The algorithm is not our friend.
I think that’s the most important message to share this week. The internet, the news, the feed, the scroll, the ping of an update… none of that is really our friend. It is certainly useful. It’s a powerful tool. It will keep you informed to be certain, abreast of every possible update, outraged at the injustice of the world and the suffering our people face.
But the purpose of the algorithm is to keep you scrolling and clicking and commenting.
While the purpose of the synagogue is to care for your neshama and your heart.
We need to be together right now. It is too easy to get lost in online advocacy and forget about being part of community. It can feel so important to ‘stay informed’ that we pass up the moments our hearts need to heal. We forget that what all of us need most right now is not liking or commenting on every update, but being present with those who need us here.
In moments when we feel adrift, isolated, and powerless… we need synagogue more than ever.
When our homeland is under attack, we need our spiritual home.
Be with us for daily minyan, all the details are here to start or end your day with prayer and community. Be with each other, support each other, hear each other and draw strength from each other at this challenging time. Both of our minyanim are now offered online and in person.
Join us for L’Chaim, a week-day Zoom program led by incredible volunteers, who are there to console you in grief, to discuss daily events in Israel, and to build a community of real people you can interact with no matter where you find yourself in this world.
Come early to Shabbat for B’yachad, an informal gathering on Friday, October 20th and October 27th at 5:15 pm. Sit and chat with other Holy Blossomites in the Enkin Boardroom, enjoy a warm cup of coffee, and take your clergy up on a chance to check-in.
And of course… show up for Shabbat.
My dear teacher Rav Meir Schweiger once told me “Chaim Shmuel, you have to come and daven.” And I said to him. “Rav, what if I don’t feel like it? Should I really come and pray even if my mind is elsewhere? What’s the point of prayer if the intention isn’t there?”
He put his hand on my shoulder and said “If you don’t come to pray, intention will never even have the chance to arrive. Better that you start in a low place and have a single moment touched by God, than to miss that chance altogether.”
“And besides.” He continued. “I miss you when you aren’t there.”
What more can be said?
See you soon,
Am Yisrael Chai!
Rabbi Dvora Weisberg is the Rabbi Aaron Panken Professor of Rabbinics and the Director of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
