A Beautiful Irony

I have a simple irony that is occuring right now in the ultra-orthodox European community in Brooklyn. In Europe, the Jews were forced in to ghettos, where they were severely and inhumanely cramped together, deprived of food and shut off from the outside world. They come to America, the "Land of Opportunity", and ghettoize once again to the point that on some streets in Borough Park, it is nearly impossible to drive through.

That's not to say, of course, that sticking together isn't a good thing. Over time, the Jewish people as a whole have learned not to expect sympathy or care from outside nations. They come, however, to a country where no one is persecuted for being affiliated to a certain religion or belief, and simply regroup into the tiny, cramped buildings that so closely resemble the ghettos that they hated so much back in the Old World. One would think that it would not be necessary to stick so closely together, to spread apart a little.

Perhaps this is an attempt to shut off the outside world, which is advancing technologically. Living so closely together, resembling how they once lived in Europe, these Jews feel more comfortable wearing the same clothes that they have been wearing since 1200 CE, practicing the same customs. Since these Jews have stuck together for so long, being so involved in a way of life that demands so much devotion, a ghetto-like environment may help them focus on the way of life they hold so dear.

However, what's to say that technology clashes with religion? There are many ways that technology could be adapted to help people. For example, Judaism dictates that we read from a Torah scroll made out of parchment and handwritten. There are scribes, however, who have adapted certain computers and scanners to scan the scroll to detect mistakes. This is just one way in which technology can complement Judaism.

We live our lives in fear of change and adaptation. The key, speaking from the point of a Modern Orthodox Jew, who believes that modern technology and Jewish life complement each other, is to find that balance, but not to shut one side of the equation out. This balance, though, may not be 50/50. It should depend solely on you: how much of one side you are willing to let integrate into your lifestyle, while at the same time not shutting out the other side of the equation.