[Avodah] A Day to Disconnect

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jul 14, 2019 at 12:51:11PM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: R Micha Berger points out that many of the melachos involve truly creative
: acts that changed the physical world, and were ever-present in our agrarian
: society of millennia ago. If I'm understanding him correctly, he sees a
: disconnect between that sort of Shabbos rest, as opposed to the emphasis on
: disconnecting from electronic media, which are not very creative at all,
: and certainly not as creative as planting seeds or building houses.

I wasn't clear then. (Which is unsurprising, as I was trying the
impossible task of sharing something that felt like an epipheny.)

The "they" I am making the observation about aren't marketing Shabbos
as a break from being able to get pictures of our grandchildren from
another country, or writing a love note to your spouse or even sharing a
thiank you or making a shidduch. People want a day to disconnect because
of the stresses that online and phone life bring. So we're talking about
the stressful elements of on-line life; not on-line life in general.

I am not saying that being online is inherently uncreative. And certainly
not un-melakhah, if we're defining melakhah as "creative / constructive
work". Obviously, there are issues of havarah, koseif, derabbanans if
any music plays, maybe boneh if you plug anything in, makeh bepatish,
whatever...

I am saying the stuff that makes online life stressful or eat away
at the time we could be interacting on a more human level isn't the
creative stuff.

They're selling Shabbos as a break from killing time (or subotimally
using time) on line. From trying to keep up with too many news stories
and two many conversations with friends that will be forgotten in a day
anyway. Which is very different than a break from creating.

It is that particular aspect of on-line life, the very aspexct they're
using to market Shabbos, that I am contrasting with the more constructive
lifestyles of our ancestors.

But in any case, both require a day to take a step back and think about
where we'ee headed. A break from constructive work, so that we can make
sure we're best using our time to produce what HQBH would "Desire". Us,
to remember not to get lost in our favorite echo chamgers and dabate
fora altogether..

But they're very different usages of Shabbos. And the difference reflects
poorly on us.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 We look forward to the time
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   when the power to love
Author: Widen Your Tent      will replace the love of power.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF              - William Ewart Gladstone