Soul Interrupted
Tech Tribe Dispatch #213
💡 Think:
Rabbi Yaakov would say: One who walks alone along a road alone and studies, and interrupts his studying to say, "How beautiful is this tree!", "How beautiful is this ploughed field!"---the Torah considers it as if he had forfeited his life.
— Pirkei Avot 3:7
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the chasidic movement, shares a profound insight in this verse… What’s so severe about this interruption that suddenly he ought to forfeit his life?
The answer lies in the specific wording of the mishnaic teaching of Rabbi Yaakov. It’s referring to one who walks along the road alone and studies - someone who follows the path of religious observance - but he’s interrupting his studying - his study of Torah is alone, estranged from G-dliness. It’s a personal pursuit, but not an act of divine connection to the sublime.
This person is one who does not see the divine profundity of the Torah, the most-high Wisdom of the infinite Creator. Such a person has interrupted their Torah study - there is daylight between the teaching and the Teacher.
Such a person happens upon a tree — a sense of personal individuality aside from the all-encompassing oneness of the creator, upon a plowed field — the testament to human prowess… they see their own ego instead of Divine oneness.1
🏃 DO:
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📚 Read:
☕️ Jews and Joe. From European streets to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Jews have been deeply involved in the history of coffee and the café scene.
📝 Tech Tribe Member Armin Rosen writes about Mitchell Silk, the first Hasid to hold a Senate-confirmed position, who is now bringing a Hasidic classic to English readers for the first time in The Silk Road
📱 Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax? At 15, Caleb Silverberg made the most important decision of his life. He ditched technology and headed to the forest.
🚶♂️ A chasidic story for Shabbat: Elijah the Prophet in Minsk.
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Sichos Kodesh, Beshalach 5726 pg, 213