Mistaking the Means with the Mission

The year was 1983. My mom got a new word processing application, Microsoft Word. It came on a floppy disk. Remember those? They looked a bit like vinyl records with their thin, square appearance. It would even wobble a little if you shook it. The disk said WordPerfect 1.0. 

Thirteen years later, they replaced the floppy disk. Word 97 was released, becoming the first word processor to connect to email and the internet.  

It didn’t take long for this version to be replaced. A mere four years later, Microsoft released Pocket Word, which would be compatible with smaller devices. It was the prototype for Smartphones which came later.  

A decade later, Microsoft Word 2010 was released for cloud computing. Their current version, Microsoft 2024, features AI assistance.  

For over forty years, Microsoft Word has mirrored the modern world by redesigning itself to adapt to new technologies. It’s one of many examples of how everything around us is always changing.  

Except for one thing – the purpose of Microsoft Word itself: To write your thoughts clearly and efficiently.  

All these changes were made to further the purpose. It was like a beacon to the chaos of what direction thousands of versions of Microsoft Word would move.  

The Mistake of the Modern World 

The past 150 years have seen the entire world change at the speed of Word. There was the electricity revolution of the 1890s, the software revolution of the 1970s, the internet revolution of the 1990s, and the AI revolution of today.  

With every new revolution, the entire reality around us changes. Suddenly, we have new types of cars, homes, phones, news, food, relationships . . . everything.  Everywhere you look, there is a version 1.0 for something rapidly being replaced by a 1.1, a 1.2, a 2.0, and so on.  

What makes the Jewish People the light unto the nations?  

Light doesn’t change. It moves faster than any other property in the universe. One of the brightest stars in the sky is named Deneb. It’s 2,600 light years away. When you look at Deneb, the light you see first emanated from the star when our First Temple stood.  

Light travels the length of the universe without ever changing – like the Jewish People! 

Western civilization makes the mistake of changing the mission along with the means.  In the 1970s, it was the “Gay rights” movement. In the 1990s, they called it the “Gay and Lesbian rights” movement. The 1990s saw the “LGBT” movement. Today, it’s the LGBTQIA+ movement. They “reformed” the mission as fast as they reformed the means, throwing the entire system into a near-infinite loop of chaos and confusion.  

Celebrities are replaceable. Leaders are replaceable. Right and wrong are as static as the current build of Microsoft Word, version 2507.  

What Makes Jews Different from the Rest 

Living in a world where constant change is the new normal, does anything stay the same? 

For a Jew, what stays the same is our mission. 

Every Friday night, God commands us to stop technology in its tracks to remember Who we serve, and what supports our work in serving Him.  

Our purpose is as clear today as it was when Hashem first declared it to Avraham Avinu over 3,763 years ago. Then, it was moving to Israel with a caravan. Today, it’s moving to Israel on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.  For Avraham, the journey took months. For us, it takes hours. Regardless, the mitzvah is the same. The technology only enables us to perform it more easily.  

This is the beauty of a Jew. Everything Hashem commands us pre-dates Western civilization. Everything we do is irrelevant to technological or cultural changes.  

For example, let’s say we don tefillin that is manufactured in a factory that uses an AI-powered computer connected to the cloud communicating instructions at 10 gigabits per second to make sure the width and length of the straps are perfectly correct. Regardless of the technology, the purpose of tefillin is the same today as it was when Hashem commanded us to first put them on 3,338 years ago. 

The Eternal Mission 

Despite the illusion of the modern world “replacing” God with its delusional wonders, we continue to put on tefillin for the same reason. It’s in the Shema.  

The second paragraph of the Shema¹ reads a lot like the dreaded parshat Ki Tavo:  

If we serve Hashem, He will grant us grain, wine, and oil. He will grow grass so our livestock can eat, and He will bring the early and late rains so all our needs will be satisfied.  

 

If we fail to serve Him, He will remove all this abundance. He will withhold the rains, and we will live in dire want. He will expel us from our land.  

We don’t rely on modern agricultural tools or advanced military gear. Our purpose is to know God. It still is. It forever will be.  

Technology can help, but it cannot lead. Today’s world is a warning that if we put the props before the purpose, we will all veer off course.  It’s up to us not to get confused by the evolution of the means and the meaning of the mission. The mission Avraham, Moshe, and David served is the same one you and I serve today.  

May we all remain steadfast in our devotion to He Who commands the mission itself.  

¹  Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11: 13-17 

***

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, 60,000 passionate Israelis, and Matilda, our local camel. Follow his channel, The Conquest of Israel.