The Technology of Patience

This came from a couple weeks back, but I never got the chance to post it until now.  Better late than never?

“Keep your eyes on the prize . . . Hold on, hold on.”

            I have to admit, I always chuckle at those 4G cellphone commercials – the ones in which a bunch of people are sitting around a tailgate party at a football game, one of them trying to fill the others in on some updated story about the health of a player or a video of something funny on his “ancient” 3G network while the others with their new 4G phones have all heard or seen the “discovery” 30 seconds prior. 

Now, I have no clue what cell phone provider the commercials are for (effective advertising?), but I at least get the point about 4G verses 3G.  The ad-wizards who came up with that one recognize that we in today’s society have a perceived need for instant gratification.  And knowing that we can get an answer to who wrote the song that we just heard or how many ounces there are in a cup (8 for anyone cooking while reading this) just a few seconds faster is a life-changing phenomenon.

The technological advances of our day train us to forgo any need for patience.  If we want to order a sandwich for lunch, we can make up our mind from wherever we are by finding the menu online, avoid lines by putting in the order online, and even streamline our route by programming our GPS devices to avoid traffic.  While these advances can make us feel incredibly efficient, they also can train us to think and feel that we can always find a faster way.  And we can get so caught up in the allure of the quick answer, that we can accept the inferior alternative, or even worse, one that does more harm than good.

There isn't always a quick solution.  Sometimes, we do have to wait it out – to hold on. A couple of weeks ago, our Torah portion of Korach told a pretty difficult story of trading patience for convenience.  The people of Israel were sick of wandering in the desert.  They wanted to be there already – they ask the biblical version of the backseat question, “Are we there, yet?”  Korach and his followers attempted to find the quicker alternative, they chose the route of being something they were not – not am Yisrael, the people who wrestle with God, but rather they became people who wrestled against God. In doing so they find a route that leads to their demise.

There are aspects of our lives in which there are no shortcuts.  And just as much as we are willing to invest in technology that makes our lives more efficient, where we can, we should be investing in structures that help us maintain patience when we need it the most.  When we find ourselves or others in need of healing, while we are working to accomplish a major goal at work, while looking for a new job in this economic climate – sometimes we need a good dose of patience.  And to help us remain patient at the times we need it the most, to help us keep our eyes on the prize, as Zemer Lexie often sings to us during the Mi Chamochah prayer at services, we have to turn to our technology of patience – the supportive friends and family and community who can help us sustain our goals, who can lift us up and offer us strength, who can remind us of who we are, when it is tempting to try to be something we are not.

May we each use this summer as a period of upgrading our own technologies of patience.  Let us spend time doing activities that ground us and help us to remember just who we truly aspire to be, and let us strengthen our connections with friends and family and community.  This way, when life calls upon us to find patience, we can take the route that truly leads towards promise, and avoid the pitfalls of the more destructive decisions of haste and convenience.
-          Rabbi Ari N. Margolis Parashat Korach 5772