I have always been a great lover of all things tech-related. In fact, for much of my college years I vacillated between two career paths that could not have been more different from one another: computer science and the rabbinate. Linda will say that she ALWAYS knew I would be a rabbi, but honestly, I did not. So perhaps I can say that Linda knows me better than I know myself!
Technology is cold and impersonal, and the rabbinate is, well, supposed to be the opposite! Ultimately I chose the rabbinate, but never quite recovered from my passion for the former and the “cool factor” that the latest feature brings. So of course, in our home I have Google Assistant set up to respond to my voice and turn on lights, change TV channels, alert me to people at the door. etc. It doesn’t write sermons, make the bed, or start the coffee yet -- but I’m sure we’ll get there!
While tech is convenient, we would all prefer to speak to a human being rather than a computer. (Who among us has not fought with an automated phone system trying to get to a human representative on the phone!)
Yet there are certainly great lessons to be gleaned from technology, and fitting analogies from the world of science-fiction have often found their way into a sermon or two of mine. (But I still must admit that since the end of the classic “Star Trek” series, I’ve never really found any of the current crop to be as thoughtful or philosophically poignant as the adventures of James T. Kirk - the original!)
So let me share a few technology-related thoughts that I think are spiritually relevant today. And I promise you won’t have to be a computer maven to understand my point.
All kinds of signals are hurtling through space and through our bodies at every moment. Just as multiple signals travel through the airwaves, they can only be made sense of if there is a tuner on the other end to pull-in that particular frequency, or an algorithm that knows how to interpret the incoming data. (I won’t confuse or bore you by talking about frequency hopping or the digital signal encoding formats which are so important in today’s world of cell phones and wifi.) At the risk of over-simplification, the TV, laptop or cell phone only “receives” the signals they are tuned to, and they remains completely oblivious to all of the other signals out there.
Our relationship with God can be understood in much the same way. The Kotzker rabbi was once asked by one of his disciples: “Where is God to be found in the world?” The rabbi answered: “God can be found wherever he is allowed in.” In other words, you have to tune yourself to the right channel in order to be touched by the Divine.
We are always deciding what signals we wish to focus on in life. And often we choose the wrong signal. Heschel suggested in his renowned book “God in Search of Man” that God is reaching out to us on several of those frequencies, trying to make contact with us and touch our souls. But we are usually so busy surfing through every other signal out there that we fail to find the holy places in life where God can be found. We switch stations so fast that we often skip over any vestiges of holiness altogether.
In our busy lives today we simply have too many responsibilities and distractions. We’re always busy shlepping the kids somewhere –to birthday parties, music lessons, play dates or the doctor. We are beset by countless errands that we never seem to catch up with. And mounting work deadlines always manage to keep us apart from our families and further erode any meaningful private time.
That is the beauty of the Sabbath. It forces us, at least once a week, to cut out all the static from our lives and focus on the things that truly matter. Regular prayer and study also helps attune us to the sacred and keep our fleeting lives in proper perspective. The Divine “signal” is out there. It just takes an act of will for us to tune it to that station.
For our ancestors coming out of Egypt, God was very real, very near. Everywhere our ancestors looked, they saw God’s handiwork and splendor. We, on the other hand, are fascinated by our own power and our own creations. It is fine to glory in our own achievements, but we should never lose sight of the source that has given us the power to attain them.
When our ancestors arrived at Mt Sinai to receive the Torah, they were awed by God’s presence. On Erev Shavuot we attempt to recreate that sense of actually receiving the Torah by spending an evening engaged in Torah study, as a way of spiritually preparing ourselves to receive the Torah anew during this season. This tradition is called a "Tikkun Leyl Shavuot".
On Saturday evening, June 9, we will be holding an innovative Tikkun at Beth Shalom beginning at 7:15 PM with Seudah Shlishi (the 3rd Shabbat meal). I invite you to join us as we study together, learn from one another, and reconnect ourselves with the Torah on Shavuot as we celebrate Z’man Matan Toratenu, the giving of the Torah at Mt Sinai.
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Mark Zimmerman
Technology is cold and impersonal, and the rabbinate is, well, supposed to be the opposite! Ultimately I chose the rabbinate, but never quite recovered from my passion for the former and the “cool factor” that the latest feature brings. So of course, in our home I have Google Assistant set up to respond to my voice and turn on lights, change TV channels, alert me to people at the door. etc. It doesn’t write sermons, make the bed, or start the coffee yet -- but I’m sure we’ll get there!
While tech is convenient, we would all prefer to speak to a human being rather than a computer. (Who among us has not fought with an automated phone system trying to get to a human representative on the phone!)
Yet there are certainly great lessons to be gleaned from technology, and fitting analogies from the world of science-fiction have often found their way into a sermon or two of mine. (But I still must admit that since the end of the classic “Star Trek” series, I’ve never really found any of the current crop to be as thoughtful or philosophically poignant as the adventures of James T. Kirk - the original!)
So let me share a few technology-related thoughts that I think are spiritually relevant today. And I promise you won’t have to be a computer maven to understand my point.
All kinds of signals are hurtling through space and through our bodies at every moment. Just as multiple signals travel through the airwaves, they can only be made sense of if there is a tuner on the other end to pull-in that particular frequency, or an algorithm that knows how to interpret the incoming data. (I won’t confuse or bore you by talking about frequency hopping or the digital signal encoding formats which are so important in today’s world of cell phones and wifi.) At the risk of over-simplification, the TV, laptop or cell phone only “receives” the signals they are tuned to, and they remains completely oblivious to all of the other signals out there.
Our relationship with God can be understood in much the same way. The Kotzker rabbi was once asked by one of his disciples: “Where is God to be found in the world?” The rabbi answered: “God can be found wherever he is allowed in.” In other words, you have to tune yourself to the right channel in order to be touched by the Divine.
We are always deciding what signals we wish to focus on in life. And often we choose the wrong signal. Heschel suggested in his renowned book “God in Search of Man” that God is reaching out to us on several of those frequencies, trying to make contact with us and touch our souls. But we are usually so busy surfing through every other signal out there that we fail to find the holy places in life where God can be found. We switch stations so fast that we often skip over any vestiges of holiness altogether.
In our busy lives today we simply have too many responsibilities and distractions. We’re always busy shlepping the kids somewhere –to birthday parties, music lessons, play dates or the doctor. We are beset by countless errands that we never seem to catch up with. And mounting work deadlines always manage to keep us apart from our families and further erode any meaningful private time.
That is the beauty of the Sabbath. It forces us, at least once a week, to cut out all the static from our lives and focus on the things that truly matter. Regular prayer and study also helps attune us to the sacred and keep our fleeting lives in proper perspective. The Divine “signal” is out there. It just takes an act of will for us to tune it to that station.
For our ancestors coming out of Egypt, God was very real, very near. Everywhere our ancestors looked, they saw God’s handiwork and splendor. We, on the other hand, are fascinated by our own power and our own creations. It is fine to glory in our own achievements, but we should never lose sight of the source that has given us the power to attain them.
When our ancestors arrived at Mt Sinai to receive the Torah, they were awed by God’s presence. On Erev Shavuot we attempt to recreate that sense of actually receiving the Torah by spending an evening engaged in Torah study, as a way of spiritually preparing ourselves to receive the Torah anew during this season. This tradition is called a "Tikkun Leyl Shavuot".
On Saturday evening, June 9, we will be holding an innovative Tikkun at Beth Shalom beginning at 7:15 PM with Seudah Shlishi (the 3rd Shabbat meal). I invite you to join us as we study together, learn from one another, and reconnect ourselves with the Torah on Shavuot as we celebrate Z’man Matan Toratenu, the giving of the Torah at Mt Sinai.
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Mark Zimmerman
