Lech l'cha 5770 40th Birthday of the Internet Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 31 October 2009

Bat Mitzvah of Lauren Keiles

Lauren, you were not even born, in fact I was not even born, when the internet was invented. In fact it was, arguably, the 29th October 1969 when two computers a few hundred miles from each other made contact with the simple word, “LOGIN.” This was hardly declared the magnitude of what was to be created in such a relatively few years. Nor did it express the pomp and ceremony of NASA scientists announcing a successful launch of a space mission. But in that one word, was encapsulated a notion far more universal and immediate than any trip into space. It did not represent a remote desire felt by a few to understand the outer reaches of the planetary system, perhaps ultimately to communicate with another living being. This was the latest stage in humanity’s mission to understand itself, one another and to be able to speak to each other with no bounds.

Samuel Morse, over 125 years before the internet was born, in his first telegraph message used the phrase, “What hath God wrought.” What indeed? Well, God has wrought humanity as social animals, the ability to communicate with each other has always been important to us, witnessed by the earliest depictions in a cave, the first manuscripts displaying the evolution of the written word right through to Facebook and Twitter. Let’s face it, when Test Match Special - the home of the most profound use of language, in other words, to talk intelligently when there is nothing to talk about, and let’s not forget the placing of home-baking on a pedestal – yes, when TMS goes Twitter crazy during the latest Ashes series, it feels as if Royalty has endorsed a new age of communication.

The ability to communicate across all the time zones and continents that are represented by the Keiles family and friends, gathered here in Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue to celebrate Lauren’s Bat Mitzvah has never been stronger. We just need to be awake at the same time and logged-on. It is estimated that 1.7 billion people are now online, a number that has more than tripled over this decade. For those who have family and friends spread around the planet, we know that we can always be in touch. For those without family or lacking the skills or opportunity to make friends, the internet can be a lifeline. We cannot deny the phenomenal advances to our human experience that the internet provided us, especially in being the platform for the ‘world wide web.’

Yet, “What hath God wrought.” What indeed? There is such power in the fact of all of us being truly present at one time in this Sanctuary. When God instructed Avram to, lech l’cha, to go on a journey from the comfort and security of his home, could Avram have imagined the reach of his family, to every corner of the globe as is represented by the Keiles’ clan. Whatever the journeys that Avram was to lead, it was the interactions between him and his family that were as important, as life-affirming and enriching as those he had with God.

Avram’s descendents were forever parting ways, sometimes, like Avram and Lot, through mutual agreement that they had grown and needed to become independent. At other times and more memorably, Avram’s descendents were wrenched apart by feuds and spats. Yet in most instances, there were reunifications that were vital to our understanding of the importance of family and of human contact with one another. On each occasion, there was a ritual involved.

How important ritual is in our lives. It may be the independent acts of our days, the morning ablutions to the ‘me-times’ even the busiest of us cherish. It may also be the first logging-on of the day, whether it be the ‘good mornings’ a hug and kiss or that tapping in of our identity and password. But we cannot deny the immense power in our lives of the moments of intense human contact around a life-cycle event enhanced all the more when a heritage, culture and faith are involved. Lauren, this is a truly awesome, a Divine, a moment that God hath wrought for you and your family. At this moment you are the fulfilment of all of God’s blessings upon our ancient ancestors.

“What hath God wrought.” What indeed? Although the peshat, the plain reading of the Torah text is that God spoke only to Avram, instructing him to go on a life-altering journey, Avram did not travel alone. He took with him those who were most important to him, his wife Sarai and his nephew, Lot; his beloved and the one who we might interpret as having been adopted by Avram and Sarai, representing the future generations in the absence of their own offspring.

Lauren, unless, you are to follow you parent’s footsteps into the world of entertainment, or another of the timeless professions that concern humanity, the job that you may end up doing has not even been imagined yet. Even if you do follow them or perhaps even me (!), then the nature of the entertainment or even the rabbinate, will be so different to that of now. Forty years ago, before you or I were born, our parents could not have imagined the technological world that now enhances and yes, on occasion, detract from the quality of our lives. But those detractions are when we forget, or technology distracts us so much, from the human interactions that are vital to our social being.

Lauren, in your life journeys, you will undoubtedly be blessed with being in touch with those you love at the click of a button or doing something to some implement that has not been invented yet. Communications technology, the invention of the internet and what it has been used for has on the whole been an incredible blessing. But never forget the power of this moment, the time when a ritual in your life reunited all your family and friends in one place. To be able to experience each other with all your senses that God has wrought. May those times be many for you and the entire Keiles’ clan. And may we all be blessed with journeys that end with the reunification of those we love.

Amen.