Internet pictures have been in the news lately but here is a story of one such picture that few people know about.

Readers of this magazine are familiar with the story of the medical school inKovnoLithuania which attracts students from all over the world among them several dozen Jewish students. Its small Jewish student center is run by a rabbi and his wife who supply the students — none of whom are observant — with Friday night meals prayer sessions occasional classes and discussion groups all in an effort to create some connection between these young people and their Jewish heritage.

The rabbi’s task is not easy because the students have only one goal in mind: to do well in their medical studies. All else is peripheral. Religious discussions talk of G-d and Torah and the Jewish People — these all fell on deaf ears — as they do on many campuses around the world.

Toward the end of the school year as final exams loomed the entire student body began studying frantically for their finals. During the days and nights prior to the exams the tiny library of the center usually quite empty was filled with the Jewish students who found the quiet of the room very compatible for intensive study.

The rabbi cared very much for his constituents and in order to give their spirits a lift he decided to utilize the Internet for a radical gesture. He took a photograph of himself in tallis and tefillin and e-mailed it to each member of the group with a note expressing his hopes for them in the finals and informing them that he was praying for them every day.

After sending the photo out the rabbi had second thoughts and confided to his wife that maybe he had overstepped the bounds of propriety that perhaps he would seem like a missionary and that maybe this group of Jewish students would ridicule him for this gesture.

To his great surprise however the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Within minutes the rabbi received feedback from many of the young people who expressed their deep appreciation for his intercession on their behalf. The most enthusiastic reactions came from some who throughout the year had scoffed at every attempt to reach out to them.

On a profound level this incident demonstrates once again that every Jew bears a holy neshamah that somehow is waiting to be touched and kindled. But on a more mundane level I must confess that somehow this incident brought to mind another recent Internet picture sent by another individual for a completely different purpose. The contrast between the two self-portraits was striking: One was done for holy purposes and one was done for purposes far less holy.

Clearly just as there are pictures and there are pictures so are there negatives and positives surrounding the Internet. Computers and the Internet are here to stay. Slogans preachments and threats will not make them go away. Obviously we are concerned with their potentially deleterious influence and the Orthodox community expends heroic efforts as well we might in fighting the Internet.

But with an eye on the future new creative ways must be devised toward creating a Torah society that is so anchored in its roots that it is not tempted by the seductive blandishments of the Internet but on the contrary is so strong in its character that it is able to bend the Internet to its own sacred needs. With some creativity it can be turned to very positive purposes. Available on the Internet today are daily shiurim lectures and classes on every Torah subject imaginable in many languages on many levels. Additionally it can be an instrument of connectivity between lonely individuals and between estranged communities. Obviously much depends on how it is used. Solid Torah learning — and also destructive material — is only a click away. But as in life itself we have “freedom of the click.”

That Kovno rabbi showed us the way to utilize the instruments that G-d makes available to us. Now if we could only arrange a chat between him and that narcisitic photographer from New York.