Most people do not recognize August 16, 1994 as a date of special significance. But the fact is that this day might go down in history as one of the most important dates that changed the world – right up there with dates like July 4, 1776 (the signing of the Declaration of Independence), December 7, 1941 (the attack on Pearl Harbor), November 22, 1963 (President Kennedy’s assassination), and September 11, 2001 (the terror attacks on New York on Washington).
On August 16, 1994, the world’s first smartphone was released.
On that day, IBM sold a phone called the Simon. It did not take off, to put it mildly, but that was the first time a smartphone was sold. It was on January 9, 2007 that Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone which went on to change the world, and our lives, permanently.
If you’re looking for an angry tirade against the ills of the smartphone, then this essay is not for you. Our goal instead is to recognize the challenge – or one of the challenges – it presents, and to try to help us figure out an effective strategy for overcoming it. The advent of the smartphone is already a done deal, and there’s no sense in trying to fight it. The device has become an integral and indispensable part of modern life, which makes it futile to try to oppose it, but ever so important to learn how to manage it successfully. If we do learn to manage it successfully, then we will be able to look to August 16, 1994 as a momentous occasion that has had a profoundly positive impact upon our lives.
Understanding Hashem’s Exodus Strategy
We begin by examining a number of puzzling aspects of Yetziat Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt, paying particular attention to קריעת ים סוף – the miracle of the splitting of the sea.
The first pasuk of Parashat Beshalah tells us that after Beneh Yisrael left Egypt, Hashem led them in a direction that avoided the region inhabited by the Pelishtim. The Pelishtim were a hostile people, and Hashem realized that the moment Beneh Yisrael experienced any trouble, they would want to return to Egypt. So instead, He led them in a different direction.
The question is obvious: how was the alternative any better? Instead of leading the people through the area of the Pelishtim, He brought them to the shores of the Yam Suf, where they found themselves trapped by the Egyptians, and they panicked. Hashem had to perform an unprecedented miracle to save them. What was the advantage of this route over the route through the Pelishtim’s land?
The end of the story also requires some explanation. After the sea split and Beneh Yisrael safely crossed, they sang what has become a famous song of praise – אז ישיר. This beautiful song has been incorporated into our daily morning Shaharit service. The question is, why did they sing praise to Hashem only now? Why didn’t they sing right when they left Egypt, to celebrate the end of over two centuries of persecution?
The answer to both questions is that Beneh Yisrael were not truly free until after the splitting of the sea. Hashem wanted them to gain complete freedom – and so He specifically led them to the sea. After the miracle, they became truly free, whereupon they recited אז ישיר to celebrate their newfound sense of freedom.
To understand why Beneh Yisrael were not truly free until after the miracle of the sea, we need to carefully define the concepts of slavery and freedom.
Slavery means far more than having lots of responsibilities that one does not wish to have. It means that everything one does, his entire life, is subjugated to a master. Halachah establishes rules regarding the status of an עבד (slave). If a slave finds something, or receives a gift, it belongs to his master. If he begets children in servitude, the children are the master’s slaves. If he has a field that yields produce, the produce belongs to the master. Slavery is a state of being that defines the slave’s entire existence. As opposed to an employee, who works from 9 to 5, or 8 to 8, and is free to do what he pleases at all other times, the slave’s entire life is defined by his state of slavery. Everything he does is under his master’s control and authority.
As such, slavery affects the mind as much as it affects one’s actions. It is not just about having to do certain things at certain times. It is a sense of subservience that does not allow the slave the freedom to think freely and do what he wants.
This is why Beneh Yisrael did not become truly free until after the miracle of the sea. When they left Egypt, they were no longer forced to perform slave labor. But mentally, they still saw themselves as slaves of their Egyptian masters. After the miracle of the Yam Suf, however, as the Torah tells, Beneh Yisrael saw the Egyptians’ remains wash up on the shore: וירא ישראל את מצרים מת על שפת הים. This is what set them completely free. Their bodies were released from slavery on the night of Yetziat Mitzrayim, but their minds were not released from slavery until they saw that their masters had perished. At that point, they were able to think like free men and women for the first time.
The Yetzer Ha’ra and the “Zone”
The clearest example of the effects of mental slavery is Beneh Yisrael’s reaction when Moshe came to them while they worked as slaves and told them Hashem’s promises of redemption: ולא שמעו אל משה מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה – they could not listen to Moshe because of their mental exhaustion. It wasn’t just the pain of the labor; it was their mental inability to pay any attention to Moshe. Their minds were overloaded. They were too stressed and pressured. In this state of mental slavery, they were not open to hear beautiful prophecies of a land flowing with milk and honey.
The Mesilat Yesharim teaches that the shrewdest trick of the yetzer ha’ra (evil inclination) is to bring us to this condition of mental slavery, to get us to the point where we cannot think. It seeks to make us so preoccupied, so pressured with all kinds of things, that we don’t have room in our minds for “Moshe Rabbenu,” for the important things in life. Slavery comes in many forms, and the yetzer ha’ra knows it. It tries to “enslave” us by filling our minds so we do not have the freedom to think, to contemplate, or to reflect.
In modern-day terminology we call this distraction. When we are distracted, we are enslaved, because we cannot focus on the things that we truly need and want to do.
Nothing demonstrates this more powerfully than a fascinating study I once saw. I do not know how they came up with this, but researchers found a way to calculate a person’s level of focus when tending to a task. They determined that if a person is 60 percent invested in a task, and 40 percent not – meaning, 60 percent of his mind is committed to the task at hand, but 40 percent of his mind is disinterested – then the level of focus is calculated by dividing 60 by 40, and thus equals 1.5. If a person is 80 percent focused, then his level of focus is 80/20, or 4. This means that the difference between being 3/5th invested and being 4/5ths invested results in more than twice the amount of focus. And if a person is 100 percent invested in what he is doing, applying all his energy and concentration, then his focus level of infinite – 100/0. This means that when somebody is entirely focused on something, he is unstoppable. The sky’s the limit. He can overcome anything and achieve anything.
Many very successful people talk about being in the “zone” – that state of mind when they are completely invested, focused, energized and on a roll. The hardest part is getting into the zone. But once they’re there, they can do anything. They are able to accomplish all that they do because they know how to get themselves into the “zone,” to 100 percent focus, where their capabilities become infinite. We all know people who project confidence, energy, boldness and rigor, people who always seem to be in the “zone,” always focused and ready to go. These people tend to be the most accomplished and successful, because they are able to stay at the peak level of focus, which opens infinite possibilities for them.
The “zone” is the greatest fear of the yetzer ha’ra. It knows that when we get there, we can do anything, and it can’t stop us. So what it tries to do is block us from the “zone.” It fills our time and our minds, making us overburdened and preoccupied, so we can never truly focus and apply ourselves. It tries to mentally enslave us so we lack the mental energy to listen to Moshe’s call, to pay attention to the important things.
The smartphone, with all its blessings, has made it all but impossible to enter the “zone.” We’ll leave aside for now the very real and serious problems of content, the kind of things that people do and look at on their phones. Our point here is how the smartphone hampers our ability to function, how it affects us even when we are not using it. The smartphone is a constant source of distraction. No matter what it is that we’re doing, part of our minds is thinking about the text, email, post, tweet, snap or whatever else it is that we might want to do with our phones. At best, we might be able to focus 80 percent on the task at hand, with 20 percent of our minds being distracted by the phone. But it is all but impossible to enter the “zone,” to focus our minds 100 percent, exclusively, on what we need to do.
This is a great achievement for the yetzer ha’ra. It barely has to do anything anymore to distract us. We are always preoccupied and distracted, and so it is very difficult to apply ourselves and focus intently on what we need and want to achieve.
In short, we are slaves. We lack the freedom to think, to plan, to do all we want to do. Our phones have become our masters, telling us, “You need to buy this”; “You need to check your mail”; “You need to post this”; “You need to read this”; “You need to write this.” It has, in a very real way, taken over our lives, a problem throughout the world that nobody saw coming and nobody warned us about.
There is something tragically ironic about our modern-day slavery. Technology, which is so remarkable, which makes us “free” in so many ways, which makes so many things easy and convenient, thus giving us more free time to do what we want, has enslaved us and taken away our freedom, our time and our concentration. The same technology which has liberated has made us its slaves, preventing us from doing what we need to be and should be doing.
Is There a Solution?
As I said, my intent here is not to rail against the smartphone. Its role in our lives is a done deal, and permanently so. But the problem is real, and it is something that we must all address.
I cannot verify whether this is true, but I’ve heard that one of Donald Trump’s brothers was asked how his sister, Ivanka, became so successful. He answered that she has been successful because of Shabbat. One day a week, she turns everything off and focuses on the things that really matter – her husband, her children, and her religion. For those 25 hours, she has no distractions and is able to fully devote her attention to what’s really important.
Indeed, Shabbat is a great blessing in allowing us the opportunity to stay focused, freeing our minds for that one day so we can give our full attention to our families and to Torah. But this is not enough. We need to find some way to salvage some level of focus and attention during the other six days, to gain control over this device so that it does not control us.
I experimented with one idea which worked successfully for me.
I came up with the idea after a trip I once took overseas for winter break, during which I did not have cell service from the moment I took off from JFK Airport until I returned. For those days, I was cell free, and I did not check any texts or emails. When the plane landed back in New York, I quickly pulled out my phone, eager to see the long list of people who desperately needed me during my time away, and nervously expecting to read about the grave crises and calamities that befell the world because I did not have my phone. To my pleasant surprise – everybody was fine. The sky didn’t fall. Everything was ok. I didn’t miss anything terribly urgent.
This experience taught me a valuable lesson: I really don’t need to check my phone fifty times a day. I, and all my contacts, will be just fine if I am not constantly catching up on texts and emails.
Inspired by this great revelation, I decided upon a new system: I would check my phone just twice a day – once in the middle of the day, at around noon or 1pm, and a second time at 11pm. At both these times, I block out everything else and focus on my phone, giving my full attention to each person to whom I need to write. This system has a dual advantage: I am more focused the rest of the day on the things I am doing, and I am more focused at those two times on my messages and emails, so my correspondences are more meaningful. This system helped me stay in the “zone,” and be focused and attentive throughout the day.
I realize that this system will not work for everyone. There are many people whose jobs or businesses require them to regularly check in and reply to messages immediately. But it is critical for everyone to have some kind of system in place, to have some limit, so that we are not enslaved to our devices. Some people might smart small by enforcing the rule that nobody brings electronic devices to the dinner table, so at least for that half-hour or so the family is focused on one another. My wife puts her phone away from the time the kids come home from school until the younger children are in bed. Certainly, the phone should be turned off, or kept away, when one prays. Kids should be told to put the phone away when they do their homework. We need to implement limits in order to keep ourselves free from this dreadful form of slavery which has taken hold of our world.
Our Generation’s Challenge
The miracle of the Yam Suf was not the only time when a body of water miraculously split to allow the Jewish People to cross. Forty years later, the Jordan River split for Beneh Yisrael and they crossed on dry land into the Land of Israel. Interestingly, the splitting of the Jordan does not have the “pomp and circumstance” associated with the miracle of the Yam Suf. There was no beautiful song of praise, and there is no holiday to commemorate the miracle as there is for the splitting of the Yam Suf (the seventh day of Pesach). Why is that?
One answer I saw is that the first time something remarkable happens is always the most significant. Beneh Yisrael showed their faith in Hashem by leaping into the Yam Suf, and this experience inspired them to sing. Once this was done, the precedent was already in place, and so the next time was not as powerful and significant. Every generation has its challenge it needs to overcome, a “sea” that it needs to “split,” some very difficult situation that it needs to address or problem it needs to solve, and its success paves the way for future generations. Once Beneh Yisrael passed the great test of the Yam Suf, going into the water, the splitting of the Jordan River was not such a big deal.
A modern example might be the great challenge of Shabbat observance that the Jewish immigrants to the United States faced in the earlier part of the 20th century. Many of them were told on Friday that if they did not show up for work on Saturday, they would be fired. This was an enormous test of faith, and many heroic Jews endured great hardship struggling to support their families because of their commitment to observe Shabbat. Shabbat observance was that generation’s test. They overcame it, and now, for the vast majority of Orthodox Jews in America, this is now a non-issue.
Our generation’s test is technology, and specifically, the smartphone. This is the great challenge that we need to overcome – using this device for all the benefits which have become indispensable for modern life, without becoming enslaved by it. This challenge might be as difficult as Shabbat observance for early 20th-century Jewish immigrants in New York. We, too, can become heroes by meeting the challenge and finding a way to properly manage and control our use of the smartphone. If we succeed, then we will have given a great gift to future generations by paving the way for them – just as the heroic Shabbat observance of the immigrant generation paved the way for our Shabbat observance.
Decorating Our Homes
Many Jewish immigrants ended up hopping from one job to the next on a weekly basis. When leaving work on Friday, they would tell their boss that they could not come in on Saturday, and the boss would fire them on the spot. They would then look for a new job on Monday, only to lose it on Friday after informing the boss that they would not show up on Saturday. They went through this week after week, barely scrapping out a meager living by starting a new job every Monday morning.
The story is told of one man who kept a collection of the pink slips he received each Friday. When Sukkot came, he built a sukka and used the pink slips to decorate it. He figured that there was nothing more beautiful to use for decorating his sukka than these slips of paper which testified to his courageous devotion to Shabbat.
Our generation’s version of those pink slips is freedom and control. The best thing we can do to “decorate” our homes, to make them truly beautiful, is setting limits, putting our phones away during family time, when speaking to our spouse, when tending to our children, when praying and studying, when doing all those things that really matter.
Let us remember that being busy is not the same as being productive. In today’s day and age, we are busier than ever before – and for this very reason, so many of us are not nearly as productive as we can be. We need to have the strength to seize control over our lives, so we can live productively and meaningfully, and make the most of the limited amount of time we are given on this earth.