Avoid Social-Media Pollution

The whole earth was of one language” (Bereishit 11:1)  
 

The Souls Returned  
 

The Baal Shem Tov HaKodesh once taught his students, that he saw in the Heavens, that before Mashiach comes, the souls of the Dor Haflagah and Dor HaMabul will come into this world and spread their heresy and promiscuity.  
 

When the Chozeh from Lubin, zt”l, related this teaching, the Chozeh added: “While the holy Rebbe, the Baal Shem, saw this in the heavens, we can already see this on earth; we can see that these souls have already started entering this world; the vision of the Rebbe is coming into fruition.” The Chozeh then added: “May Hashem have mercy on every yid that they should find the strength to withstand these temptations and trials of the soul.”  
 

During our lifetimes, we have seen the impact of these souls increase at a terrifying haste. The world is being consumed by the challenges of this struggle, being polluted by this influence of impurity, how can we protect ourselves? How can a yid remain steadfast in his commitment to Hashem and His Torah?  

Remember, Learn, and Internalize the Flood and Tower  

Torah commands us to “Remember the days of yore, understand the years of generation after generation….” (Devarim 32:7). The Sifri explains that this is referring to remember what Hashem did during these two generations. The story of the tower and flood must be studied, understood, and internalized. Within these Holy words of the Torah, we can find the strength and strategies to succeed.

What Was the Dor Hamabul?  

The Seforim Hakadoshim describe that the generation of the flood were giants and physically strong, and also had very great and powerful brains. They were brilliant, innovative, and created incredible tools. However, everything that they created and invented was destroyed in the flood except for the few items that Noach brought with him into the Ark.  
 

We can say that the wise people of the Dor Hamabul had the ability to invent and innovate tools like the modern-day technology, which has created an environment that enables individuals to connect to thousands of people from around the globe and to be influenced by complete strangers who live on the opposite side of the world.  
 

The ability to constantly be connecting, to use tools to see and hear the actions and thoughts of strangers, has led to an erosion of shame, a character trait that Hashem had embedded in our spiritual DNA to help keep us from falling victim to temptation. When you can so easily read and see the actions of countless dishonest people from around the world shamelessly promoting their stories, you become desensitized. You lose the sense of shame that these actions and words should bring. Without that self-awareness, this evil spreads throughout the world.  
 

The actions and deeds of the Dor Hamabul filled the environment – the actual air – with their impurities. As the Torah relates to us, “and the earth had become filled with robbery” (Bereishit 6:11). The environment of the world had been so polluted and desecrated, so consumed by the evil of their sins, that Hashem needed to bring a flood to cleanse the entire world of this impurity as the Torah continues, “And God saw the earth and behold it was corrupted.”  
 

After the flood, after that cleansing, Hashem promises, He swore that he would never allow the world to decay spiritually to such a degree that another flood would be required. Instead, Hashem performs different interventions to ensure that the world never becomes so corrupted again.  
 

Intervention: Holding Back the Rain 

Following is one example of such an intervention:  
 

The Chasam Sofer explained (Drashot of the Chasam Sofer Volume 2 p. 386), that a person’s breath enters the air and is transformed into the clouds. Eventually, those clouds bring forth rain. When someone speaks lashon hara and gossip, when they use their voices for impure conversations, they are literally filling the atmosphere with impurities.  
 

These impurities will be absorbed in the clouds and the rain will fall onto the earth, sustaining the growth of all vegetation and animal life, which eventually, will be consumed by a person. In turn, this person is being sustained by the impurities that are embedded in the food he consumes, which leads him to increase his desire to use his words for ill purpose.  
 

The Chasam Sofer concludes, that when Hashem sees that the rain is full of these impurities, He holds back the rain from falling, as it was taught in the Taanit (7b) in “Rain ceases to fall because of lashon hara.”  
 

What Was the Essence of the Dor Haflagah?  

Such an intervention was also at the core of the Dor Haflagah.  
 

At the time, everyone in the world spoke one language, easily communicating and connecting with one another. This enabled wicked individuals from all over the world, to connect and create big groups with bad goals. This also caused good wholesome people to become accidentally connected to vile strangers from far off lands. People were influenced by the wicked group leaders. People were seduced by their sermons and sales pitch. Eventually, many people became caught up in the senseless idea of constructing a tower to ascend to the heavens and wage war against the Creator of the World. There was a true danger that the entire world would be saturated with impurities and sin once again.  
 

Therefore, Hashem had mercy and intervened, instituting that from that time onward, the nations of the world would have different languages, dividing humanity into many separate groups. The ability to connect and be influenced by individuals with ill intention was reduced.  
 

This is what Chazal means when they teach in Sanhedrin (81b) that, “A gathering for the wicked is bad for them and bad for the world – dispersing the wicked is pleasant for them and pleasant for the world.”  
 

When the wicked can connect to one another, that can easily bring more impurity to them and to the world around them. However, when they are scattered, and have a difficult time communicating, it is better for them and the world; it is more difficult for them to spread their wickedness.  
 

Therefore, when the Torah describes this time, it says, “The whole earth was [“Vayahi“] one language and of common purpose.” The word “Vayahi” in Hebrew always denotes pain and suffering, as the Gemara (Megilah10b) explains. Their ability to speak one language and unite around one common cause, accelerated their ability to spread wickedness and impurity throughout the world. It caused suffering.  

We Must be Diligent  

In these two episodes in the Torah, Hashem was teaching the yidden throughout the generations to be cautious, to be careful not to connect with individuals who are ill-intentioned, who seek to spread impurity in the world, who want to only impact the world negatively.  
 

In our generation, the souls of the Dor Haflagah and Dor Hamabul are present, working to spread their impurity throughout the world and within our lives. The systems of social media are created in a way that connects us also to “influencers” who have ill intentions and are spreading impurity throughout the world. Addiction to social media is destroying the lives of many people, spiritually and physically.  
 

Therefore, a yid must be extremely careful not to indulge in the social media.  
 

In the merit of this cautiousness, we should remove all the world’s impurities with the arrival of Mashiach speedily in our time. Amen.