Today, we use our Apple iPhones, Samsungs, or Galaxies every day. We drive to our destinations with Waze and check the internet for anything we want to know. Though invented only around 25 or 30 years ago, these innovations have become essential – and absolutely addictive. We wonder how we ever navigated our lives without them. Now AI is here and growing more sophisticated from month to month. The world is once again being transformed, although it is yet known whether for better or worse.
Hashem has allowed these incredible
inventions, but they are not new. Thousands of years ago, the choshen, the
sacred breastplate worn by the High Priest, the Kohen Gadol, in the Holy Temple, did all of this and much
more. The choshen was adorned with the urim vetumim, 12 precious
gemstones, each representing one of the 12 Tribes of Israel. They “lit up” to
give answers to the most profound questions facing the nation. They were an
intermediary through which Divine guidance was provided. Most significant is
that the answers came directly from Hashem – no Google, no Siri, no Alexa, no ChatGBT
– only answers from Hashem.
Then and Now
Indeed, as Koheles says, there is
nothing new under the sun. Let’s take a fanciful tour of the Chumash and
see if we can find our modern devices in it: The apple in the Garden of Eden –
like the Apple phone today – was a source of the temptation to acquire the
knowledge of good and evil. And the snake? It represents the yetzer hara, the
dregs of the internet that we should not succumb to.
Krias Yam Suf once saved our nation; today, it
is the Strait of Hormuz that
could save us, depending on who controls it. Olive oil once lit the holy
menorah; now it’s a culinary treat. The man fed our nation in the midbar.
It was free and probably calorie free as well. Today, carbs and sugar cost
plenty and, even worse, bring about health problems like diabetes and obesity. The
ananei hakavod, the clouds in the desert, told klal Yisrael where
it was safe to go. Today we use Waze, which takes us to dangerous areas.
We need not reject our computers
and our phones; we can use them for wonderful purposes. At the same time, we yearn
for the geulah sheleima, when the Kohen Gadol will once again
wear the choshen and we can discard our toys in favor of direct guidance
from Hashem Himself.
We thank Hashem for it all. Even
without the urim vetumim, we can daven and learn Torah. We can have bitachon
(faith) and do the mitzvos. And if we just listen carefully, we will hear Hashem’s
answers in our hearts.
Eli W. Schlossberg is the author of
My Shtetl
Baltimore. His latest book is Take a Walk through My Shtetl.
