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.
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”.
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
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.
Aharon's Wisdom 