My Goy Is Bigger Than Yours
Tech Tribe Dispatch #284
💡 Think:
Reb Shmuel Munkes is a beloved chasidic personality - known for his quick whit and playful nature, often deceptively laced with deep chasidic ideas. When he first heard of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the founder of the Chabad movement, he walked on foot one winter’s morning from his village of Kalisk to Liozhna, where the leader of the nascent Chasidic movement lived. Arriving in Liozhna late at night, he found the entire village enveloped in an inky blackness. Unsure of where this rebbe lived, he wandered around until he found a lone single-room house with light coming from its windows - piercing the winter night. Reasoning that only the rebbe would be up late at night, burning a candle to light the home as he studied, he walked to the front door and began to knock.
The Alter Rebbe, deep in study at his desk, was disturbed by the sound and came to the front door.
“Can I help you,” he asked the stranger.
“It’s cold out, and I’d like to spend the night here,” Reb Shmuel Munkes declared - putting his foot in the doorway.
“Are there not other places in town, bigger homes as well as inns and taverns, you could stay in?”
“But Rebbe, is this not a Jewish home? Am I not a Jew? I wish to stay here,” Reb Shmuel said, as he barged in and took a place by the hearth.
“I can call the goy, my non-Jewish helper, to escort you out,” the Alter Rebbe declared.
Reb Shmuel, no longer playing the fool, looked the Alter Rebbe in the eyes.
“Rebbe,” he cried out. “Mayn goy iz shtarker fun ayer goy! My goy, the inner inclination that draws us away from our Jewish connection, is stronger than yours!”
* * *
There is a modern day lesson from this story: As spiritual sojourners, we wander the darkness of the world today, we may find homes - large homes, inns and taverns - that can host us . . . but is only a Jewish home - with its warmth and light - where we will truly find respite. To enter that home, the seeker can not merely barge in - the mud and snow still clinging to the feet. Rather, we ask seeker first. “Who are you? What are you truly searching for?” Those pointed questions open the door for self-reflection, for exploration. Indeed the sojourner realizes, ‘I’m looking for something deeper than the mass-culture, than the superficiality of the world at large.’
“I want something that speaks to who I am”.
Then, however, the sojourner realizes, “the goy - that negative voice of worldly dispositions within me - can throw me out,” I must shake off my external attachments and commit to my essence, my soul, to come in . . . which leads to the realization that “Mayn goy iz shtarker fun ayer goy!” When the seeker realizes the true depths of their external attachments, and internal struggle, then it is possible to come in and experience the light . . .
🏃 DO:
✨ Join us Friday, February 7th, for our February First Friday curated conversation on Minyan and the Metaverse!
🌳 Join Tech Tribe for a curated conversation:
Tu BiShvat And the Talmud on Wed, Feb 12, 3pm at Google NYC.
🎩 It’s a family celebration - and you’re invited! Join our son Mendel’s Bar Mitzvah 7pm, Tuesday, February 18th!
🤠 Are you going to SXSW? Join Tech Tribe for #openShabbat at SXSW!
📸 Photo:
🎬 Watch:
🌱 #ChaiSociety
Special thanks to the #ChaiSociety members who donate monthly to support our community!
Adam Kotok, Avrohom Margolis, Bill Dilworth, David Lobron, Cal Nathan, Chanoch Rosenberg, Fitz Tepper, Hershey Gutnik, Jacob Ner-David, Lev Podelko, Levi Plotkin, Liel Leibovitz, M. Kahn, Manilan Houle, Mattanya Ginsburg, Melissa Davis, Mendel Konikov, Michael Morgenstern, Nikita Sokolsky, Scott Shapiro, Sholom Laine, Tzali Reicher
Tech Tribe is entirely community-funded - Invest in Tech Tribe (starting at $36 a month), and join the monthly #ChaiSociety!
📚 Read:
👬 The Anti-Social Century. Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.
🟫 Holiness Is a Crack in the Wall. A practical guide to achieving the impossible
📘 Chabad’s First Succession Controversy. Being, Nothingness, and Prolific Publication
👋🏻 From Spain to China and Don't Forget to Say Hi to the Vikings
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 4:46 PM
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
Like what you saw? Want more? Please feel free to forward this email far and wide!
Support Tech Tribe’s mission to build community and curate epic experiences for young Jews in tech and digital media!