Rabbi Schachter, Rabbi Talvitz, the story is told of the Chofetz Chaim that I think he commented on the invention of the railroad. And the Chofetz Chaim reflected on everything from a vantage point of Hashgacha, from a vantage point of Torah, and said that the invention of the railroad was clearly intended for Yeshiva Bachurim when they were going home Bein Hazmanim, that it shouldn't be the time-consuming and arduous journey that it had been until that point. This would make it so much easier for Yeshiva Bachurim without Tiltulei Haderech, without Bitul Torah, to be able to go home for Bein Hazmanim. A similar comment, I think, is ascribed to the Chofetz Chaim with regard to, I don't know whether it was the gramophone or tape recorders, whatever it was that had been invented already in his day, that the Chofetz Chaim said that the point of the invention was to give us some sense of what it means וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים. The sense that whatever a person says, there's a record of. So that was, we have a very graphic image that we can relate to of that in the form of the tape recorder, in the form of the records. So every, the point is that every, virtually every technological advance can be used, it can be used productively and integrated into a life of Avodas Hashem; it can also be abused. So the kunz is to know how to use it and not to, not to abuse it. The major issue which the new devices, I'm told that they're called Blackberries, but one of the major issues which this clearly brings into focus is the relationship between work and life, life as a whole, and the place that one's work and work commitments should have within one's life. In that context, I'd just like to read, read with you a few lines from the second perek in Mesilas Yesharim. Mesilas Yesharim is commenting on one of the strategies of the Yetzer Hara, he says, אחת מתחבולות היצר הרע ועורמתו, one of its strategies and its cunning approach, להכביד עבודתו בתמידות על לבות בני אדם, to constantly keep people busy with the intended result of עד שלא ישאר להם רווח להתבונן ולהסתכל באיזה דרך הם הולכים,
that people are simply so busy that there's no time to think. That if a person is busy twenty-four seven, there's no time to think, there's no time to reflect, there's no time to sort of stand back and consider in what direction a person is heading. The Yetzer Hara is determined to accomplish that, כי יודע הוא שאילו היו שמים לבם כמעט קט על דרכיהם מיד היו מתחילים להינחם ממעשיהם,
that if we would only take a little time to reflect on our path in life, we would make all kinds of changes, we would introduce all kinds of changes into our lives if we only had the time, found the time, took the time, to reflect on our routine. And he says that והרי זה מעין עצת פרעה הרשע, this approach of the Yetzer Hara is מעין עצת פרעה הרשע, שנאמר תכבד העבודה על האנשים ויעשו בה ואל ישעו בדברי שקר.
When Moshe and Aharon come to Paroh and say that Nelcha nizbecha l'Hashem, we want to go for a three-day holiday and we'll offer Korbanos to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so Paroh's response is to say תכבד העבודה על האנשים, let's increase the workload and what will that accomplish? ואל ישעו בדברי שקר. That they won't be able to turn, they won't be able to occupy their minds with anything other than work. A similar pshat in these pesukim is suggested by the Vilna Gaon at the beginning of Parshas Va'era. When Moshe Rabbeinu communicates to Klal Yisrael Hakadosh Baruch Hu's message of the ד' לשונות של גאולה, so the Torah says ולא שמעו אל משה מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה. Avoda Kasha means literally the manual labor, the back-breaking manual labor. What's the Kotzer Ruach? So the Gaon says something very similar to what the Mesilas Yesharim here says, dehinu what... What is it that Paroh was looking to accomplish at the end of Parshas Shemos when he said that you'll no longer going to be provided with teven, with straw from which to make the bricks? The gathering straw relative to the backbreaking labor which was already imposed upon them was very light and relatively speaking easy work. So what was Paroh looking to accomplish? So the Gaon says that Paroh knew that they were already being pushed to the limit in terms of the physical strain and stress which was being imposed upon them and that he couldn't increase that without killing them. He didn't want to kill off his slave workforce. But Paroh thought if they're coming and they're asking to go and they still have aspirations, they still have they still think, they still dream, so then that's dangerous. So what we have to do is keep them so busy that they can't think, that they can't have aspirations, that they can't have longings. We'll keep them so busy so then that will secure the avdus. That will secure my hold over them and that's what the kotzer ruach is. And Paroh takke succeeded. And that's what the Torah tells us: ולא שמעו אל משה מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה. It wasn't only a function of the avodah kashah, it wasn't only the backbreaking labor which caused Bnei Yisrael not to be responsive to Moshe Rabbeinu, but it was the kotzer ruach which Paroh had successfully triggered. So clearly the ability to always be in touch, to always be able to check on emails and stock quotes and this and that, clearly, clearly represents a danger, perhaps an inevitability at a certain point of kotzer ruach, that one is just so, so busy and so preoccupied there's no time to think, no time to think, no time to reflect, and because of that, so a person continues on whatever path he is without ever taking stock to see whether or not he's on the right path or whether or not there's some adjustment that needs to be made. Now there is a second concern also with this ability to constantly be in touch and that is Chazal tell us עשה תורתך קבע ומלאכתך עראי. That a person is supposed to a person is supposed to establish Torah as the mainstay in his life and melacha, although clearly, clearly the Torah has a work ethic and the Torah says that we're supposed to we're supposed to make hishtadlus to work for a living, but that's not supposed to be the mainstay of our existence. Now the word keva has different meanings. It could mean keva sometimes can mean keva in just in a purely quantitative sense. But other times and the phrase my father zecher tzaddik livracha used to use in this context is that when Chazal tell us עשה תורתך קבע ומלאכתך עראי, what it means is axiologically keva. It means that this is the most important thing in a person's life. Depending upon the job a person has, so probably most people spend more time at work than they're able to spend in the beis medrash. Now that's not necessarily a violation of עשה תורתך קבע ומלאכתך עראי because Torascha keva means what's the most important thing in a person's life? Why am I working? What's the end game? What's the end goal of the working? So you can't necessarily measure whether a person's Torah is keva and his melacha arai quantitatively by how many hours he spends in the office versus how many hours he spends in the beis medrash because it's more a function of attitude in terms of importance, in terms of weight, in terms of value, to what does a person assign primacy. So it has to be keva in an axiological sense. Now that the truth of that notwithstanding, at a certain point if a person is always, always in touch, if a person is always mindful of checking into work, checking emails, checking what the latest developments are in whatever relates to his professional area of responsibilities, again, it's almost inevitable that it has to evolve into melacha becoming keva, again, not only in a quantitative sense but in an axiological sense as well. And that's because of the well-known behavioral principle which the Rambam and the Sefer HaChinuch established. The Rambam writes at the end of perek aleph in Hilchos Deos, the Rambam says that. if a if a person wants to wants to instill within himself, he wants to cultivate within himself the midah hamemutza'as, the middle path between the two extremes. So the Rambam says how to how does he how does he accomplish it? So the Rambam says by acting that way a person may have to initially force himself and it may take a very determined conscious effort to force himself onto the middle path. But if a person again and again and again forces himself to act in a certain way, it ultimately becomes second nature and he internalizes it. Let's say a person has wants to learn how to control his temper. So ultimately what a person wants to do is he wants to control his emotions and that he wants that inwardly that he become. But it begins that if a person forces himself again outwardly to control himself, to control his reaction, to to bite his tongue and and not to vent and and not to manifest the reaction, ultimately the Rambam tells us that that translates into an inner calm as well. That the way a person acts time and time again so through that repeated reinforcement, so that cultivates the the trait within a person. And that's the famous principle of the Sefer HaChinuch אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות. That that it's through again the reinforcement of of repeated action that that we internalize different different midos. So at a certain point it becomes impossible to to withstand that effect and that influence if a person because he has the the gadget he has the technology in his pocket in in his palm to always be in touch and and always has that in mind. So even if initially it's done with the right mindset, again of תורתו קבע ומלאכתו עראי. Of that axiologically the only reason I'm working is because there's a work ethic in the Torah and because there's so many mitzvos that I'm going to accomplish with the money I earn in terms of sending my children to yeshiva and in terms of hachzakas Torah v'chulu v'chulu but eventually, eventually it becomes second nature that a person is just oriented towards his work. And at that point Torah is no longer keva, is no longer axiologically central to his life, but it becomes melachto keva. There's a a poignant but rather painful irony in in in in that progression. Again you you'll all recall the the famous comment of Tosafos in Berachos when Tosafos asks why is it that that every time we go into the sukkah to eat, so we make a leyshev basukkah. Breakfast, lunch, supper, there's a leyshev basukkah. But every time you open a sefer, so if you if you learned Daf Yomi before after Shacharis and then you have another seder during lunch and then you have another seder at night, you don't make a new birkas hatorah each time. So Tosafos answers because שאינו מייאש דעתו ממנו. That a person never takes his mind off of learning. Meaning he taki went to the office and he taki had to focus on other things, but in the back of his mind, maybe consciously, maybe subliminally, on on whatever level of of consciousness the person has in mind that he's he's coming back to to learn. The Nefesh HaChaim has a a very high and and exacting standard. He says that when Rabbi Yishmael says ואספת דגנך הנהג בהם מנהג דרך ארץ. So when the Torah tells us that we should have a job and that we should pursue a a livelihood, so the Nefesh HaChaim's understanding of that phrase of הנהג בהם מנהג דרך ארץ is that really he says we should be thinking and learning even while at work. Okay, that's a pretty a pretty challenging standard to try to meet, but even if one isn't going to meet that standard, but but clearly in terms of what what the primacy is and what one's general and overall orientation is, it's quite clear. There's a very beautiful account. There's an there's an edition of Nefesh HaChaim with some very very edifying notes in the bottom from Rav Goldberg from the Telshe Yeshiva. So he quotes in this context an autobiographical comment from the Chayei Adam. Chayei Adam writes that that he says he was in business for for many years. He was a a businessman for many years. And he says הגם שנסעתי למרחקים והייתי סוחר. So sometimes I had to I had to travel in in context of my in context of my business. אף חכמתי עמדה לי. But nevertheless I didn't lose the the Torah that I learned. And why is that? כי בנסיעתי לדרך דעתי עליה. Because when I was traveling, I was I was thinking about divrei Torah ובישיבתי בחנות And when I was sitting in the store and attending to customers, daati aleha. Again, I was thinking about divrei Torah. V'tasei li, he says, שאפילו בשעת משא ומתן פעמים הרבה היה דעתי עליה בהרהור פירוש או קושיא.
He says, and even dealing with customers, he says at times I was thinking about a certain kushya or a certain pshat. The irony that again, the ideal being that even when working, a person is really oriented and is really never distracted from divrei Torah, so that gets reversed and with the technology, so even when a person is away from work, and even when a person is learning, so his mind is never really away from his work. Maybe one will sort of counter, okay, so that's all fine and good, it's nice, nice divrei mussar, but it's impractical. The reality of the work market today is that these devices do exist, and because of that, there's an expectation from one's employer that one remain in touch all the time. And that one, so it's fine and good to say that you have to turn it off, and that there have to be, you have to leave at a certain time and you have to turn it off, and then you have to go home, and you have to learn with your kids, and you have to go to the beis medrash, and you have to do what you're supposed to be doing, but go tell that to my boss. Go tell that to my boss. It's impossible. So in response, I think there are two perspectives that we should think about. First of all, when we talk about what's possible or impossible, so it would seem that there should be a rather definite and objective meaning to that term, of what's possible, what's impossible. But experience tells us that that's not necessarily the case. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say, I think that the Mishnah Berurah in Biur Halacha quotes from the poskim that when you have to assess a patient to know whether or not he can fast on Yom Kippurim, so the rav, the moreh hora'ah, so obviously he needs the input of the doctor, of the רופא מומחה באותו מקום ובאותו זמן. But especially if the doctor is either not Jewish, or if he is Jewish, but not shomer Torah mitzvos, so the rav has to weigh very carefully what it is the doctor's telling him. So why is that? The doctor's just giving a simple medical opinion. How will this person's condition be impacted by the fast of Yom Kippurim? So how does his religious sensibilities affect that objective professional opinion? So the answer is again, and any rav, if you ask any rav, any moreh hora'ah who deals with these sheilos, so I'm sure that they'll tell you that inevitably what's possible or impossible is affected by subjective considerations. If Yom Kippur is some right which Orthodox Jews have, so then certain things, it looks like it's impossible and absolutely unacceptable for this choleh to fast on Yom Kippur. If Yom Kippur is a mitzvas Hashem, if Yom Kippur is כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם, so then again, it's still a question of whether or not the choleh can or cannot fast, but all of a sudden what's possible or impossible changes. So our use of possible or impossible often reflects a certain subjectivity that we're not aware of. In another context in which we see it in ma'asim b'chol yom, you ask people sometimes whether or not they're able to daven b'tzibbur two, three times a day. So the answer often is no. And sometimes it taka is davka the case. Rachmana litzlan when the same people become aveilim, they become a chiyuv, and for kibbud av v'eim, so they want to say kaddish, so eichshehu it becomes possible. How did it become possible all of a sudden? Because sometimes the line between possible and impossible, even though we're not aware of it, we're not conscious of it, reflects a certain subjectivity. So I think the first perspective that we need in terms of when this objection is raised, that it's all fine and good to say that a person has to be able to turn these devices off at a certain time and a person has to be disconnected. So a person has to look at at the definition of possible and impossible. I think we're all familiar with with anecdotes, if we're not, then חברא חברא אית ליה, so our friends, our friends' friends familiar with an anecdote. You hear about people who who have a health scare, whether it's a heart attack rachmana litzlan or or or a false alarm of a heart attack and the doctor tells them that unless you slow down, so you're gonna work yourself into the grave rachmana litzlan. And then eichshehu, even though even though yesterday it was impossible for this person to cut back, it was impossible for this person to find a way to be disconnected for several hours from the the pressure of work, so eichshehu it becomes possible. So in in weighing whether or not it's possible or impossible within our current job or by switching jobs, so we have to look very carefully at at what we what we label as possible or impossible and whether or not the determination and the desire to make it possible is strong enough. And that's one perspective. The other perspective I think emerges from consideration of a very very central topic in our lives and that's the role of bitachon in in how we go about our lives. Meaning as follows: The Gemara in Beitzah tells us in the beginning of the second perek that כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים.
That HaKadosh Baruch Hu when he when he makes the gzar din for the coming year Rosh Hashanah, Yom HaKippurim, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu HaKadosh Baruch Hu fills out our 1040s then. The 1040 for the coming year is already, I don't know if all the deductions are filled out, that's up to us in terms of in terms of how much tzedakah we're gonna give, but in terms of the total income before you get the deductions, so that's already been filled out long before April 15th. כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides how much parnassah a person should have for the coming year and that's when HaKadosh Baruch Hu decrees on Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKippurim. Now, it's certainly the case that HaKadosh Baruch Hu stipulates that he wants us to make hishtadlut, that that parnassah HaKadosh Baruch Hu says it's it's my desire to give it to you, but I'm going to give it to you through natural channels, seemingly natural channels. So we can't sit home and and and wait for someone to give us a birthday present of of a lottery ticket and that we're going to win the lottery, but we have to make hishtadlut. However, we have to know that at the end of the day the hishtadlut is is a condition for HaKadosh Baruch Hu bestowing the the parnassah. The hishtadlut is not a cause and effect in in the sense that one would think from a natural perspective. And that's a fundamental fundamental belief of ours, part of part of our belief in hashgacha pratit. Now the question is what practical implications if any does this have given the fact that we are required to make hishtadlut, given the fact that we're not supposed to be passive and we're not supposed to just assume well, it's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's responsibility to figure out how to get it to us? No, HaKadosh Baruch Hu said it's our responsibility to open those channels. So are there any practical implications to the fact that we believe that it's not that what we're doing is determining our livelihood, but that it's rather again a condition of hishtadlut for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to provide us with parnassah? So clearly the attitude is there's a very major difference in attitude that we're supposed to perceive what we're doing in that light, in the light of hishtadlut not in the light of kochi ve'otzem yadi. But are there any practical implications? So Rabbeinu Bachya in Chovot HaLevavot actually gives a couple of practical differences between whether or not we view what we're doing as hishtadlut which HaKadosh Baruch Hu stipulates or whether what we're doing is kochi ve'otzem yadi, it's going to be my resourcefulness which will determine which will dictate and which will generate the parnassah on a totally natural on a total naturally natural plane. So one one story that Rabbeinu Bachya tells, and he tells it as though it's a ma'aseh shehayah, I don't know presumably it was, he tells a story about a chasid echad who I guess was engaged in the medieval equivalent of an import-export business. So to do that he used to have to travel ocean voyages regularly and so Yordei Hayam was an occasion, it was a life-threatening undertaking every time a person traveled on an ocean voyage. So the Rabbeinu Bachya tells the story how someone met this chasid echad and he says to this chasid echad, "Where do you think your parnassah comes from?" So he says, "My parnassah comes from the Ribbono Shel Olam." He says, "You mean you don't determine it, you don't dictate it?" "No, it comes from the Ribbono Shel Olam." So he says to the chasid echad, "But the way you live isn't consistent with what you say." So the chasid says, "How so?" So he answers him, "So what do you think? That Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the only way Hakadosh Baruch Hu can channel parnassah to you is by your risking life and limb for parnassah? You don't think Hakadosh Baruch Hu can find some other channel without your risking your life for the parnassah?" And the chasid says to him, "You're right." And from that day, the chasid gave up that business and he went into another business where he wasn't risking his life constantly to make his hishtadlus for parnassah. So that's one practical difference between a belief that what we're doing is kochi ve'otzem yadi in determining and acquiring our parnassah, or whether it's hishtadlus which Hakadosh Baruch Hu requires, he absolutely requires, but it's a hishtadlus which is a condition, a precondition for his giving us the parnassah. But then earlier in Sha'ar Habitachon, Rabbeinu Bachya has another difference, and he says that the difference will be that if it's kochi ve'otzem yadi, it's hard to know where to draw the line. It's hard to know that maybe my involvement in seeking parnassah should be very extreme, to the point of being obsessive. And he says explicitly that if a person's belief, if a person has that sense of bitachon that the parnassah comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then his hishtadlus won't be exaggerated. It won't be excessive. It won't be obsessive. So the second perspective in terms of is it possible in today's world is that a person has to have bitachon. Again, not bitachon to say, "I'm going to sit home in my living room and wait for the paycheck to come," but bitachon that if I'm determined to establish certain boundaries that I should be able to live a balanced life of avodas Hashem, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can find the way to channel the parnassah to me. Very briefly, just to touch on a couple of other areas in which the technology intrudes upon our lives. It's not uncommon—a few weeks ago I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was supposed to speak on this topic. So he said to me, "Well, one thing you have to say is, you have to alert people to the fact that sometimes," he says, "you're talking to someone, and you're talking with someone, and he's standing there with his, I don't know whether it's a regular cell phone or one of the more sophisticated devices, and I don't know what he's doing—he's checking his emails, he's responding to those emails, he's checking the forecast, he's ordering a suit online, whatever it is he's doing. You're sitting there and you're talking to him, and he's punching that... I had forgotten about this. He had told me, "You have to make sure to mention, I'm telling you it happens all the time." So punkt today, I forgot about this. So punkt today earlier this afternoon, I had such an experience with a young man. It wasn't a one-on-one conversation, it was a little group situation and sure enough, he's sitting there with his phone and, again, the phone or the Blackberry, whatever it was, and doing whatever he was doing, but the sense of bitul for the other person and the lack of middos of bein adam lachaveiro is something which on the one hand we've totally lost sight of, but if you step back for a minute it's staggering, staggering. There are other areas of bein adam lamakom also which are affected by the excessive use, almost addictive use of these technological devices. I mean it goes without saying that that to... see someone in shul during chazaras hashatz with with one of these devices and doesn't need to be explained how inappropriate and wrong that is. It is worth commenting that it should be understood as a symptom of how unengaged and disengaged we often are from davening if if we don't just feel a total contradiction between what we're supposed to be doing and and the manipulating the the these devices during davening. And and the symptom is worth following up to find out how to treat that problem of why we're so disengaged and and why we we don't relate to davening. But the truth is, even in leisure time, it's a problem. I once read in in the name of one of the chachmei umos ha'olam, what I thought was a very insightful comment. He gave a definition of of religion. Okay, I'm I'm obviously to to give a one sentence definition, I don't know, I guess you have to be Hillel or but other than Hillel you're certainly not going to get it totally right. So not not that his answer was totally right, but he had an insight. And he said that religion is what is what a person does when he's alone. So that's a way to to get insight into a person's religious orientation or sensitivity is what a person does when he's alone. When when a person's alone, so does he feel alone with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and can he deal with that? Can a person relate to being alone with Hakadosh Baruch Hu? We have a need, I'm not sure to what extent devices like the the Blackberry create this need, I think it probably exacerbates the need and and lets us very easily avoid confronting the problem. I don't think it it creates the need, but it certainly exacerbates it and and lets us hide behind it. So we tell ourselves, oh, now I can be efficient, I can take care of this, and I can check that, but really, by manufacturing busyness for ourselves, so we never have we never have a moment to be alone with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that's something which is is worthy of thinking of why is it that we can't be or we don't know how to be alone with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, with our thoughts about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to talk to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, an expression of of viduy, of teshuvah, a bakashah, a reaching out like a a son to to a father. And and the constant manufacturing busyness, again, it it highlights it highlights a major challenge in in our lives and that is again, the ability to be alone with the Ribbono Shel Olam. The many of the sefarim, just to give two examples, if you take a look in the one of the mainstays of chasidishe literature, the Noam Elimelech, so the Noam Elimelech has a tzetel katan. And one of the pieces of of advice that he gives in this tzetel is that whenever a person is is free for a moment, so a person should think about ahavas Hashem, he should think about his willingness for kiddush Hashem, a person should think about the shesh mitzvos temidiyos, and the exact same hadrachah you find again, it's in many sefarim, but just to give one one example from from the other part of the world, in the Afikei Yam, also one of the gedolim in the pre pre-Second World War in Europe, also the same thing. A person has time, so he should stop, he should think about the shesh mitzvos temidiyos, about Anochi Hashem Elokecha, שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, ahavas Hashem, yiras Hashem vechulu. It's not good to be busy all the time with other things. A person is supposed to be comfortable being not busy, because when a person's not busy, so then in an unmediated way, without distractions, he can relate directly to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that's also another one of the challenges posed. And and the final the final area which perhaps needs to be highlighted is I can't quote you any any studies or or statistics to to prove this, but my unscientific impression is that the that the volume of chatter in the world has increased exponentially with the invention of cell phones. Now, and again, this is sort of part of the previous issue we mentioned, people are always talking. I'm convinced that we talk, I don't know how much more, but tremendously more than we ever spoke before cell phones were invented. I'm a little less convinced that we have that much more worthy to say. It's just that again, instead of thinking and instead of being misbonen a little bit like the Mesillas Yesharim with which we began, like what the Noam Elimelech tells us, so you pull out the cell phone. Another casualty in terms of that increased speech and the cheapening of speech which results from it is also that we've lost our sense of privacy. Once upon a time, what people would only talk about in private, so now with a cell phone, so often with a cell phone, so you're not necessarily in a private secluded area. You're not in a phone booth with the door closed, and people without batting an eyelash talk about all kinds of devarim shebetzinah just within everyone's earshot. There's been a loss of a sense of tznius. So these are some of the issues which the new technology challenges us to confront.