LA Tackles the Challenges of ‘Viritual Relationships’

Rabbi Ari Shishler of Johannesburg, South Africa was the guest speaker at Congregation Levi Yitzchak in Los Angeles for Chof Cheshvan. The special event, organised by Rabbi Levi Raichik was intended to attract a more diverse crowd to the Chof Cheshvan celebrations.

About 100 people attended the talk, which was held in the Moshe Ganz hall. After the talk, the community moved down to the Shul for a Chassidishe farbrengen.

Rabbi Shishler addressed the challenges of how social networking and hand-held devices have remodelled the way people interact today. He highlighted the way that technology seems to have interfered with our relationships and posited that Chassidus must surely have an answer to tackling this modern issue.

For an hour, the audience sat enthralled as Rabbi Shishler wove a tapestry of Chassidic sources and insights from the Rebbe on how not only to avoid falling prey to the ills of virtual relationships, but how to approach them from a healthy Torah perspective to be able to use social networking for the furtherance of Torah and Chassidus. In his presentation, Rabbi Shishler argued that the Rebbe had long foreseen and planned for the social networking revolution and that the dynamics of Shlichus and mivtzoim were clearly decades ahead of their time.

Over Shabbos, Rabbi Shishler also spoke at a dinner for Chabad of Mt. Olympus, farbrenged with the early minyan of Cong. Levi Yitzchok and gave a women’s shiur in the afternoon. All were very well received.