Is it possible to unplug from social media for a day? An hour? Is it healthy? Today, more and more Jews are trying to tap into the Sabbath in new ways.
During the course of over thousands of years of Jewish history, there have been uncountable incidents of Jewish heroes and self-sacrifice to keep the Shabbos. Heroes went from job to job on a weekly basis in order to maintain the sanctity of Shabbos during the Great Depression (late 1920’s and early 1930’s). In World War II, we hear of yeshiva students enjoying a few potatoes and onions on the Shabbos and the children recount for us a very positive memory that they were instructed to imagine that the onions were fish and that the potatoes were chicken. Even in concentration camps, individual heroes were said to have collected just enough fat and thread to light the Shabbos candles!
Digital Challenges
In February of 2010, a Frontline documentary (“Digital Nation”) exposed major challenges facing humanity in the global digital world. Earth Day 2010 launched an advertisement to “Disconnect to Reconnect” which has been since been adopted by a wide variety of Jewish organizations across the spectrum of Jewish philosophies and suggested to all as a healthy step towards tapping into the Shabbos as a “respite” from the constant need to be in cyberspace and from the increasingly difficult task of stepping into one’s own “personal” space.
Shabbos, today, is an incredible opportunity to reconnect to our friends, family, community, and our natural world.
JPULSE Shabbos Table
Jewish PULSE of Boston is built on an open house policy and we pride ourselves on creating an environment where Jews from any and all backgrounds can feel “comfy.” In Jewish outreach, it is not uncommon for students and professionals to check their phones, email, and facebook, or to text message, and even call friends while sitting at the Shabbos table!
Disconnect to Reconnect
We are officially adopting this new “social” challenge for all of our guests. “Disconnect to Reconnect.” In the past, we have enforced one major rule, which is that “anything goes” (well, almost anything). Today, we would like to step it up a notch.
Can you unplug from cyberspace for a day? How about a dinner?
RELATED VIDEOS
Goal for Oct. 12, 2011 is 1 million disconnect hours in a day.
Help Ohr Naava accumulate over 1 million hours of disconnect time on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2011. www.daytodisconnect.com
A young poet explains his perspective on topic.
The “Disconnect to reconnect” slogan has event reached the international community. Here is an interesting short film illustrating the issues from the Philipines!
Here’s an interesting PBS news vid on topic.
RELATED ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS
Internet Sabbath – Cutting the Electronic Umbillical Chord by Jeffrey Gabel
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