like the story in “Kol Bo” (a halachic book from the time of the Rishonim).  A ship with a thousand infants, a thousand women, and a thousand men arrived in Algeria, in Tunis, and they wanted to let them off there.  This was after the destruction.  There’s no Temple; the Temple was burned, it was already burned.  What do you do with the Temple when it’s burned down?

Everyone fled, and the Romans said that whoever doesn’t kill will be killed themselves.  In Gittin 55b, it’s written that whoever didn’t kill would be killed.  Learn there, that there had been a decree that whoever wouldn’t kill would be killed, so they had to kill all the Jews.

Learn a little Likutey Moharan, that Elisha ben Avuya would always listen to Greek songs.  He had an iPhone, he had a smartphone, he had a music player.  He recorded songs – in the meantime, he became a heretic.  So the Rebbe speaks in Lesson 64 against all the iPhones, against all the smartphones.  Every young man needs, at this moment, to break it, to shatter it.  This is worse than the Generation of the Flood, worse than the destruction of the Temple.

> Because Rabbi Natan says that Moshe wanted to enter the Land of Israel.  Why did he want to enter the Land of Israel?  So that there wouldn’t be an exile, so that the Temple would remain!
>
> Hashem says to him: Can you stop them from idolatry?  Can you stop them from iPhones?  Can you stop them from smartphones?  Can you stop them from the internet?  If you cause them to break their iPhones, you can enter the Land of Israel.  You cannot stop them, so you have nothing to do here!!!