I recall a blog I wrote some time ago where I spoke of the lack of communication amongst our friends and especially within our families.
Though we are benefiting, greatly, from many new advances in technology, there are many setbacks resulting in the lack of personal communication between one another. We seem to be losing the benefit of facing each other, denying us the opportunity of seeing facial expressions and the innuendos that are apparent when we speak face-to-face.
Even our phone calls have been discarded, again denying us to hear other people's voices and their inflections that usually accompany conversations . Life has become texting which denies us of this part of our relationships.
It is in this context that I would like to share with you an important message from this week's Parsha of Vayikrah. We read in the opening Pasuk ; ויקרא הי אל משה, " Hashem calls to Moshe." He called him and wanted to speak with him directly. No texting, no emails, no social media, just plain talking. This is life's lesson about the need to speak and to listen. Herein, we get the important message of human interaction and the quality of interpersonal relationships.
Please know that I question not the technological achievements that enhance our lives. But I do question how this technology impacts on our personal relationships.
For our inspiration, let us, once again, turn to the time when Hashem created man and made the clear distinction between the human being and the animal kingdom. He did so with blessing man with the capability to speak and this Bracha must not fall into disuse. This gift of speech makes man into a true צלם אלוקים, and let us not relegate it to a texting message.
I am seeing families where children are texting their parents from the upstairs bedroom rather than walking downstairs to talk with them. This is not what I think family is all about. We are losing valuable opportunities to come closer to one another, especially, within the family.
I heard a teacher speaking to his student saying “Look at me, I’m speakin to you." It sounds ominous, but true. We are losing the art of communication that is associated with feelings that come from hearing the word and seeing the communicator. I am searching for a positive way to elevate our relationships. I am searching to elevate our lives from the transactional to the relational.
Talking, calling, verbalizing our feelings, can bring greater respect and affection into our lives, giving us the power to humanize and elevate our interactions and our relationships.
Let us take to heart the way Hashem addresses Moshe, and to use that lesson in our noisy world of multimedia overload and online communication and begin to increase our personal relationships facing each other with the glow of holiness.
I do recognize that very often distance may not permit one to one communication. Then we begin to appreciate the technological advancements of Skype and Facebook that gives us some semblance of this commmunication that I am searching for. However, I still crave greater feelings that comes with a hug and an embrace that often says more than words. This can only be realized with a one to one encounter.
Social media is an amazing tool, but it's really face to face interaction that makes a long term impact.
Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanizes what is a very large part of community life and living together. Judaism is the "call" that is instrumental in preserving a way of life that projects a loving human bond.
Our human race prospers when we make a safer world for those who will follow and this can only be achieved when we are facing each other with spiritual warmth and personal empathy.
So, I invite you to join me on this journey into the real world, a world of seeing, a world of hearing and a world of human interaction.
"Can you hear and see me now?"
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