I have a confession to make and that is
that I have begun to fall behind in the world of technology
and gadgets to the point that it has started to worry me a
bit. I don’t own a Blackberry and so I can’t e-mail when I’m
away from my Study or home. I’m not quite sure how I make it
through the day. I don’t have an i-pod. The whole process
of uploading and downloading seems more challenging to me
than a page of Talmud. I didn’t stand in line to be one of
the first purchasers of an i-phone which was a great move
since now I can get it for $200.00 less but I won’t and I
have been living with neither version of satellite radio. I
know my life sounds close to empty. I don’t know how I do
it. I have been traveling to unfamiliar destinations the
old fashion way by getting directions or Mapquest and my
biggest confession of all is that I watched the Eagles on
Sunday in Low Definition which pretty much describes how
they played. In how much definition did you want to see
that game.
You might think that I tell you this
because in not owning these material devices I can appear
above it all and all the more spiritual. I don’t. I say that
I confess because I fear that the world of consumer
technology is passing me by and I want to do Teshuvah,
repent and catch up. Actually, in recently acquiring one of
the above mentioned items, I unexpectedly found something
highly spiritual.
This summer I took a small step forward
in the world of technology and it proved one of the most
spiritual experiences I have had lately. I am talking about
the GPS, the personal navigational system. What an amazing
little spiritual device this is.
I got this GPS in time to travel to
Westport Conn. to officiate at a wedding the second Sunday
in August. To test it out and get used to it before the
trip, I plugged in work 944 Second Street Pike and Home 38
Hampshire Drive and I followed the woman’s mellifluous voice
who took me the route from home to synagogue I least often
use. The more I used the device I found it to be absolutely
amazing and spiritually inspiring. I am inspired. I have
found the GPS to be nothing less than a modern day proof for
the existence of G-d and if not proof positive the Global
Positioning System surely makes a case for G-d’s existence.
You may not have thought of this when using your own GPS and
that is why it’s good that you are here today.
You might expect that one’s relationship
with G-d is purely a matter of faith but there have been
great philosophers over the ages who have claimed to have
proven the existence of G-d. The most famous proofs are
known as the ontological proof first advanced by Anselm in
the 11th century and later by the French philosopher Renees
Decartes. It is also called the argument from reason. In a
nutshell, if the rational human mind can conceive of the
existence of G-d then that, in itself, points to the reality
of G-d’s existence. There is the cosmological proof, the
first cause argument. Everything existent must have a cause
and eventually we arrive at the first cause which is G-d.
There is the teleological argument. This is the argument
from design. This world so amazingly ordered can not be the
product of pure chance, there must be a designer behind it
and that designer is G-d. We call G-d The Sovereign King of
Kings. Here you have the Designer of designers. You have
Gucci and Valentino, Dior, and we have the Ultimate
Designer of the Universe, the Holy One Praised be He. I
would add to these now the GPS argument for the existence
of G-d.
In spite of these and many more great
philosophical arguments for G-d, three important books were
published this year that made passionate cases for the
absence of G-d or atheism. One is called The End of Faith,
the next The G-d Delusion and finally G-d is not Great . The
three authors of these books clearly do not have a GPS.
A recent poll was taken asking Americans
if they are absolutely certain that there is a G-d. Would
you have answered yes or no that you are absolutely certain
there is a G-d. 76 percent of Protestants said yes , 64% of
Catholics were certain of G-d’s existence and if you ask
Protestant Evangelicals 93% say they are absolutely certain
there is a G-d. What would you think the number is amongst
Jews. Amongst us Jews but 30% are absolutely certain there
is a G-d. It is ironic that we the people who introduced
monotheism to the world and have seen ourselves as the
chosen people are the most skeptical. There may be many
reasons for this but at the top of the list might be the
challenge in believing with certainty in an all knowing and
loving G-d when the loss of 6,000,000 innocent lives is
still a wound that has not yet healed.
One of the questions that comes up in
Jewish thought is whether G-d is all knowing and what is
the extent of G-d’s knowledge. How much does G-d know? Does
G-d know that there is a species of humans or does G-d know
each individual human and the behavior of each individual
human.
The weight of traditional Jewish thought
would say that G-d knows the details, knows us individually
by name and the days of our lives but other thinkers like
the 14th century philosopher Gersonides maintained that G-d
knows the generalities but not the details and a number of
modern Jewish thinkers follow Gersonides lead. It is an
ongoing discussion and debate.
I continue to ponder these questions in
my mind and this amazing technology of the GPS has impacted
my thinking. Some people I know name the woman’s voice which
directs them from place to place. It’s Melinda or Felicia or
Sally. I haven’t named my GPS. I only name babies. My
GPS knows exactly where I am while everyone else’s GPS know
exactly where they are. It is nothing less than amazing. If
I turn it on before I pull out of my driveway, it will tell
me that I am not yet on Hampshire Drive. I want to look out
to the heavens and say “How do you know?” Because I have
communicated with the GPS, the system knows my destination
and knows whether or not I am on the right road. This
technology is aware of me and exactly where I am. I say
that I find this technology spiritual because if this
technology created by human ingenuity comprising 24
satellites orbiting the earth could know my presence, my
path, and my destination it is absolutely conceivable that
there is a consciousness in the cosmos that indeed knows
each of us, where we’re coming from and where we think we’re
headed. To the other proofs for G-d’s existence I would add
the GPS, proof for the existence of G-d. If you’re not
willing to go that far you must at least concede that if
this human creation can know so much, there can be a G-d who
knows even more.
Using this GPS has made me think about
issues of control and being in control. Is it your nature to
be in control, is it your nature to want to be in control?
What would you say? What would your spouse say and you can’t
tell your spouse what to say. How about your children, your
coworkers? Would you say there is greater spirituality in
being in control or letting go of control. The correct
answer is “it all depends.”
In ways, control can choke spirituality
and there is spirituality in letting go of control in life.
As I was driving to Connecticut for the wedding, it was
clear to me that I was giving up control and placing my
trust in this system to get me to a destination somewhere
next door to jepip. Instead of printing, studying directions
and reading a map, I entered the destination address and I
was on my way. I relinquished control with a measure of
trust. Less control calls for greater trust and greater
trust is a recipe for better relationships.
Those who have attended meetings of
various 12 step programs, Alcoholics Anonymous, Eaters
Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous Gamblers Anonymous report
that these groups become one of or the most spiritual
experience of their lives. Part of that great spirituality
is the confession by the addict that they have no power over
their addiction and are willing to place their trust in a
higher power greater than themselves to guide them to a
healthier and safer place. It takes great strength to say “I
can’t - help me.” All the time they believed they were in
control they sank deeper and deeper. Only when they could
admit their own limitations and ask for help could they let
go and be lifted up.
Control less and trust more is a good
prescription for your life, for your marriage. It might help
you gain more friends. It may open up an avenue for your
belief in G-d. If you want to control everything, there is
no place for G-d.
Maybe because I started using this GPS
just days before the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul
when we are to take an accounting of our lives during the 29
days leading up to the New Year that I found it to be the
profoundly spiritual experience that I have.
More than once, I missed the turn it
directed me to take. Each time I did, it told me so. It
told me that it was recalculating my route. Sometimes she
would say, “make the first legal u-turn and sometimes she
would simply find another way to get me back on track to
reach my desired destination.
How different our lives would be if we
had a personal moral GPS that could tell us whenever we were
veering off the straight and narrow and would recalculate
our path to help us reach our live’s best possible
destination. If we had such a system it would make our lives
so much simpler and would in fact obviate the whole need and
purpose of these High Holy Days because that is what these
High Holy Days are all about. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
are Judaism’s personal navigational system. In fact, to
explain Judaism in a few sentences, Torah is to keep us on
track in life to reach our designated destination but we
have too many distractions, misconceptions, shortcuts that
make us lose the way and we need that voice that corrects
our path. The sound of the Shofar tells us that we have to
recalculate our route but the voice that will reroute us
comes neither from Melinda or Felicia or Sally. It can only
come from a voice within ourselves, that still small voice
which echoes the teachings of Torah and would have us
recalculate and redirect. If we make no changes of direction
during these ten days of repentance, then we have wasted the
opportunity this sacred season affords us. Only a fool can
not think of a mistake that needs correction and then
continues traveling farther and farther in the wrong
direction which can only bring more and more disastrous
results.
So let's stop. Identify the road on
which you are traveling that is taking you further and
further a field and eventually will lead to a dead end.
How can you recalculate your route? Where
can you make a legal U-Turn. Where should you be headed? How
can you get there?
In asking whether control is good or bad I said “it all
depends.” While there is spirituality in giving up control
and placing our trust in, Judaism believes we are primarily
responsible for our own lives. We have free choice. We are
born with an inclination for good and an inclination for
evil and we choose which inclination to assert most for they
will each have us travel in far different directions. Free
will is basic to Jewish thought. Each of us is free to
change our course. I mentioned yesterday that one of Alan
Dershowitz’s books is The Abuse Excuse and Other Cop Outs,
Sob Stories and Evasions of Responsibility. However we have
been hurt in life, we have the free will and responsibility
to take control and find the right path on which to travel.
My GPS has been less than perfect and I
have had my disappointments with my GPS as well. At times
when I know the shortest direct route and I turn the system
on, it would have me travel in some circuitous way and I
don’t understand why. I could give up on my new friend the
GPS and reject it or I can accept its imperfections and my
disappointments and trust it will get me to places unknown
to me. The same is true in life and with everyone who is
part of our lives. He is imperfect. She disappointed me. I
disappoint myself because I am imperfect but we need not
give up on those relationships and we need not give up on
ourselves. The best way to keep from getting lost is
traveling together.
Rabbi Harold Kushner concludes his 1981
Best Seller When Bad Things Happen to Good People in writing
“We do not love G-d because G-d is perfect. We love G-d
because He is the author of all the beauty and the order
around us, the source of our strength and the hope and
courage within us and of other people’s strength and hope
and courage with which we are helped in our time of need.
Love is not the admiration of perfection but the acceptance
of an imperfect person with all his imperfections, because
loving and accepting him makes us better and stronger. Are
you capable of forgiving and loving the people around you
even if they have hurt you and let you down by not being
perfect. Are you capable of forgiving and loving G-d even
when you have found out that He is not perfect. And if you
can do these things, will you be able to recognize that the
ability to forgive and the ability to love are the weapons
G-d has given us to enable us to live fully, bravely and
meaningfully in this less than perfect world?
Elie Wiesel writes, about forgiving G-d though so terribly
hurt to the point of anguish in “A Prayer for the Days of
Awe”
“Where were you G-d of kindness, in
Auschwitz? What was going on in heaven, at the celestial
tribunal while your children were marked for humiliation,
isolation and death only because they were Jewish? These
questions have been haunting me for more than five decades
but Let us make up, Master of the Universe. In spite of
everything that happened? Yes, in spite, Let us make up: for
the child in me. It is unbearable to be divorced from you so
long.”
In case you’re wondering the wedding was
great. It was a great joy for me. If you want to know more
about it, you can google me and read the announcement that
appeared that morning in the New York Times. They had
graciously invited Janie and me to stay overnight in this
beautiful location on the water and we planned to but with
circumstances changed I just wanted to return home as
quickly as I could after the ceremony. And here once again
the GPS proved its worth.
Directions that we get are designed to
take us to the destination. Do you ever write down
directions home? You figure you’ll reverse them and be on
your way. Invariably by then you’re a little tired and it’s
not so simple to read directions backwards - the rights and
lefts become confused and you get lost. I get lost. I simply
plugged in home and the system knew the way from the middle
of nowhere to lead me home. It didn’t take too long to get
on a road I recognized and I could manage the rest of the
way but I kept the GPS on with the voice directing me at
every turn. I felt like I had company in the car and again
it made me think about people’s relationships with G-d.
Those who have a faith in G-d feel that they are never
traveling alone. Life is a partnership and there is a loving
Presence with them always. I like that feeling more than the
idea that I am traveling through life all alone. I was happy
to make it home in good time.
These days too are about coming home,
returning to our better selves, arriving at that place best
for us from which we have been sidetracked by the
vicissitudes of life. Now is the time to return home.
I hope that coming here is coming home
for you. I hope that here you can feel a calm and comfort in
our community, in our tradition, in the richness of Jewish
life. I hope your own personal GPS will direct you here
often to learn, to pray, to celebrate, to build to access
your own spiritual self and to inspire you to express your
best inclination. Wherever we travel this year and however
far, please G-d, may it be Your will we meet here again next
Rosh Hashanah to greet another new year.
Amen
