* You are viewing the archive for the ‘Moshe Dror’ Category
By Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror
We have seen that there is a vast literature and reservoir of ideas about the theme of “virtual space” in the Christian tradition, as was detailed by Margaret Wertheim in her masterful study ( see Cyber Or 28 and 29)on the Pearly Gates of Cyberspace.
By Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror,
Margaret Wertheim goes on to deal with the Bible on steroids and “Mansions in the Sky”. She suggests that “Transcendence, Immortality, and Resurrection-these are dreams beginning to awaken in the cyber-religious imagination.”
For a chapter by chapter synopsis of the book by Prof. Varadaraja Raman look at-
www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/2679/Default.aspx
Wertheim suggests that these visions of Cyber-immortality and cyber-resurrection are a repackaging of the classical Christian idea of the soul in digital form. This “cyber-Soul” is the part of what I am dealing with in relation to Cyber Or.
Wertheim relates to the Christian aspects of the soul. But it is obvious that every spiritual tradition has some ideas about what we translate as soul. Just for your amusement look at the “BrainyEncyclopedia” under “soul”. Also try Google and its 254 million hits on soul and of course a long article in Wikipedia.
In the Jewish tradition there are at least five (5) dimensions or levels, or gradations to what we call as “soul”:
Nefesh: The creature –the lower soul that relates to behavior and action.
Ruach-: Spirit- relates to the emotions.
Neshamah: Inner soul-relates to the mind and intelligence.
Chayah: the Living One-relates to the bridge between the first flash of conscious insight and its super-conscious origin.
Yechidah: single one- relates to the ultimate unity of the soul in God.
If one simply considers all of the various possible permutations and computations of these themes, you can easily see how rich and innovative the possibilities are.
In addition to the classical religions that we know about, we need to pay due respect to the mystic and mythic poesy of Pythagoras. He was a contemporary of Buddha in India, of Zoroaster in Persia, of Confucius and Lao-Tzu in China- the significant era that Karl Jaspers called the Axial Period of history. Pythagoras suggested that the essence of reality is not in matter-in the classical world the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water but rather in the immaterial magic of numbers. The soul was essentially mathematical. It was the soul’s ability to express things “Ratio-nally”-literally in terms of ratios.
So too what is downloaded into computers is in terms of numbers –Zero and One-:0-1. The language of cyberspace is made up of the binary 0-1.
Analogously, in the Jewish tradition, according to the Sefer Yetzirah_ Book of Creation, the oldest book of Kabbalah, the Jewish Mystical tradition… the world was created with number as well. It is also so obvious to see in India that the symbols of one and zero the lingam and yoni-the male and female are seen everywhere. More, if you look at the sacred Tree –the Tree of Life also associated with the space of Paradise and Eden, it is obvious that the form of the Tree of Life is modeled with “lines and circles=zeros and ones=lingam and Yoni. All part of the similar symbol systems of sacred geometry.
Thanks to Margaret Wertheim we can see that this cyber world of virtuality and is a modern version of an ancient set of systems in new formulations.
Rather than the emperor has no clothes, we now have a emperor with NEW clothes- NEW weaves, NEW texts, and NEW imaginings.
By Rabbi DR. Moshe Dror
The last Cyber Or 27 ended with the ideas of a Cyber Hymnal and Cyber Piyut. These are texts and we mentioned that Texts are derived from the Latin for Weave—so we are talking about cyber weaving and dealing with all sorts of virtual /augmented / immersive reality—all modern and all the new stuff of Cyberia.
Right?
Well think again.
Many cyber enthusiasts are relating to some sort of techno-religious sensibility and are convinced that cyberspace is some new sort of spiritual space.
Any of you who are reading these blogs of mine would love to read a wonderful and masterful book by Margaret Wertheim-“The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet” (Norton, New York, 1999). She traces the history of Western ideas about space and how these have been informed by cultural and especially religious themes. From Dante’s Inferno to The Internet of today, the West developed a dualistic conception about the body and soul which are seen as two distinct realms. Within this tradition, the immaterial has always been equated with the spiritual.
Margaret Wertheim is a science writer and commentator and deals with the relationships between science and religion.
Much of these comments are found and interpreted from her last chapters ((seven and eight) from her book.
By Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror
In order to add some more spice and options to this exploration we need to deal with other sets of themes as we develop.
We are all familiar with communities, and I imagine that anyone who reads this on the Internet is also a member of some kind of virtual community as well. Howard Rheingold reminds us that “virtual communities form when enough people carry on public discussions long enough with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships.”
This is certainly happening in these religious and spiritual communities that are springing up all over.
Enriching these relationships are also such systems –we call them by names we make up, invent and reapply to entirely new phenomena-such as:
Augmented Reality;
Augmented Virtuality;
Immersive Reality;
Mixed Reality;
Simulated Reality;
Virtual Reality;
Virtual Continuum;
Virtual Worlds;
BY Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror
Over the past few years, an important new phenomenon has emerged in Jewish Life in the US and in Israel as well. That is the development, creation and fine-tuning of dozens of independent minyanim (worship services), spiritual communities, alternative worship services and all sorts of emergent religious and spiritual communities. So writes the people of Synagogue 3000 and Mechon Hadar in December, 2007. During the past years this has continued to grow and develop.
I like to use the metaphor of the Gemstone as the symbol of Jewish innovation and creativity. What I want to explore in these blogs are the different sorts of lights that shine forth from the many facets-faces of this polished brilliant, diamond gem.
The term SYN is often associated with the familiar SYNAGOGUE but there are many other possibilities. Indeed the very term SYN is a prefix from the ancient Greek that means: together, and with.
We know it from the familiar term from: SYNAGEIN- a gathering together, an assembly. This was the term used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible to indicate the Hebrew” Beth Keneseth”, House of Assembly, which has functioned well for over 2,000 years.
The “together” and the “with” now can incorporate the new world of cyberspace and the vast range of the communicopia of information technologies.
This interface of the religious faith communities and the internet has given birth to a whole host of fascinating religious and spiritual options with in the general world and Judaism as well.
Since I assume that some of this interests you–otherwise you would not be reading this… and. on line—I want to suggest some books that you may find of interest: either in reading the books, or reading their reviews in Amazon or in the vast amount of references in Google and other search engines.
1. “The Soul of Cyberspace: How New Technology is Changing Our Spiritual Lives”; Jeff Zaleski; Harper Edge; San Francisco; 1997.
2. “The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet”; Margaret Wertheim; Norton; New York; 1999.
3. “Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet”; Edited by Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan; Routledge; New York; 2004.
4. “Religion and Cyberspace”, Edited by Morten Hojsgaard and Margit Warburg; Routledge; London; 2005.
By Rabbi DR. Moshe Dror
It seems to me that much of the writing that I read dealing with information technologies with in the Jewish community seem to deal with these ideas of cyberspace as merely “tools”- nice and snazzy ways of dealing with what we have doing for ages. This gives us a new toy to play with and to keep up with the younger generation.
This seems to me to miss the point of the power of Cyberia entirely. These are NOT neutral tools that just let us do what we have been doing in a more economical, expeditious way. These are unique human learning environments that never existed before, and are likely to change what it means to be human.
![]( <a href=\\\"http://www.tripbase.com/c/israel/\\\"><img src=\\\"http://www.tripbase.com/c/rev/images/small_badge.jpg\\\" alt=\\\"Tripbase Travel Reviews\\\" border=\\\"0\\\"></a>){kind=icon}