The Robot Jew

“We’re not in your living room!! Turn it down!!” yelled a big bearded man at the bus driver.
 
The driver replied, “You know if I looked like you, I wouldn’t have said a thing; you’re just filled with hate!”
 
Sadly, many of us here in Israel have forgotten the blatant miracles Hashem has recently showed us since the war and some people are back to being controlled by their anger, impulsiveness and obsession about being better than others.
 
I was on the 277 bus to Elad to spend a beautiful Shabbat with my wife’s family. The driver, a happy go lucky olive-skinned Mediterranean looking guy greeted every passenger with a smile. While we drove north, we were listening to classic collection of Shabbat songs that the driver had selected and put onto a CD for our pleasure. What a treat! In comparison to listening to the news or backstreet boys, I was in heaven listening to the songs while finishing reading the weekly parsha.  Suddenly this “rabbinical” type figure stood up in the middle of the bus and yelled at the driver that he was distracting people from their “Torah learning.” My jaw dropped to the ground at the rudeness of this person to publicly shame the driver who was doing what he could to help us enjoy the ride. The driver was also taken a back, and said “OK, you don’t want songs of Shabbat, let’s listen to the radio.” After about a minute of listening to the shtooyot (Hebrew for nonsense), this self-righteous “rabbi” knew the mistake he made. Everyone was in shock at his chutzpah to yell at this good-willed, bare-headed driver.
 
This man made it well known that he thought of himself to be much more of a “tzaddik” than the driver. But as Rav Shalom teaches us the minute you think you are better than anyone, you have become arrogant, and an arrogant person is never with Hashem. For when one succumbs to arrogance he thinks he’s running the show. This is when we forget Hashem and we make mistakes and sins. In addition, Rav Lazer Brody’s recent class Four Rungs of Humility talked about the four different levels of the character trait of humility. In this class he teaches about one of the most important aspects of humility and that is to be humble to those who seem to be on a lower level than we are.
 
Let’s recap what is written in the Garden of Emuna about two brothers. One who is ultra-orthodox and another who doesn’t even wear a kippa. The orthodox one, who was keeping all of the Torah was suffering from tremendous problems at home with his wife as well as financially while his brother had just started connecting with Emuna books and CD’s. The non-religious brother came to the conclusion that he wanted to live a happy life so he started to thank Hashem for everything, the good and seemingly bad. No matter what happened to him he would just say thanks. The other brother was bewildered as to how it could be that he is suffering while keeping mitzvot and his brother keeps living a happy life without any observance of Shabbat, tefillin or daily prayers! He approached Rav Shalom Arush to get an answer. The Rav pulled out the Ramban’s classic commentary on the Torah and opened it to portion “Bo” and read aloud, “The intent of all the mitzvot are that we believe in Hashem and thank Him for being our creator, this is the purpose of all creation. The sole request of the upper worlds from the nether worlds is that man should thank and get to know his Lord that created him.”  The religious brother may have had tzitzit and a nice beard but when came to emuna, his score was zero.
 
Sometimes it happens to us, we become ‘Robot Jew’. We start to pray hurriedly without focus in a rush to get on with the day, the mikva becomes just another thing to do, and our Torah learning becomes tiring, and worst of all Shabbat becomes numb. This can happen to someone who has been religious from birth or to someone who recently has come to take on a Torah observant lifestyle. But the worst thing about the Robot Jew is when he forgets who he is and thinks he’s better than someone else…
 
When the extravagant light that a newly observant Jew can feel goes away, even he is in danger of becoming a Robot Jew. This so called problem is actually a gift. Hashem hides that light from us in order that we earn that light for ourselves. According to Rabbi Akiva Tatz in his book “Living Inspired” the great feeling He gives it to us as a gift to show us our potential, but afterwards it’s our job to rejuvenate ourselves through hard work, not by hurting others on our way to the top.