Please note: Video link follows at the end of this written message.
Dear fellow students of Torah,
new book "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture" (New York: Viking, 2009) with thoughts inspired by this week's Torah portion, Shelach-Lecha. The story told in this week's Torah portion comments intriguingly on the viral culture of our time. The way in which the spies are able to spread a "viral story" through a mass population in certain ways resembles the way in which Internet-driven phenomena can take hold of the public in our day with astonishing speed and effectiveness, which is the subject of Wasik's book. Is this where the similarity ends (or perhaps is there more)? Given that we live in (and are the products of) a culture in which the latest "nanostory" (Wasik's neologism) is positioned to occupy the center of our attention, what can we do to create and hold onto narratives of more lasting meaning and value, stories that are not ephemeral but enduring?
I'd like to propose our ongoing study of Torah itself as one such source of an enduring narrative, a bulwark against the frenzy of nanostories bombarding us every day.
With shalom and wishes for meaningful study and reflection - Rabbi Jonathan Blake
I have posted the video here.
