I love my digital toys. I use at different times an iPhone, iPad, and laptop. I’m going paperless at the office. I was an avid PC Magazine reader until it stopped publishing—ironically put out of business by the internet. And so my eyes lit up when—reading the presentation schedule for an upcoming conference—I saw a session “Innovate or Die.”
But then, a bit later: “A ‘No-Tech’ Approach to Structured Collegial Conversations.”
What? How can this be? How can these two thoughts exist simultaneously in our minds, let alone at a conference focused on technology?
It’s a problem we face every day. All around us we hear a cacophony of voices: Switch! Change! Transform yourself!
But into what? And to what end? And how painful will the process be?
Yet we know we cannot stand still. The world is filled with things that five years ago we didn’t know we needed and now can’t live without. Google search. Mapquest directions. Skype videos home.
So we will adapt. Through the ages our communities have thrived by adapting. To secular society. To new cultures. And to new technologies as well. We will do no less in this brave new world.
Yet just as there’s a time for technology, there’s also a time for less, and even a time for none. We need to find the middle, balanced ground where we make the best use of technology and still remain the owners of our time and our lives. Sometimes, we need to uncouple and disconnect to achieve that balance.
Just as Judaism teaches us about tikkun olam, gemilut chasidim, and tzedakah, it helps us understand how to achieve balance. It teaches that there is a time for every purpose. A time for both sides of the spectrum, and a time for the middle.
In the age-old debate between keva and kavanah, it teaches that there is a time for each. They exist in balance. Keva gives us structure and community. Kavanah gives spirituality and meaning. One without the other is incomplete; we are whole only with both.
So too in the age-old debate between reason and revelation, and with the question of study vs. action. In each instance, one is meaningless without the other. In each case, asked to choose between one or the other, Judaism says “both.”
And so it is in the debate over technology. Judaism helps us understand when to plug in, and when to unplug.
Yes we need this new technology. We need it for its power. We need it for the insights it provides. And we need it because it engages our children. But we cannot become enslaved to it; we need sometimes to unplug, and always to ask whether the technology is serving our needs. We need the balance And in that, Judaism once again reminds us that achieving balance is our most important task.
