Rabbi's Blog

The Jewish New Year is always a great opportunity for us to reflect on our lives. And when I look at the past couple of years and compare them to the prior decades, I would say that I am overjoyed. I am ecstatic about the now. Of course, we have political strife as well as the obvious natural disasters, but I really am happy about the era in which we live in. And the basic reason for my feelings is because of the simple fact that we live in a time, when geeks rule! And because I am a geek, I can honestly say that there has never been a time like this. I mean we live in a time when the great heroes of business are Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates – total geeks. It was not that long ago when the “in” thing was to have a Franklin planner. Now, we all geek out with our latest and greatest tech tools. From the soccer moms facebooking on their phones to the cool teenagers Instagramming on their devices to the business elite completely digitized by their laptops, desktops, and smart cars, being “in” means geeking out.

My favorite example of this is in pop culture. What is one of the most popular sitcoms? The Big Bang Theory. This is a show that is specifically about how a group geeky guys interact in the world – that’s it. And what is one of the most popular dramatic shows on TV? Game of Thrones !!!! (I nearly died when I saw the popularity of this show grow.) A sci-fi/fantasy world made up of characters that I personally love but never would’ve thought that the general population would take any interest in. I mean swords and dragons?

Now, with me being a big-time geek, I’m always interested in the latest gadget. However, being that this is the Jewish New Year, I think it is important to reflect a little on how technology has affected us. You see, if you’re like me, you get so excited about a specific new thing because - it’s exciting. However, while the technology might improve our lives and make things easier, we also might be leaving some important things or even some important values behind.

This thought first came to me after I started using my new digital camera. My wife graciously bought me one of those new DSLR cameras. Basically, it’s not a point-and-shoot. So I went out and shot one picture and made some adjustments. Shot another picture and made more adjustments. Shot two more pictures. Changed the scene. Shot more pictures. I then went to upload the pictures onto my computer and saw that I took about 50 pictures in about 10 minutes. And then I saw the percentage that I had used on the memory card from the camera. Those 50 pictures took up almost no space. Basically, on this one storage card, the camera was telling me that I could take up to 1000 pictures. 1000 pictures!

Of course, being a geek, my initial thought was how cool this was. And yet, when I thought further, I remembered a time when we didn’t have digital cameras; when we didn’t have fancy storage cards. Rather, we had to go out to the store and buy a roll of film that had 12 exposures or 36 exposures. And of course, I’m sure everyone remembers that not all of them would come out. And for us casual photographers that meant that though we purchased 36 possible pictures, probably only half of that came out.

Of course, it is great being able to shoot as many pictures as we want, but I think having a limited amount of exposures teaches us something, as well. I’m not saying we should go back to it. I’m just saying that maybe we should pause every once in awhile and ask ourselves, “Are we missing something?” Though we only had the possibility of 12 pictures in a role, it did teach us something. It taught us that we really couldn’t waste a shot. Now while that might’ve made for some more tense family photos, it did teach us to savor it. By having a limited number of shots, it forced us to be more patient and thoughtful.

In our fast-paced world of today, we forget about the importance of slowing down and thinking something through. Few of us savor what we have around us. We are so fast to throw things away because we can just get another one. Those old cameras remind us to slow down, take our time, and do it right the first time. If we always think we can “get another shot,” we might not try as hard the first time. This especially applies to our relationships with one another. While these 10 days are about repentance, if we always have in the back of our minds that we can be forgiven, then maybe we don’t treat each other with the kindness we deserve. We must interact with our friends and our world with the thought that we only have a limited number of exposures, therefore, we must strive to do it right the first time not wasting one moment with each other.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about GPS. Please raise your hand if you’ve ever used GPS. Yep, that’s what I expected. We are all geeks. While some of us might use GPS on our vacations and places that we have never been, others use GPS just to drive around the neighborhood going to someone’s house. And just like with the camera, I would have to say that this gadget is amazing, but is there something we’re missing, some sort of value that is going by the wayside because of our reliance on GPS?

When I was growing up, whenever we took a family trip, my father would call AAA and have maps sent to the house. When the package arrived my dad opened up all the maps and took out a yellow highlighter to highlight the best routes he wanted to take. When it was time to go, we grabbed the maps and off we went. Ready for anything.

I believe what we gain through this process of AAA maps is the value of planning ahead and being prepared for the detour. With GPS, the only thing we have to do is plug-in the address and let the computer do the work for us. That’s all the planning that is needed. And don’t get me started with what happens when we get into a traffic jam, though the GPS claims to track traffic while we drive. I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets extremely frustrated when traffic happens.

The old-school way required us to think about where we were going, way in advance. We not only had to plan bathroom breaks and rest stops, but we needed to research where those places would be (without the Internet). Perhaps, even more important was the assumption that we would have to make a detour. I never remember my parents getting upset that we would need to veer off an interstate. I think it is because they always saw it as an opportunity to experience something unexpected.

Planning and being ready for the detour are important values on our journeys of life. We can always plan for ourselves and our children, the lives that we want for us and for them. Yet, all too often we can only think about what’s happening this week this month or, at most, this year. For us to live meaningful lives, we have to have vision and a plan. Meaning doesn’t happen all by itself. And we also have to be ready for any detour. Rarely is life a straight path. While we travel on our journeys, we must remember not only to plan but also to be ready to detour, preparing for something unexpected. What is the phrase? Man plans and God laughs.

Lastly, I want to bring us back to those car trips that we all took. I am sure you remember piling into the car with the entire family on those hot summer days, driving to some destination, like the beach. You would get in that superhot car with those vinyl seats and pray that your shorts went down long enough to protect your skin from burning on the pleather. And as your parent saw the beads of sweat form on your brow, they uttered those horrific words, “Let me cool things off for you.” And then they reached for the dash to turn on that terrible setting - the vent. And, for those that don’t know what I’m talking about, this was before we had air conditioning in cars. The vent blew air at us that was supposed to be cool air. Now, I don’t know about you, but in my car, it was always a blast of hot air for a long time. So, isn’t air conditioning great? I love having air conditioning in my car.

And yet, even with that oppressive vent, there is something that we learned that I think is extremely important for today’s day and age. That vent made things pretty unbearable, but we did manage to get through the journey together. This is not too different from life itself. While I mentioned before that life can have detours, life can also have horrific and sometimes unbearable tragedies. Sometimes our journeys include the loss of our dear friends and family members. Sometimes our journeys include debilitating illness and a great deal of pain. Sometimes our journeys include things that are just so terrible it’s hard to even get up in the morning. These things might feel quite unbearable but we can manage the journey as long as we stick together.

At this moment, I’m thinking of all of the individuals that have been affected by the natural disasters of the recent hurricanes, as well as the earthquake in Mexico. The lives these people are living have been turned upside-down. And as mundane and simplistic as that vent story is, it does teach us the lesson that though we experience something unbearable, we truly can get through these things when we travel on the journey together. Somehow being together, makes that which is unbearable a little easier.

To conclude, I want to be clear. I am a geek. I love my gadgets. I love my digital camera, I love my GPS, and I love air conditioning in the car. I’m not preaching today about how it was better back in the old days. No, I recognize we have moved forward. I recognize that we have wonderful pieces of technology to help us on our journeys. But as we move forward, it’s important for us to stop every once in a while and reflect on the lessons we might be missing along the way of our evolution. I believe that this world would be a better place if we spent more time savoring what we have and not wasting moments with each other. I believe this world would be better and our lives would be more meaningful if we planned ahead, while being prepared for detour. And I believe that this world and our lives can be more enriched if we take into our hearts the reality that our journeys can have moments that might seem completely unbearable, but we can survive them all if we stick together.

May we all have a happy and healthy New Year, Shanah Tovah.