(Special for Shabbat) Mensch•Mark For Elul 18: Concentrate on One's Studies-Mityashev Libo BeTalmudo
Concentration on learning has become a multimedia proposition.
About the Mensch•Mark Series
The Talmudic tractate Avot, 6:6 provides a roadmap as to how to live an ethical life. This passage includes 48 middot (measures) through which we can “acquire Torah.” See the full list here. For each of these days of reflection, running from the first of Elul through Yom Kippur, I’m highlighting one of these middot, in order to assist each of us in the process of soul searching (“heshbon ha-nefesh”). Today’s Mensch-Mark is being delivered on Friday, to avoid sending it on Shabbat. Like mannah in the wilderness, there’s a double portion of mensch-marks today for your inbox!
Concentrate on One's Studies-Middah Mityashev Libo BeTalmudo
URJ’s Take
Text
"Who studies gladly for a single hour will learn vastly more than one who studies glumly for hours on end." (Hayyim of Valozhin, a Lithuanian talmudist of the 18th century)Commentary
One of the 48 qualities needed to acquire Torah is the ability to concentrate on one's studies. Concentration is focusing one's undivided attention for a particular purpose.As mentioned in the translation, there are several different interpretations of this middah. In Midrash Samuel, the commentator understands this middah to mean "thinking deliberately in one's study." This means that the learner studies in a composed and steady way rather than quickly and haphazardly. The commentary Tiferes Yisrael characterizes the learner in this middah as one who thoroughly prepares before giving a Torah lecture or presentation. The competent scholar prepares not only content but also the style of presentation. The commentary Sfas Emes translates this middah as, "One whose heart becomes composed by Torah study." This describes the individual who, though beset by problems, is able to subdue them by deep, concentrated Torah study. The Chofetz Chaim understood this middah to say, "one's heart derives the lessons of one's learning." Simply put, the learner internalizes the lessons of the Torah and lives his/her life completely by them. ( Pirkei Avos Ethics of the Fathers, p.422)
Reuven Bulka taught the following interpretation of this middah,
"One may be involved with the destiny of others, but is still important to concentrate on Torah by being studious in learning, by recognizing that even though one has reached the point of being able to teach others, nevertheless, it is still important to continue being a student oneself." (As A Tree by the Waters, p.258)
In each of these instances, the commentator is describing the way in which the learner approaches Torah, the intent with which the learner studies and how that study manifests itself in the learner. All of these take concentration and focus which is reflected in this text: "Who studies gladly for a single hour will learn vastly more than one who studies glumly for hours on end." In other words, concentrated learning for one hour is more effective than several hours of uninspired learning.
The Talmud says, "If you see a student who finds it as hard as iron to study, it is because his/her studies are without system." (Ta'anit) We affect our own ability to concentrate, to focus and to learn. There are all sorts of ways to create your own system of study. Some learners thrive in study groups, others need to read in isolation, some learners take notes or make outlines. Some learn best by hearing a lecture or presentation others by a hands-on experience. Each of us as a learner is unique and we each must find our own way to concentrate and learn.
My Take: God Lives in a Word
Excerpts from my book, thelordismyshepherd.com: Seeking God in Cyberspace (HCI Press)
In light of the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT into our consciousness, it is worthwhile to take a look back at when the Web was new and the experience of going online so revolutionary and connecting. We've seen much more of the dark side in recent years, and my own views have shifted. But my optimism, as expressed in these excerpts from my book, published in 2000, is worth revisiting, especially in light of this middah, since so much of our Jewish research is now done online. For me, concentration on studies has become a multimedia proposition.
From thelordismyshepherd.com, p. 113
Sit down in front of your computer after midnight and see what is there. Reach out to connect - and not necessarily with people. Simply connecting to the latest news, to stock results or late ball scores, is enough to evoke a feeling of “humble surrender” and awe. How lovely can this universe be, how orderly and sound, when, without waking a soul, I can order cut-rate plane tickets to Chicago? How close to the mountaintop can you ascend, when, with a few clicks, you can see the deep blue earth from the perspective of a roving satellite hundreds of miles up? How dusty must my weary pilgrim’s feet get, when I can click my way to a live shot Jerusalem’s Western Wall in seconds, and fax my prayer to be placed within its ancient cracks? Mircea Eliade, a modern master of the study of the Sacred, writes of a sacred space as a place of breakthrough, a point of passage to another realm, an absolute reality. From where can we jump off into a higher world if not from a springboard whose range appears so limitless? Who would have thought that the “road less traveled” could be so easily located on the Information Superhighway?”
Other selections on seeking God online…
“I’ve found sanctity online. I’ve also found God in my VCR instruction manual. And in my home videos, my cell phone, my beeper, my remote control, my cable box and television screen. I've encountered God in the Hubbell telescope and the space shuttle, in my microwave oven and in a cloned sheep called Dolly. How I see God in these other technological phenomena is the subject for a more broad-based book; yet in some sense, a deep search for God on the Internet, the subject of this study, is a microcosm of the larger issue. And it is necessary to spend some time dealing with the general question of God and technology before we enter sacred cyberspace. Through my search for God on-line, I've discovered danger signals along the journey. God can be found on the Internet, but God can also be lost there.”
“If we look for God only in the usual places, we are sure to miss the mark. It is only when we seek God outside the sanctuary and beyond the prayer book that we have the best chance of succeeding. And technology is the terrain we all inhabit right now. That's where the path of our searching must lead. Pope Pius XII said it in his Christmas message in 1953, and these words resonate even more today: "The Church welcomes technological progress and receives it with love, for it is an indubitable fact that technological progress comes from God and, therefore, can and must lead to Him."
“We find God on the Internet through the redemptive power of the written word.
On the Internet, God lives not exactly in the "written" word, because the words we see on the screen aren't really written. Like God, they are real, but can't be touched; they stand clearly in front of us, yet are primarily a product of the imagination, as our eye fills in the spaces between the lines and creates the impression of permanence.
It is against Jewish law to erase the name of God. That is why the Hebrew name of God (the Tetragrammaton, as it is called, which consists of the letters yod-heh-vav-heh), is rarely spelled out in Jewish texts and most often seen in an abbreviated form. Some even shorten the English appellation, using G-D rather than God. Yet God's name is all over the Internet, in all forms. Why? Because as the name appears on the screen, it is not in fixed, permanent form. It can be compared to writing one's name with one's finger on a frosty window.
A leading Orthodox rabbi recently ruled that the word “God” may be erased from a computer screen or disk, because the pixels do not constitute real letters. Rabbi Moshe Shaul Klein published his ruling in an Israeli computer magazine aimed at Orthodox Jews, “Mahsheva Tova” “The letters on a computer screen are an assemblage of pixels, dots of light, what have you,'” the rabbi's assistant, Yossef Hayad explained to a reporter for the Associated Press. “Even when you save it to disk, it's not like you're throwing anything more than a sequence of ones and zeroes. It's there, but it really isn't.”
So the name of God isn't really being erased, because it never was really there in the first place. Or was it?
The words are virtual, just as the on-line relationships are virtual. Just as our relationship with God appears virtual, cloaked in metaphor. But it all feels so real -- because it is.
Through the word, we have come to a new understanding of reality. For the Internet is a medium of the word. True, there are graphics too, and now increasing capacity to communicate via audio and video images. But when the medium was created in the late '60s by two UCLA professors and introduced in 1969, its goal was to connect computers in their language so that academicians could communicate in ours -- and ours happens to be words. The medium was intended originally as a depositary of massive amounts of recorded data. When Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the World Wide Web near Geneva in 1989, his intent was to make scientific papers available on the Internet to other scientists. Graphic images were then added to words, but in the beginning, it was all about words. And that is still how we primarily know it.
So now we live in a world where billions of invisible words are out there, massive virtual libraries, information on almost everything imaginable, real yet untouchable, at our fingertips, yet, without a computer impossible to fathom. Try explaining the Internet to those who have never experienced it -- it's almost as impossible as explaining the Red Sea splitting to those who slept through it.”
According to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, "God lives in a word." But, he adds, "Words can only open the door, and we can only weep on the threshold of our incommunicable thirst after the incomprehensible." Despite the growing focus on graphics, video and sound, the experience of God on-line begins with the Word, though it can't possible end there.
Think of how e-mail has restored to us the power and romance of the written letter. True, there is nothing that can replace the feel of that letter from a loved one in one's hand, the scent of the perfume, perhaps, and the anticipation of ripping the envelope and excitedly removing its contents. I agree there is little romance in having a virtual voice exclaim, "You've got mail!" Nonetheless, ask yourself how many perfumed letters you've written lately, and why most people have eschewed that time-tested -- and time consuming -- method. In spite of its imperfections, has enabled us to rediscover what we once knew but forgot long ago, that our words can heal.
I knew that even before I began to fully implement the technology. A rabbi friend had told me of how several concerned members of his congregation had e-mailed him to "talk" about the terrible abduction and murder of an Israeli soldier. But they weren't really talking. They were writing. And e-mail, in spite of all the bad grammar and annoying abbreviations, is still one step removed from the immediacy of a telephone or in-person conversation. Sometimes that extra moment can be enough to enable us to express ourselves as would a Cyrano de Bergerac….. (click here for more, including my first email to the congregation)
Engraved in Fire, the Letters Fly Free
There is a direct experiential correlation between traditional notions of revelation and prophecy and the way cyber-communications are received. (Click here for a longer excerpt).
I'm not just speaking of 2 a.m. in a dark cubicle, but even at noon in the office. There is something about the experience of receiving the Word via Internet connection that parallels how the Word was received by our ancestors, in a manner unlike any previously known methods of communication. God talks to us better through this medium.
Why?
1) The Word arrives from Another Place. Martin Buber wrote, "The reality of the holy can only be grasped from the standpoint of mystery." As much as the technology behind the Internet is relatively simple and can be explained, there is still the sense that this communication is being received from "beyond."
2) The Word is immortal, indelible and comprehensible to all. It can't be erased. Sure, you can wipe my Internet missives off your screen, but they are still in my hard drive, and in someone else's, and somewhere still in yours. Legend has it that when God inscribed the letters on the Ten Commandments, each letter was engraved in fire so that it went clear through the tablets, and miraculously could be equally intelligible to one reading on the other side. There is an indelible nature to electronic writing. Those computer-generated words are also engraved in fire (electricity) and yet take on a life of their own once released into the world. They can be read in any font or format, and converted instantly to almost any language, miraculously reversing the curse of Babel with the click of a mouse.
The Talmud tells us of Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradyon, who defied the Romans during the 2nd century by teaching Torah in public at a time when that act was forbidden by law. He was arrested and his death was one of the most horrible imaginable. Wrapped in a Torah scroll, he was placed on a pyre of green brush; fire was set to it and wet wool was placed on his chest to prolong the agony for the greatest amount of time possible. As he was dying, his disciples asked him what he saw, and he soothed them with these immortal words, repeated by Jews throughout the world each Yom Kippur: "I see the parchment burning, but the letters are soaring upward."
With one click of the "send" button, our words take on a life beyond the brief life span of our own hardware -- either our body’s or our computer's. Sanctified by the fire, burned indelibly into the electronic universe, the letters fly free.
3) The Word is immaterial. Unlike a piece of paper or parchment, these words cannot easily be held in one's hand. They are dreamlike, hanging before one's eyes for an instant, quickly disappearing as we scroll down the page. A good attorney would rest his case by saying: "The evidence is immaterial, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. If the evidence is not material, therefore it must be spiritual (If the words don't tear, they must be a prayer!)"
4) It hearkens us back to the primal mystical experiences of the Prophets. Check out how various prophets received the Word in previous eras. Look at Ezekiel, whom many believe to have been on hallucinogens when he had his fantastic vision involving high winds, flash fires and four winged apparitions. In the midst of it all he describes wheels, weird gleaming wheels with eyes in them, and then he sees the likeness of the glory of God, blinding and colorful, which fills him with a Divine spirit. After all this, at the end of that first chapter, he begins to receive the Word.
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