Get out of bed, cry out in the night; pour out your heart like water before the face of Hashem…(Eicha 2:19)
Todays is a national day of mourning observed for nearly 2000 years on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. Basically, both Temples were destroyed because of human error. There was no computer malfunction. There were no acts of “god”. There was no overloaded control systems, and no faulty wiring.
While human nature is to always blame others when things go wrong – the Jewish way of remembering the human error which destroyed the Temples is to accept responsibility for what happened. And I don’t mean in the “I take full responsibility for what happened” way that public figures say when they are caught cheating, which almost sounds like they are sorry, but they are not. No, we actually accepted responsibility for the errors, established a day of mourning and fasting, and seek atonement even today.
And while much attention is rightly focused on the destroyed city of Jerusalem and other national tragedies over the last 20 centuries, the only way to go about fixing the errors is with corrective action today and in the future. The past human errors cannot be erased. Only future human error can be avoided. The human error which caused the hard drive to crash and meltdown, the security breach, the data loss, and the system malfunction, can be fixed with a simple do-it-yourself patch, and software upgrade.
The patch is Ahavas Yisroel aka love your fellow Jew i.e. network sharing and open sourcing , and the the upgrade is available by free download. Simply pour out year heart like water before God about so much trouble in the world – your own, your peoples, the world’s – and the software will be installed automatically.
Ahvram Zagoren
7/24/2007
“…the only way to go about fixing the errors is with corrective action today and in the future.”
I believe the Jewish people are the salt and light in the world. We are the preservative which through the salt of the Torah causes those around us to thirst after the living
G-d. It is through benevolence and compassion that we are the beacon of light extended to a world in which so many are without hope, down trodden and persecuted. Everyone of us is an extension of HaShem on this earth. We are His hands, feet, mouth ears, etc… As the Almighty would do for people is what we are to do: We are His ambassadors. Yes, we have failed in the past, and accepted responsibility for it, but we have also learned from our mistakes and we have become stronger because of it. Let’s be as the Prophet Micah has spoken: “He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the L-rd requires of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your G-d.”
Netsach Shebe Netsach
7/25/2007
Well put Rabbi…
I am sure this “patch” is way better published and tested then what comes out of Microsoft or the like. The source is clear and well documented. All the bugs have been worked out long ago….
bruce jones
7/25/2007
Two hundred centuries isn’t correct otherwise a good lesson.
bruce jones
7/25/2007
not 2oo centuries, maybe 50
Rabbi Yonah
7/29/2007
Typo= I meant 20 centuries.