By Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror,
It would seem reasonable indeed that since the Net Generation thrives on “innovation”, and most of the Jewish members of this Net Generation are so computer literate and cyber savvy—that there would be some experimentation in asking what might it mean to even think about Jewish Liturgy –prayer in Cyberia for the developing Jewish virtual communities.
There are some Jewish organizations who are dedicated to upgrading and assisting the usual bricks and mortar synagogues to be more effective and responsive to their members.
STAR (Synagogues: Transformation, and Renewal-www.starsynagogue.org) deals with congregational innovation and leadership developments. Rabbi Hayim Herring (The Director of STAR) appears once again on Newsweek magazine-50 Influential Rabbis.
Synagogue 3000( S3K; www.synagogue3000.org) has just released a study suggesting that younger Jews are more spiritually inclined than their parents were and that they are not finding this spirituality in their local congregations. Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman of the Hebrew Union College and Sociologist, Dr. Steven Cohen suggest that these youth are seeking some kind of transcendent purpose for the Jewish People
The “great forces of modernity: technology, democracy, choice, and freedom” are all strengthening the religious and spiritual journeys of youth in America write John Micklethwalt and Adrian Wooldridge in their new book “God Is Back”. This is much the same terminology that Tapscott uses.
This cohort of “younger Jews” is much the same as the Net Generation that Don Tapscott and we are relating to as well.
The basic idea I am dealing with is that of “transformation—change the shape or form of something.
Perhaps we might look at what the Synagogue is doing or not doing for this younger generation and see if we might suggest some other additional way of dealing with the space for this spiritual quest to happen.
Please Note and Note well—
NO ONE is talking about replacing or substituting Synagogues with cyberspace virtual congregations. That is simply absurd.
AND, this cyber savvy Net Generation might seek some sort of augmented and additional space in which to do its “Boundary Crossing”
Amazing indeed.
I looked up the word ”transformation” as used in the STAR title in one of my favorite websites that deals with the magic and power of words – The Online Etymology Dictionary…and to my amazement and delight the first derivation that it listed is “ Babylon”. I thought that I had made some error so I did it again and came up with the same response.
Then I read the description
“Babylon: Bab-ilani—the gate of the gods; from Bab=gate and ilani, plural of ilu=god.
We tend to associate that the term Babel from the Biblical narrative in Genesis with the hubris of humanity in the uses of technology. Humanity wanted to storm the heavens so God confused their language. That is only one interpretation of the narrative. But it is just the opposite that might be the case.
This new technology may be a gateway to the gods- a new medium to relate to spirituality and the divine and the techne-medium is right in front of our noses—LIGHT in its many manifestations.
A good part of the continuation of these Cyber Or blogs will deal with the many aspects of what does this mean in the real world in “tachlis” and as part of the on-going story of the Jewish People.
