blogs/rabbi-huberman

Media,Time and Freedom 

Earlier this week, I was in Manhattan to attend a series of meetings, and on the way home, my train was forced to stop as it waited for the train ahead to clear the tracks.

This is usual for those who live on Long Island. Trains halt for many reasons.

What was interesting this time was the exact location of our train.  We were stopped directly in front of a large high rise building near Albertson, about a hundred feet back from the living room windows of about forty apartments.

From my vantage point, I could see the flicker of about twenty television screens. Most of them were tuned to a version of the nightly cable news.

This was not surprising.

A Nielsen Company report released last July concluded that during the first quarter of 2016, adults in the United States devoted an average of ten hours and thirteen minutes each day to consuming media, an increase of one hour over the previous year.

About ninety four per cent of adults in the US own an HD television, and the average adult spends about four and a half hours each day looking at it.

Looking at that panorama of TVs from my seat on the train that night, I began to reflect upon the communal loss of it all.

It has to do with time. 

We binge. We escape. We rerun. We numb.

Like most people, I can become fixated on political discussions. Hours go by as experts, surrogates, and pundits discuss and rehash. Truthfully, though, there are no answers to be found there. There is only time to be lost.

And I've asked myself, from a Jewish perspective, as global media and political watching continues to increase, how much time is being wasted -- how many mitzvoth are not being performed? 

How many friends and relatives are we not interacting with? When we do, how much of that time is being spent reinforcing divisions?

If the purpose of life is to make ourselves into something better, how is our boundless obsession with television and current affairs furthering that journey?

Douglas Gentile, Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University, has assessed this growing trend. 
"The work week still takes up forty of those hours," he said. "Sleep at seven hours a night is forty nine, and if we assume all personal care-such as eating, bathing, dressing, preparing food-is three hours a day, then we have fifty eight hours a week left over for all other things.
"This includes hobbies, sports, spending time with children, spending time with friends and romantic partners, reading, learning, exercise, participating in a faith community, volunteer work, house maintenance.
"If people are spending over 50 hours a week with media for entertainment purposes, then there's really no time left for any of the other things we value."
This growing trend may be something to consider as approach the coming of the Jewish new year.  Yes, the Jewish new year.
This Shabbat is special within the Jewish year.  It is known as the Shabbat HaChodesh, the Sabbath of "The Month." 
While Rosh Hashanah marks the anniversary of the creation  of Adam and Eve, and ultimately humanity's interaction with God, next Monday evening marks the actual beginning of the Jewish year -- as we commemorate our liberation from Egypt.
When the Israelites departed Egypt, God instructed the Jewish people to observe its first communal Mitzvah. 
The Torah tells us, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." (Exodus 12:2)
That is how important freedom is to us.  We as Jews and Americans treasure our right to think freely, act freely, and worship freely. 
These freedoms are so integral to Judaism that the month of Nissan, which begins next Monday evening, officially marks the beginning of our journey to freedom, culminating with Passover.
We must ask ourselves: are we fully utilizing our freedom?
Are we seizing each day, striving to achieve balance, or are we enslaving ourselves with self absorption and escape? Are we filling our time with meaningful interaction, or are we enslaving ourselves to our addictions?
Because yes, media is an addiction.
At the close of Shabbat, I will be travelling to Boca Raton to participate in a conference which will discuss the roots and effects of drug, alcohol and gambling addictions, and strategies to overcome them.
It is in many ways a growing slavery within our midst.
The conference, sponsored by Chabad, gathers religious and secular experts to reflect upon these issues with those in recovery, those who encounter addiction personally and professionally, and those battling addiction every day. 
What I learn there will continue to help me assist others, as our congregation takes an active interest in this topic.
All of this occurs a few days before Shabbat HaChodesh, the Shabbat which beckons us to consider freedom.
So: how free are we? 
There is so much good to be done in this world.  Are we making the best use of our time?
Media is a blessing. Politics are essential. Escape is important.  But how much is too much?
Shabbat HaChodesh reminds us that Passover is coming, and that freedom is here for some, and not for others. We remember those around the world who are not free.  We're encouraged to search within ourselves and consider how we are enslaved -- sometimes by choice.
We are blessed in North America with unprecedented freedoms. This is both a gift and a challenge.
It beckons us to consider, as we approach "Shabbat of The Month," that we are as free as we allow ourselves to be. 
And if we don't feel like we're free, maybe it's time to turn off the switch and reclaim what we traveled so far and worked so hard to achieve three thousand years ago.
It was so difficult to attain, yet so easy to lose. 
We possess free will.  
How are we using it?

Shabbat shalom, v'kol tuv (with all goodness)
Rabbi Irwin Huberman