Monday morning started like any other, but at 5am my peaceful morning routine was disrupted by a shocking discovery. I opened my email inbox to find hundreds of thousands of emails pouring in—and I mean pouring! The notifications kept coming, overwhelming my phone, like a never-ending tidal wave.
It quickly became clear that our organization was under cyber attack. Our website (www.belevechad.nyc) had been targeted, and the attackers were exploiting our email subscription feature. Every time someone subscribes to our email list, we receive a notification, but in this case, the subscriptions were coming in by the thousands–per minute!
I was stuck. I couldn’t work, because I needed to access my emails which were buried under a constant flood of subscription notifications, and our IT department was sound asleep at 5am, so there was nobody to talk to on our end.
All I could do was watch as my inbox grew fuller and fuller and fuller.
At 7am, our IT team sprang into action, but it took time to pinpoint the source of the attack. When the flow was finally stemmed, it took me an hour just to delete all the hundreds of thousands of emails.
Eventually, we traced the IP address to Libya. It was a coordinated effort, and the attackers were relentless. The reason behind the attack? Our organization's support for the brave men and women of the IDF.
We are proud to fully support the most moral and just army in the world—the ones who protect our freedom and our country. Apparently, this makes us a “bad organization” in the eyes of the attackers.
The experience was daunting, but we refused to back down. Our IT team worked tirelessly to block the attackers and restore our website to normal. It took a full day, but we emerged stronger and more determined than ever, and we fortified our system with stricter measures to prevent a repeat attack.
The Baal Shem Tov taught that everything we encounter or experience contains a lesson for our service of G-d. But what could possibly be the lesson from waking up at 5am to a flood of nonsense messages in a coordinated attack by people wanting to slow down our good work?!
The hackers were trying to slow us down, so our response needs to be an acceleration. More positivity, more beauty, more encouragement, joy, peace, and gratitude. And, of course, more mitzvot.
So go out today and invite someone to your Shabbat dinner. Message your favorite rabbi and let him know you’ll be in shul on Shabbat morning. Email a wounded soldier letting them know how much we love and appreciate them. Put on tefillin, take a selfie, and post it to your family or friend chat—you might inspire others to join you!
These are the kinds of messages we should be sending to counter all the nonsense and hatred in the world. You’ll not only be counteracting the spam, but creating a ripple effect of positivity that can inspire and uplift others, helping us reach the ultimate and final redemption and the coming of Moshiach.