Why a Bagel with Butter Will Save Your Life
Tech Tribe Dispatch #105
💡 Think:
Go eat a bagel!
In life we’re pulled between the extremes of yearning and retreat, desire to connect on high and necessity to engage with the world around us.
In Chasidic parlance this is called ratzo v’shuv - running and return - the pull between the dialectical tensions of yearning to throw oneself in the Divine and practical transformative work in this mundane life.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement, once entered a pact with Avraham der Malach, the angel, his friend and study partner: They would let their souls cleave to the essence of the Creator.
The two drew a circle on the ground, in Kabbalistic tradition, and entering that space began to push their minds and souls to the very precipice of what the human spirit can handle. Deeper and deeper they delved into the most profound secrets of existence.
Coming to himself, Rabbi Shneur Zalman left the circle, dragging Avraham der Malach with him.
Later der Malach found his friend eating a bagel with butter.
“How can it be,” he asked Rabbi Shneur Zalman, “that just before we were touching the wonders of the Divine… and now you’re eating a bagel with butter?”
“That’s just thing,” came the response. “Because I was able to reach so deeply, I know the profundity of anchoring myself in this world.”
Indeed, as the Rebbe noted in 1986, the chasidic teachings they explored have been lost to time - but the detail that it was a bagel with butter remains… Because the bagel was the grounding agent that kept the two in this world and allowed them to continue to enrich it with their good deeds. Anything else, even the most profound teachings, works against that goal.
🏃 DO:
🔥 Lag BaOmer with the Tribe! Come chill in our backyard space around the fire pit on Thursday, April 29th.
🛰️ Jewglers x Tech Tribe: Curated Conversations returns for all the MoTs at Google! Email for details about about our discussion on Digital Surveillance in Jewish Law on April 28 at 12:30pm
👋 We’re talking Tanya on Clubhouse! Join Adam Davidson and Mordechai, Sunday May 2nd, at 1pm EST for a conversation about joy and mysticism!
🎬 Watch:
Rabbis. They’re just like us.
A cute ad for a Hebrew School
💬 Speech:
A thought by Berel! In memory of Tzivia Feiga bas Shmuel Hacohen
This weeks torah Portion speaks about not eating the first fruits of a tree for the first three years after its planting. The fourth year it can be eaten in Jerusalem. After that it can be everywhere. The first three years correspond to the three levels of concealment that hide G-d. The fourth year is the level where a little light can be seen and that’s why we must bring to Jerusalem and bring it up. After that we can eat it anywhere.
Why the fifth year is it good to eat anywhere - if that’s when it’s *most* holy?
When Hashem made the world, we needed to bring holiness down here and pick up the sparks of holiness all over. We do that through making a blessing, doing mitzvos. So when we bring the most holy to this world everywhere to lift up the whole world.
🎉 Mazel:
💍 Mazel Tov to Tech Tribe friend Ben Lang on his engagement to Keren-Lynn Amouyal.
📚 Read:
🎵 7 Classic Chabad Songs of Sephardic Origin.
🎷 $10,000 Flute Left in Cab Nine Years Ago Is Finally Returned. Azi Paybarah writes about Heidi Slyker, a Boston-area musician, and the complex story about a precious item lost and returned.
✨ #ChaiSociety Members - don’t miss Everything New Under The Sun Chai Society
🕯️ Remembering Myriam Bentolila, 52, Elegant and Unsung Rebbetzin of the Congo. Fluent in four languages, she kept an open home and heart for all.
😍 Fave:
Our friends at CW Pencil Enterprise sell these amazing book darts - part book marker, part post it note . . . They’re our new face and now we’re darting all our books!
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