Twelve seconds is all it took before the video went viral. As Scott Simon on NPR said, we live in times of instant mass outrage. In just moments, someone is demonized, and it is impossible to walk it back. People are divided, disconnected from the situation and immediately think the worst of everything.
You may have seen that at a July 22nd Chicago Cubs game, a 12 second video was captured of a young boy bobbling a prized foul ball and a man behind him catching it and then nonchalantly handing it to the woman sitting next to him. The crushed look on the boys face is unforgettable.
The video went viral, and you can imagine the comments.
The Cubs management, wanting to avoid an issue, leapt into action and immediately sent a signed baseball down to the young man. The boy under the brim of his too big – for him – hat was all smiles as he held up two balls.
Unbeknownst to the Cubs, the video person, and the twitter world, the man who seemingly stole the ball from the kid and gave it to the woman next to him, had already caught and given 3 balls away, including to the little boy before he gave one to his wife in honor of their anniversary.
In this time of Facebook, social media, instantaneous news and 24-hour news cycle, that man who gave away 3 balls to children is being lambasted and skewered by people who know only what they saw in 12 seconds and not the rest of the game. And even in
the aftermath, when the fans sitting next to him tweeted his generosity, people thought poorly of the man anyway. Some went so far as to even bring politics into this 12 second video.
We seemed to have entered the age of instant reaction with instant rage. Lacking all the information we assume the worse. Our negativity amplified by our social media echo chambers. We seem to only listen to those who agree with us. In this age of “over” connectedness between social media, smart phones and the like, we are, in reality, even more disconnected.
Recall the plague of darkness as described in Exodus: V’yaat Moshe et Yordoo. There was a thick darkness throughout all the land of Egypt for three days. No one could see their fellows, nor did anyone get up from their place for three days.
We have entered a time of darkness. There is a widening chasm of viewpoints that exist. But this is not just about a 24-hour news cycle. Studies have shown that we on
average text and message each other more often than we call each other. (I am unquestionably guilty of this) It is easier in some ways, but it is pushing us further apart. When once in person communication was the best, we now settle for the electronic facimile. So many of us are frustrated with our world and society that we have retreated to places of “safety.”
We have just about eliminated passionate and congenial civil debate instead we attack those with whom we disagree and when we are not offering ad hominem attacks, (PAUSE) we dwell in echo chambers. The elimination of those interactions has changed our system and we are only beginning to see the consequences of those actions.
In SY Agnon’s, one of the leading Israeli novelists, classic book, Days of Awe, he tells the story by Rabbi Hayyim of Zans:
A man had been wandering about in a forest for several days, not knowing which was the way out. Suddenly he saw a man approaching. His heart was filled with joy. “Now I shall certainly find out which is the right way.” As they near one another, he asked the man, “Brother, tell me which is the right way. I have been wandering about in this forest for several days.”
Said the other to him, “brother I do not know the way out either. For I too have been wandering about here for many days. But this I can tell you: do not take the way I have been taking, for that will lead you astray. And now let us look for a new way out together.”
The author adds: “So it is with us. One thing I can tell you: the way we have been following thus far we ought to follow no further, for that way leads one astray. But now let us look for a new way [together].”
As a USYer, I remember standing with a group of friends and being told to put our right hands in the circle and grab another person’s hand. Then we did the same with the left hand. This is the human knot. The object was to untangle ourselves until we form, more often than not a circle where we find we are all connected. How do you untangle the knot? Communication. Direct Communication and cooperation. Understanding that not everyone in the group will agree with everyone else but to resolve the knot, you must work together even if you disagree with one another. You cooperate and compromise until you untangle the knot.
We are living in a human knot today and are trying to untangle it through social media. We are stuck in a dense and overwhelming forest of electronic media that ensures we remain lost, disconnected and separate just like the plague of darkness. And many of us think that the next tweet, post or message of Breaking News will be the magic bullet to make it all better. To begin to improve we have to recognize that very little in this world is black or white, most of it is gray and there are choices to make. I am personally working on this!
As we discussed in the sessions I spent with many of you this summer, to reach higher spiritual levels, we need to find more time to connect on deeper levels with each other. I am as guilty of this as anyone and have made this one of my goals.
Rabbi Hayim of Zans tells another story:
Once upon a time, there was a poor country woman who had many children. They were always begging for food, but she had none to give them. One day she found an egg.
She called her children and said, “Children, children, we’ve nothing to worry about any more; I’ve found an egg. And, being a provident woman, I’ll not eat the egg, but shall ask my neighbor for permission to set it under her setting hen, until a chick is hatched. For I am a provident woman! And we’ll not eat the chick, but will set her on eggs, and
the eggs will hatch into chickens. And the chickens in their turn will hatch many eggs, and we’ll have many chickens and many eggs. But I’m a provident woman, I am! I’ll not eat the chickens and not eat the eggs but shall sell them and buy me a heifer. And I’ll not eat the heifer, but shall raise it to a cow, and not eat the cow until it calves. For I’m a provident woman! And I’ll sell the cows and the calves and buy a field, and we’ll have fields and cows and calves, and we won’t need anything anymore!”
The country woman was speaking in this fashion and playing with the egg, when it fell out of her hands and broke.
Rabbi Hayyim of Zans interjects; “that is how we are. When the Holy Days arrive, every person resolves to do Teshuva, thinking in his heart, “I’ll do this, and I’ll do that.” But the days slip by in mere deliberation, and thought doesn’t lead to action, and what is worse, the person who made the resolution may fall even lower. Therefore, every person ought to exercise great caution so as not to fall even lower, God forbid.”
The only way to see the end to the plague of darkness that seems to surround us is to untangle the human knot and that is done by listening to one another, finding common goals and ultimately by working together even if we disagree on different issues. Here is what we can do today. We don’t have to ban particular subjects at our family holiday tables instead when we disagree, disagree about the issues. Don’t make them personal. Don’t leave our sense of interconnectedness to the whims of social media because we will only find ourselves more agitated, disconnected and disconsolate.
On High Holidays, we are asking God to hear US and for us to hear ourselves. It is not simply the sound of a shofar, it is a plea to us and to God to hear what is in our hearts and in our souls. The bracha for sounding the Shofar recited is not Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to sound the Shofar but rather it is Lishmoa kol shofar, to hear the sound or the voice of the Shofar.
The Shofar represents a path toward transformative potential change. Reminding us that Teshuvah, Tzedakah and Tefila (repentance, giving to each other and prayer) will change the harsh degree. And although there are so many forces at work on us to maintain the status quo, the hearing of the Shofar obliges us confront those forces and to shatter our own complacency reminding us of what can happen when we walk the path of Tzadikut, that God has laid out for us. In fact, the hearing of the Shofar is to remind us that we can’t stay in our current action without acknowledging the consequences of our actions both in the present and what they may lead to in the future. Most of all, it is a call to action to stand up from our place in the darkness and shine a light on all that is good and just in the world. We stand at the beginning of a New Year with new possibilities to do that which brings us together in wholeness and God will grant us abundance.
Shanah Tovah U’Mitukah! To a Happy, Healthy, and Sweet New Year!
