Judaism in America – The Egypt Story Of Our Lives

It all started with a conversation I was having with two friends at a social gathering. One was vividly describing the differences between his local Chabad and Conservative Rabbis. He started off by telling me why he loves his local Chabad. Authenticity, warmth, deep learning, mysticism, lower cost…the list goes on and on. Let’s add another one – accessibility, as this turned out to be the key word used by my friend to differentiate between the two Rabbis. One (the Chabad) is super accessible and is always willing to meet and the other one (the Conservative) is super busy and to get to him you need to schedule an appointment, go through his secretary, etc. Bottom line it is a process. And not a simple one, certainly not when compared to the ease of communicating with the Chabad Rabbi.

One of my early literature teachers taught me a very important lesson while discussing the world literary classics: a person is a product of his society. It surely is not a new idea, but I see it as a very important one especially when I look at religious and community leaders – as well as Jews as a whole – in the more progressive branches of Judaism in America today. As I look at the Jews in America, I see more and more that the cultural and societal conditioning is transferred into their Jewish lives and communities. And I am not referring to the way they dress and talk, I am referring to the principles that govern their lives (social interactions, family lives, etc).

America is a melting pot. Many immigrants have arrived here, bringing their own culture and within one or two generations (at least that’s what the sociologists tell us), most of that culture is gone. So they take their culture and substitute it with the local American culture. But what is American culture and what is it based on? This can be a long discussion in its own right, however I will say that the foundation of American culture has a lot to do with the Anglo Saxon protestant founders of our country. The way most Americans today do business, the amount of time they spend at work and their families, how they spend their free time, how they entertain, their views on religion, politics, sexuality, sports…This is what some sociologists are telling us.

So when I look at the contemporary American non-orthodox Jewry I see a lot of that in them. And when I walk into an American non-orthodox synagogue I see all of that (American) influence. It is especially powerful when we consider this within the weekly portions of Torah book we not too long ago were in the process of reading. The book of Shemot/Exodus describes exactly the same process of our ancestors arriving in Mitsrayim/Egypt and after the passing of the first generation beginning a gradual process of decline through societal conditioning in the beginning and outright coercion into slavery towards the end. The Torah itself gives a very brief summary of it all, but it is the Midrash that gives us the full pictures of what exactly happened and how our ancestors, who were giants in spirit, mind and body ended up where they ended up.

It is precisely that process of societal conditioning and its influence that translate into a behavior and actions that are being adopted by contemporary Jews that does not manage to inspire people and at times turns them off.

It is not an authentic Jewish way of living. (Yes, I do believe that there is something that we can call “Jewish Living” or a “Jewish Way Of Life”. More on that in one of my next posts). What is most amazing is that deep inside people feel it and rebel against it by walking out of synagogues and leaving Jewish life and communities. Most people say they leave because they lost interest in Judaism. But it is not in Judaism that people are losing interest in, they lose interest in this altered Judaism devoid of it very essence. Making synagogues “less Jewish” is not going to change anything. No reducing of the amount of prayers and rituals is going to do the trick.

What is needed is a real transformation. A return, a T’shuva – not to some ancient, antiquated ways of living and dressing. It is not about what language we speak or what clothes we wear. It is about a true transformation of our own nature. Of how we view the world, of how we relate to each other and treat others. We need to be less  “American” – culturally speaking – and more Jewish.”

In light of the above, it is quite easy to understand why people feel so drawn to Chabad. What Chabad practices is simply the same old authentic Jewish way of living. They go back to basics. “Judge everyone favorably”, “Welcome everyone with joy”, “Love your friend like yourself”…straight out of the classic sources (Pirkei Avot). They have not invented anything new. They simply implemented the same ideas we have had in our possession for thousands of year. Just open Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) and Halakha (Shulkhan Arukh) and you will see it all in there. And when the progressive American Jews see it, they love it. It almost makes no sense, yet it starts making much more sense if we look at from  angle.

America is the greatest country in the world. It is here that a person can truly live life as he/she wishes it to be. Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness ring as true today as they did when our Founders spoke these words. Some Jews don’t buy into this and they – while living here – create complete separation from the society. Some go the other way and rejecting anything Jewish, embrace the American way (whatever that means to them) in their search for happy and fulfilled lives. I believe it is all about balance.

To clarify, I think that many of the things Chabad does are amazing. And I think that we can all learn from them. Moreover, the Jews have been through this and similar processes before. Whether in ancient Egypt, Babylon, Spain or Poland. Which is precisely why the story of descent and exodus from Egypt is not a mere fairy tale. It happens in every generation and it is happening now. It is a story about identity, understanding who we are as individuals, as a community, as a global society and our active role in it. Each and single one of us is reliving this story now and we too can experience the truth and happiness and joy just like our forefathers did long time ago.

Cloud Technology and Kabbalah

I was recently explaining to an older close relative of mine the differences between traditional Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel and cloud-based applications such as Google Docs, Sheets, etc.

She has sent a Google sheet to someone from Google Drive via email and when looking at the email she realized that there was no attachment in it. All she saw was a link. I showed her the link is linked to the file on the cloud and when the recipient clicks on it she will be taken to Google Drive where she can access the file.

 

Then she realized that she needed to make another change to the document, which was just sent. She got concerned that she is not going to be able to do it, since she had already sent the file out. And this took us into a longer conversation where I explained to her in details how much different the cloud files are, since the owner of the document and anyone who has editor access to it, can make ongoing changes.

What’s to this and to Judaism/Kabbalah you might ask?

Anyone who has ever read the biblical story of the creation of the world knows that Hashem/G-d created the world through Divine speech, 10 statements – or utterances – to be precise. This is the p’shat (simple/basic explanation) of it. Not so long ago, before we had the smartphones and Apple TVs and all the technology around us, an idea that something tangible like the world around us can be created through speech seemed unrealistic – if not naive – and was regularly discounted as just another fairy tale. We can now speak to our devices and have them do all sorts of things, so this might change the way we view and relate to that old Biblical story.

Kabbalah goes deeper into this and discusses the actual nature of Divine speech. And as it does, it highlights a few differences between our speech and Divine speech. One of them is that when we speak our words they are there for a just brief moment and then they dissipate. Once we spoke them and they are out, we have no control over them – we cannot modify them or take them back (sometimes we wish we could).  The same is true for sending an attachment/document via email. When another person downloads it onto their machine/computer and makes changes to it, we have no way of seeing it or contributing to it, unlike a cloud-based document such as Google Doc.

Not such is the case with the Divine Word which according to the Jewish Sages is eternal and goes on forever. So rather than a sound that lasts very briefly Divine speech is more akin to an energy channel that extends from the upper realms all the way down into the lowest of the reals, which is our world of action (“Olam Ha’Asiya”), where it manifests in hard concrete reality. That connection between the Source/Hashem and this channel as well as the energy/content flowing through this channel are eternal. That Word continues creating and shaping the world around us. Any change in the Upper Worlds is reflected directly in the Lower worlds. What we see around us is a reflection or a projection if you wish of Cosmic/Divine energy that pours into this world through that channel/Divine word.

Which is very similar to what we see in today’s cloud technology. Even though we create a document on a cloud, our connection to this document is an ongoing one. That document is no longer a static entity but rather a living, breathing, constantly evolving piece of work.Kabbalah teaches us that the world never stopped expanding, this view being echoed by quantum theorists. In the Jewish teachings we learn that the world continuously evolves as we, humans, and Hashem are creator continuously engage in the process of co-creating.

If you have read any of my previous writings, you will know that I find enormous degree of similarity and parallel lines between Judaism and its teachings and technology. This is just another example where we find the same very principles discussed in ancient Jewish mystical teachings in today’s modern day technology.

 

Melting The Snow Of Our Lives

The U.S. has been blessed with quite a bit of snow this winter and I personally have had a fun time shoveling it… at least it was an unplanned exercise!

It wasn’t until this morning’s shoveling detail that I began to realize that snow is pretty fascinating.  It is beautiful and majestic…and to think that in the end it is simply frozen water! When it comes down it looks like soft powder nothing that can stick and accumulate but after the fact it feels very heavy and real when you touch it and shovel it. It takes quite a bit of energy to clean up. Then there are the icicles that can be quite sharp and you have to be careful with it.  And yet, it’s all just water.

As I stared at the hills of snow all around me I realized that just like the snow our lives are sometimes heavier than at other times.  We come into this world and as we go through it, dealing with all sorts of life events, challenges, situations and issues, it all feels very real and important. Yet, in the end, as the Jewish Sages and Mystics explained, these things are not actually real. There is a famous kabbalistic statement “Alma De Shikra” that describes our world and literally means “A world of lies” or “A world of illusions”.

One of these days, while shoveling, I asked myself: What if I had some device that emits heat (almost like a flashlight, except that instead of light it projects a powerful wave a heat ) and I could just turn it on and go around and melt the snow by just pointing this device at it? Or what if I had this special heating system installed in the ground on my property that every time we have snow, I could just turn on and it would melt the snow.

And then I asked myself what would be the equivalent of this type of device or a system in our lives? At this point what came to my mind was the ideas of light and darkness. Light in both the physical and the spiritual sense eradicates darkness, it “melts” it instantaneously.

When we talk about the Neshama, the soul, we say that it has three “garments”, “clothings” which are Thought, Speech and Action. And this is the lesson I learn from all of this: in order to “melt” the “snow” of our lives and turn it into the nourishing water (which is its essence), we need to make sure that we turn on the heat on all these three levels, by thinking positive, good-feeling thoughts; by speaking loving, kind words and by doing good, meaningful deeds. If we do that, instead of shoveling the snow, like everybody else, it will magically and instantly melt by itself. It might take a little bit of extra effort and preparation upfront, by the reward will be well worth it.

3 Ancient Jewish Rules of Success for Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Startups

James Surowiecki’s in his recent article “Thinkers and Tinkerers”, which was published in the January/February issues of Foreign Affairs magazine, takes a good look at two interesting book, which in his view compliment each other very well. One is “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution” by Walter Isaacson and the other is “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel. I took some of his observations, dipped them into the infinite pool of Jewish wisdom and I am hereby presenting you with my own thoughts on the topic.

Rule#1: Find a good partner or, even better, put together a strong diverse group

Would you agree that Steve Jobs was an ultimate genius of innovation and marketing? Many would. But as James Surowiecki recently wrote, Walter Isaacson sees it quite differently. For him, “true engine of innovation is collaboration”. And it’s not just collaboration, as Isaacson specifically refers to “strong teams made up of diverse thinkers from…different disciplines”. Interestingly enough, we find similar principle in the world of Torah study and Jewish prayer. It is a known thing that in observant Jewish circles, people study Torah in what is called Khevrutah (חברותה). As a matter of fact, the best way to learn Torah is to have a company of at least 10 men, as the Sages instructed. And it is certainly the prescribed way for daily prayers that are to be conducted in the presence of a minyan, which is a quorum of 10 Jewish men. “The [understanding of] Torah is acquired in a company”, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Brakhot, 63. And in the 8th chapter of the same tractate, a famous question: “When is an opportune time [with highest chances of prayers to be heard or accepted]? At the time of communal prayer”.

As Isaacson said in The Innovators, bright individual can come up with a brilliant concept, a group of creatives can turn that same idea into the market-ready product. Says Hillel the Elder: ”Do not separate yourself from the community” (Ethics of The Sages, 2:4). You have to live and create within the context of your community. For a number of different reasons. On one hand, people can bring you new ideas and inspiration. On the other hand, it is important that whatever you create can be useful and applicable to the rest of your community or society. Therefore, it is imperative – no matter how genius or enlightened someone is – that he stays closely connected to his community, to the real world.

Rule #2: Believe

Belief, faith or emunah in Hebrew, is a controversial concept in our world. For Isaacson, as Surowiecki continues writing, that faith that dramatic fundamental technological change was possible and that it was going to benefit the society has become a big unifying factor for the innovators he talks about. What I see him as referring to is not merely a narrow, yet often praised, belief in yourself, we often hear about in self-help books and in media. I see his point being much broader. What he has in mind is a belief in global, comprehensive, all-pervasive change in how society and people operate. To take it even further, it is an unconditional belief in yourself, in the system. And of course in the Jewish world, this would be emunah or belief in HaShem, the Creator of the world, in a unifying principle that governs our universe and makes everything possible

Rule #3: Reach for the impossible

There is a concept in the Jewish tradition that is very fundamental and central to Jewish existence. It is called Tikkun Olam. And it goes hand-in-hand in believing in the arrival of the Messiah/Mashiakh. Many writers and commentators, ancient and modern, actually cite this as an intriguing across-the-board national characteristics of the Jewish people, regardless of their level of observance – this belief, which at times looks almost naive, in the need and their ability to make the world a better place. According to the Jewish tradition, this change will happen when the Mashiakh arrives. But he can only arrive when the conditions for his arrival are in place. Which can only happen through the righteous actions of all of us. What is even more interesting , and it is directly related to our discussion, is that this change, this transformation that needs to take place in the world in order for Mashiakh to arrive and the final change that will occur after his arrival are not some small, local, minor changes. We are talking about a full and complete, fundamental change in how the world operates and how people live their lives, interact with each other, etc. This goal of bringing the Mashiakh and uplifting the world is one of the fundamentals of Judaism, as outlined by Rambam (Maimonides) in his 13 Principles of Fath (aka “Ani Ma’amin”).

Peter Thiel in his Zero to One describes what he sees as the main issue of most of today’s startups and innovators: accepting a pessimistic view of what’s possible. What Thiel in essence says is that to be a true innovator and entrepreneur you need to believe in the impossible and wish for the impossible to happen. Eliyahu Goldratt, the author of the The Goal, which is a must read in every major business program in the country (and if you have not read, do yourself a favor and order it now), said in one of his lectures that in order to truly change and come with innovative ideas a business or an individual needs to think in terms of impossible goals. If you put in front of yourself or your organization a goal that is just a bit more challenging than your previous one, you will find a solution that you will simply help you continue doing what you are doing now but a little bit better. But it will not bring about a real change that you desire. When the goal looks impossible, it forces us to realize that we cannot accomplish it by slightly improving our current process. It demands from us to forget everything we know and come with something that is really life-changing, a radical positive change.

*This article partially relies and uses quotes from the ideas spelled out by James Suroweicki in his piece published in the Foreign Affairs magazine (Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2015, p. 77)

**Pictures above are courtesy of Amazon.com

The Ultimate Son-In-Law

Parashat Yitro describes one of the most powerful family scenes in the Torah. I am specifically referring to the encounter between Moshe Rabbeynu and Yitro. Yitro that hears about the miracles that Hashem has performed for Bnei Israel, comes out of Midyan, leaving behind his place of high honor to come into the desert, the wilderness and meet Moshe. He is also bringing with him Moshe’s wife, Tsipora and his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.

In general, I find Yitro to be an extremely fascinating personality. A high priest of Midyan, who is well versed both in the matters of the spiritual world and the material affairs. Rashi quoting the Midrash, describes him as a person who knew and tried all different types of worship and  the spiritual traditions of the world. For that he received a great amount of recognition and honor by those around him. And yet, the Torah gives him even more recognition for the fact that leaves all that behind, comes out very humbly to meet Moshe and to hear about the miracles of the Exodus and to learn divine wisdom from Moshe. His exclamation:”Blessed is Hashem, Who rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of Pharaoh….Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods!” is its highest point.

Perhaps that only thing that is even more incredible in this whole story and something that can teach us a tremendous life lesson is how Moshe Rabbeynu treats Yitro upon his arrival at the Israeli camp. Moshe has just witnessed arguably the most miraculous and magical event the world has witnessed and who was its direct orchestrator.  When Yitro’s messenger announces his arrival, Moshe – and with him Aharon, his brother, and his sons, Nadav and Avihu – comes out towards him, bows and kisses him. Him and Yitro inquire of each other’s well-being and enter the tent together. Yitro rejoices over the goodness that Hashem has performed for Israel. After their conversation, they bring sacrifices to Hashem and partake in a celebratory meal.

It is incredible to see the humility Moshe possesses and how much honor he is showing his father-in-law, who is not even Jewish and is at that point still an idol worshiper. (Yitro goes on to later convert to Judaism and returns back to Midiyan to convert the rest of the family). There are a lot of questions surrounding their immediate moment of encounter. Rashi writes that it is not immediately clear on who bowed to whom, but eventually concludes that it is indeed Moshe who bowes to Yitro. In Mekhilta, we learn that Moshe was clearly the one who bowed and kissed his father-in-law. Based on this, it is said that a man should always be prepared to show honor to his father-in-law.

Moshe Rabbeynu’s most prominent quality for which is most known for is humility (Anava). In Judaism, this is also considered to be the most desired personality trait in a man. And perhaps this is one of the greatest moments where Moses gets to show his true nature. The commandment to honor one’s parents is well known from the Ten Sayings (Ten Commandments). But here is it taken to the next level, teaching us to show respect to our significant other’s parents as well.

I view Torah as a powerful life guide – a manual if you wish – that offers us practical principles and ideas for happy and meaningful life. This particular episode provides us with a powerful detailed formula for building good, harmonious relations with not only our parents, but also our parents-in-law. It is a powerful lesson that can serve as a basis for building happy, harmonious families: When your in-laws come for a visit, get up, greet them, give them a kiss, a hug, ask them how they are and have a nice meal them. How simple and yet how profound. This is family relationships building at its finest, something that is not always easy to implement, but something that without any doubt will will bear beautiful fruit in both the short and long terms. 

People that get stuff done – Yitro’s hiring advice to Moses

Some time ago, Peter Shankman, one of the greatest and most inspirational personalities in the world of PR, social media and customer service and a true Mensch overall, posted a short note on Facebook:

For those of you who don’t know Peter that well – he is extremely efficient. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if he is actually human (maybe that zombie theme from his latest “Zombie Loyalists” book was not a joke after all). So getting stuff done is something that he not only talks about, but implements daily.

In their recent book, “How Google Works”, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg discuss the process of hiring at length. Centrality and importance of hiring the right people is not a new idea in the world of business, but they nonetheless put (yet) another exclamation point – with a twist of their own, of course – after this statement. As a matter of fact they go as far as saying that the single most important thing a business leader does at work is hiring. Had I not known who these people are, I would think they run the world’s most amazing HR agency.

“The number one job of a leader is hiring people that get stuff done.” There we have it…Which is almost exactly the message that Yitro delivers to his son-in-law when they meet in the desert.

After observing Moshe Rabbeynu’s (Moses’s) strenuous efforts in judging people (Yitro, 18:13), Yitro gently tells him that this whole exercise is not going to end well and that he is going to wear both himself and his people out. He then gives him an absolutely brilliant hiring strategy: “And you shall see from among the entire people, [1]men of accomplishment, [2]G-d fearing people, [3]men of truth, [4] people who despise money, and you shall appoint them leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties and leaders of tens. They shall judge the people at all times…”

What we have here in essence is a hiring methodology as outlined by Yitro and as adopted by Moshe Rabbeynu. Interestingly enough the 1st quality mentioned is what can be translated as “Accomplished People”, “People of Strength” or – as Rashi eloquently points out – “Rich Men”. Given Torah is a spiritual book, we could expect “Believers in G-d”, “Lovers of Man”. That sounds a bit more appropriate. But “Wealthy” or “Accomplished Men”? Really?!

Perhaps we can explain this as follows. Judaism is a very practical, earthly tradition which continuously emphasizes and praises action. According to Kabbalah, we live in the World of Action. Finally, although studying Torah is the greatest mitzvah/commandment, the Sages always cautioned that study ultimately must lead to action, because only then can the message truly be internalized.

One of the things I have come to appreciate in Judaism is its ability to powerfully and clearly connect very spiritual, lofty ideas with the raw reality of the day-to-day world. Rather than trying to separate the spiritual and material worlds and perhaps even highlight superiority of the former over the latter, it offers a way to harmoniously connect the two.

The Jewish recipe for leadership says that a true leader must first and foremost be someone who does things, who gets things done. Being a person of action and surrounding himself with a team of capable people is where being a leader starts.

Welcome to the Age of the Storyteller or Hebrew as The Ultimate Programming Language

In a recent interview with a prominent writer on technology, when asked about the biggest trends in the foreseeable future in the area of technology, she responded briefly and to the point with two words: “Mobile and Sensors”.

We live in the Big Data world. It surrounds us everywhere we go. Our desire and more importantly our ability to gather it are growing exponentially. Yet we need better ability to analyze this data so we can use in our personal and professional lives. Experts say that the most important skill the workers and the managers of the future alike will need to have is ability to work with data.

Yet while we are still going through the Big Data phase, the next phase is already upon us. I call it “The Age of the Storyteller”. You see, data is meaningless until it can empower you to make decision and take actions to help you accomplish your goals. Data is only as good as the logic you have in place and parameters you set up to first gather the right type and amount of data and then second as your ability to interpret within the existing context to move you into your desirable future.

It is at the intersection of four-thousand-old Jewish wisdom and most innovative technology that we find some interesting ideas that can empower us in our attempt to get a better handle on the process.

Key idea # 1: Old fairy tales might  be more than fairy tales

According to Jewish wisdom, our world was created through speech. Ten utterances or statements, to be precise. But that was not the end. Actually it was just the beginning. The world has never stopped growing or expanding. It happens right now as you are reading this. Interestingly, the String Theory says that our world is in the process of continuous rapid expansion.

When I attended a NY Tech Meetup at NYU in April 2013, one of the presenters wrote a few lines of code and showed us how he can, by running the code and using the Arduino platform, make the light go on and off. That same software that brings together software and hardware can do many other exciting things. Yet, nobody in the audience was jumping up and down. As amazing as it was, we sort of expect technology to do this kind of cool stuff these days.

Perhaps now, in light of the unfolding technological progress we have been witnessing and things it has enabled us to do by simply writing a few lines of letters mixed by numbers and pressing Enter, the idea that the world was created through speech does not seem that absurd. I mean, we can have a 3D printer make a toy for us, or a shoe, or a glass…and we are just getting started.

Key idea # 2: if Hebrew is a programming language, then Torah is a very long line of code

Let us go back to that story of how the world was created, as it is described in the Torah. We know there were 10 “sayings”. Now Hebrew is a very special language, some say the most special of all. It has 22 letters and it is by using/speaking this letters in a particular combination that the world was created. This is another statement that not too long ago would sound completely unrealistic. Additionally, using gematria (a traditional Jewish method of converting letters into numbers) every single Hebrew letter can be translated into a number. Alef is 1, Bet is 2, Gimel is 3 and so on until we get to Tav which is 400. By using gematria we can  turn the 600,000 Hebrew letters that comprise the Torah into an even longer line of numbers. It starts sounding more and more like a typical line of a software code.

Interesting detail is that even though the Torah was revealed some time after the world was already in existence, the Jewish wisdom has clearly explained that Torah was created before the world. The Torah is perceived as a blueprint or a map. The Creator looked into Torah and according to its content he created the world. This is why study of the Torah in Ya’adut (Judaism) is such a primary commandment. We, the Jews, are asked to constantly study the Torah, to actually view our life and the world through the lens of the Torah. Think Google Glass for a moment and you will get the idea.

Now let us go back to the idea of continuous expansion. In software, by using loops we can run/execute a block or entire code a number of times. For instance, we can say that as long as the specified value falls within a certain range, a certain action will be performed. We can also specify that every time a loop is executed/run the value of the initial variable increases.

Key idea # 3: The story of Creation of the World – retold by a programmer

If we can now go back to what the Jewish Sages have been saying and interpret their words through our freshly explained software prism, the story of [continuous] creation of the world looks something like this:

In the beginning there was nothing. And then The Master Programmer (HaShem/G-d)wrote a very long piece of code (The Torah) using his programing language (Hebrew). He ran the code for the first time and He liked the outcome. So he added a few extra lines. When He saw the results he was happy. So He added a few extra lines and set up a few Loops in place and then set the program in motion.

The world would be incomplete without helpers that can be part of the creation process. And so men (and women) were created to be those “helpers”. Judaism talks about humans being partners in the creation process with the Creator.

As a matter of fact, it was for human beings that the world was created. And so following this logic, we can say that He created humans with similar set of characteristics (in his image), who in our story will be called “junior programmers” for men and “advisors/guides” for women. Men and women have different roles and responsibilities in this process of co-creation. He gave them both their own unique set of tools, namely “thought, speech and action, with which they too can create or code in their specific way within the framework He setup and defined”. By using these tools, the assistant programmers continuously write code – as long as they’re in the state of being awake. Once the code has been written, it goes back to the Main Server (Upper Realms), where it gets in the queue and when its time comes, it is run. When that happens – the world experiences a change of sorts. Sometimes it is more visible than others, but ultimately as the changes accumulates, it reaches a certain tipping point and a more significant transformation/shift occurs.

Key idea # 4: Our world is an infinite data field

“Know what is above you – a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and all your deeds recorded in a book”. Until not too long ago, this would have sounded like another line from an outdated fairy tale. Today with advancements we made in mobile technology, cameras and drones, it starts looking more and more like a plausible scenario.

Every line and symbol a “junior programmer” writes using either one of the three methods (thought, speech and actions, also known in Kabbalistic thought as the garments of the soul) is carefully recorded and that data is sent back to the Main Server where it is stored. To be precise, what is recorded is the following:

• Beginning position and location of the “junior programmer” within the system
• The content of the newly added line of code
• The nature of change it triggers in the System(positive or negative). The change is observed and recorded on three different levels – immediately in the very same location of the “programmer”, in the surrounding area within the System and then the overall cumulative change in the whole entire System.

What this resembles very closely is a very sophisticated performance management system. And indeed in line with Jewish perspective on life, we are here to accomplish a very specific mission and it can only be done if our progress is recorded and documented. Interestingly enough, the first commandment the Israelites are given while still in Egypt is to count the months. Makes complete sense, because just like in business process theory, performance/actions are measured per a unit of time (even thought in Ya’adut, this is not the only reason why the commandment of counting the months exists).

Conclusion:

The goal of this brief essay was to illustrate striking similarities between software codes, data mining and the Torah, between structure of software languages, data gathering & analysis and structure of Hebrew and this world of action we live in. If assumptions laid down here are indeed true, it can have positive implications for the importance of studying of Hebrew and ancient Jewish wisdom.  If Hebrew is indeed the very language used by the Creator to create this world, learning Hebrew within the larger context of Jewish wisdom (both Written and Oral), can reveal new insights and open new doors into the future of technology, business and data mining.

Open Source Judaism

Earlier this year, I attended a lecture given by a Rabbi and a professor from Bar Ilan University in Israel. He spoke about the results of the recent elections in Israel and what he thought most of the media outside of Israel missed. Namely, he believed that the recent elections were first and foremost about the unity of the Jewish people and the “soul of the Jewish people in Israel”.

The speaker described with great excitement the process of revival of Jewish traditions among the secular Jews in Israel. He described how after the collapse of the peace talks with the Palestinians, many secular Jews were searching for a new sense of purpose, both personally and politically. The settlers were going through a similar process. After Gaza strip was given back to the Palestinians and the settlements of the Gush Katif were eliminated, the religious Jews from the settlements understood that the rebuilding of the Greater Israel was being reversed and not progressing according to their dreams and aspirations, which they in turn inherited from their teachers, namely the two late Rabbis Kook, the father and the son.

According to the lecturer, this phenomenon of resurgence of Jewish spirituality and the thirst demonstrated by secular Israelis to re-embrace their tradition and spiritual heritage has been happening for a while. Groups have been forming all over Israel that come together once a week to chant ancient Jewish melodies and to study Yahadut. G-d is now mentioned more and more in the mainstream Israeli music. People, especially young people, are searching for something. They want to be spiritual and they want to be Jewishly spiritual. People are very curious about Kabala and Jewish mystical teachings.

Then the conversation turned to American Jewry. The professor feels that the rate of Jewish assimilation in America is not going down but perhaps on the contrary and that overall the Jewish identity among American Jews is getting weaker. By contrast, in Israel the feeling of togetherness certainly has a strong almost “tribal” element to it, therefore creating a much stronger national bond and unity among Israeli Jews.

Recent Israeli elections have been a reflection of these sociological trends. As per the speaker, 35% of Israeli Knesset is now observant. Even “Yesh Atid” has two Rabbis on its list of PMs.

The speaker ended his lecture on an optimistic note by saying that he is very encouraged to see these positive developments. He even went as far as saying that he truly the hand of Hashem at work.

My first comment is that, while I do not doubt that the overall trend is there, all this is hardly surprising. In a way it simply is a repetition of hundreds of years of Jewish history. Jewish communities stayed together and were united partially because of the existential threats that always existed around them. There was simply no other choice. The threat was twofold. On one hand were the hostile, anti-Semitic goim/gentiles around them. On the other hand was the threat of being excommunicated from the community, if the person did not follow the rules. Both threats combined kept people “in line” for centuries.

What we see in Israel today is very similar. Disenchanted with international organizations, including the UN, and the overall international community; seeing that the peace process with the Palestinians is not going anywhere, mainly because it is unclear at this point who to negotiate with, Israelis feel increased isolation and perhaps loss of hope. When that happens, as is often the case in times of uncertainty and danger, people tend to draw closer together. New Yorkers demonstrated this on 9/11, as they came together to support each other during the time of tragedy.

Regardless of how we feel about the current phenomenon, what I want to understand is the root cause of why this is happening. Does it happen because people are simply rediscovering some of the richness of their old tradition, like a child who finds his father’s old watch in the attic, or does it happen because the people of Israel are under enormous amount of stress, feel that they are stuck in a “no way out” situation and they find relief in their tradition?

This is where the American Jewish experience can serve as a helpful point of reference. In the absence of existential threats, living in an open society where all doors are open to them, young generation of American Jews are putting validity and Judaism’s entire reason for existence to a test. Gone are the days of being Jewish by guilt. As are the ghetto days of first Poland and Russia and then Boro Park in Brooklyn. Jews in America enjoy freedoms and opportunities like none of the generations of Jews before them.

The speaker made a statement that I found interesting. He said that many young people in Israel want to be more Jewish however they do not want to be religious. Once again, nothing new here as young people of all faiths have been saying for a long time here in the U.S. Rabbinic Judaism has been in existence for at least two thousand years. Rabbis have claimed the spot of being the custodians of the tradition for all this time. So my question to Rabbi Wolf was how does he, as a Rabbi, feel about these young truth seekers questioning the authority and the status quo upheld by the Rabbinic institutions and the Rabbis. Technology and easier access to information create disruption not only in education, business, and manufacturing but also in traditional form of social organization and spirituality, two roles which religion has historically fulfilled. The Rabbis were not only the custodians but also to a certain degree the gate keepers. We can say that they monopolized control over the Jewish experience. They were the selector at the door of a night club who decided who goes in and goes out. They claimed that they know the texts and they have the last word. Now of all it is changing. The young generation in their search of their own identity and decidedly more, Jewish spirituality is going back to the texts, to the origin. They want to know. They do not just want to be told what to do. They do not blindly trust in the Rabbinic authority like the previous generations did. And so the Torah no longer belongs to the Rabbis. Everybody has equal access to it. And most importantly, equal ability to decide what parts can be followed and what parts might need re-interpretation.

The central question that we now come to is the question of evolution of Judaism and the Jewish people. I do not think of it as a question of survival. Did Judaism exist, develop and survive because of its inherent strength or mainly because of outside threats and rejection by the non-Jewish societies where Jews lived? If Judaism is really the powerful, life-giving and enhancing teaching that we, The Chosen People, were given, then it should survive the test of time and the test of change.

I do not agree with some of the Rabbis’ assertion that I hear here in the U.S. that we Jews are different, because we cherish different set of eternal values and therefore will always be separated from other nations and alone. I also hear opinions propagated by the clergy in all denominations, especially in the Conservative, the Orthodox and Chassidic movements, that state that in the end nobody really likes us or wants to be with us, that we are meant to be forever isolated and misunderstood. And therefore, we only have each other at the end of the day and so we need to stick together and take care of each other.

I am very proudly Jewish and I see so many people full of admiration towards Judaism, its teaching, its rituals and wisdom. I am amazed by how many of my non-Jewish friends from all walks of life are absolutely fascinated by Jewish people. I meet people of diverse beliefs that exhibit such love, admiration and curiosity towards the Jews. Surely there are people out there that do not like us. But there are always people who find something or someone they do not like. Why as Jews, we do not always remember to do that and instead focus so much on how much others hate us? It seems to be simply un-Jewish. Our Sages taught us to “judge the entire person favorably”. Perhaps it is time to take a different approach, one that can balance remembering the past with insistence on finding all the people that love us the Jews and focus more on them. Interestingly enough, this is right in line with our own tradition.

In this open world where ideas and values compete with each other in one big open forum, I feel confident that Judaism has so much to offer. Isolating it and propagating the feelings of insecurity, fear and mistrust between Jews and Gentiles, is perceived by me more as a sign of weakness and lack of confidence on the part of Jewish men and women. It can also be perceived as lack of desire to let go of control and security on behalf of the leaders of the community. Change is good but not everyone feels comfortable with it.

If you have something that is so superior and you truly believe in its power and abilities, why would ever by afraid of competition? If a person has healthy and strong immune system, he is not afraid to go to a supermarket shopping because he is scared that he is going to catch a virus.

If we raise our children with a strong sense of Jewish identity, self-awareness, knowledge of how to love those around them because they know how to love themselves unconditionally, with a clear understand of how our thousand-year-old values and principles can be directly applied to their life to make it better in all its areas, why do we need to be afraid of intermarriage? Or of Christian missionaries? Or of simple and plain secularization? True strength does not fear a thing. True strength exhibits confidence and infuses a man with sense of purpose and direction that nothing can take away from him. And if it does not, perhaps it is not the real thing.

“Words that come from a heart enter a heart”. So if they are not reaching a heart, perhaps they did not come from the heart. Perhaps the issue is not with the other side, not with the demographical and the societal changes in the Western countries, specifically in the U.S. Perhaps the real issue is that it is time to change the old set of clothes for a new one. Taking these ancient principles, and while preserving their inner integrity re-dressing them so that they can deliver that which they are meant to deliver: peace, happiness, fulfillment, health. Jewish wisdom is the foundation of our entire Western civilization. In the words of John Adams, 2^nd President of our country, the U.S. :”I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations … They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”

If we are here on a mission, have we forgotten that have a job to do? If we have knowledge in our hands that has ability to bring transformation for good to others around us, it is not our responsibility to share it with them? Perhaps we forgot what our real job in this world is.

Software experts tell us that open source software tends to outperform proprietary software. Google’s open source mobile platform Android captured the world. It is the way of the future. Judaism as interpreted by the Rabbis has been that proprietary software. It did well so far, but it is losing ground quickly. It does not mean that Judaism does not have merit or has nothing to offer – it simply means that our approach to it must change.

Elders’ Crown

“Children’s children are the crown of the elders, and the glory of the children is their fathers”, Mishlei 17:6

It is not easy to be Jewish. It is, of course very rewarding on many levels, but easy it is not. Because in addition to all the other things everybody else is doing, we, the Jews, have this things called “The People”. We came from somewhere, we have roots and we belong. Which has nothing to do with observance of Jewish commandments per se, also known as Halakha.

Because we come from somewhere, we have responsibility to take all the things we received from the previous generations and pass them on. It is not always a very rational thing. As a matter of fact, the whole definition of what it means to be Jewish, when answered by the Jews, at times makes no sense to other people. Is it a religion, peoplehood, culture, ethnicity…what is Judaism? Perhaps all of the above and more.

Sometimes, some of us almost wish that we did not have to deal with all this. But in the end, almost all of us, sooner or later begin to realize that at the very least out of respect to all the previous generations before us, we need to give it enough thought and take this seriously.

And so this site comes to life in an attempt to not only add yet another humble effort to the already existing wave, but to also try and make this old wisdom and tradition of ours something that is alive, relevant and vital today, something that you, my dear reader, and I can use to make our own lives and the rest of the world around us a better and happier.

In Peace,

Aharon