28 Oct NEED FOR SPEED

Voice notes are an
incredibly convenient
way to communicate a
short thought, a quick
question, or a brief
response. They are not
meant, however, for
long expositions, deep
thoughts or ongoing monologues. A dear
friend likes to say that any voice note over two
minutes long is already a podcast. Another
dear friend of mine describes it as a hate
crime. Luckily, last year WhatsApp offered a
tremendous update to their platform, and
through it saved many relationships and
increased shalom bayis. They gifted us the
ability to listen to voice notes at up to double
speed.
Speed control exists on several platforms
including podcast players, Youtube and many
Torah applications. Whether consuming the
most precious and holy content possible, our
sacred Torah, or l’havdil, binging on
entertainment that shouldn’t be in our lives,
people want more in less time and now have
that ability.

The central story of last weeks Parsha is the
hard reset that G-d performed on the world,
undoing all that He had created and restarting
the world anew. Hashem took such a drastic
measure because, the Torah tells us, the world
had become filled with corruption and moral
depravity. Indeed, the Sefas Emes says, the
flood was midah k’neged mida, measure for
measure. The people had violated all
boundaries of behavior and so Hashem
removed the boundaries that protected the
earth from water.
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 108a) makes a
mysterious comment: “The generation of the
flood became corrupt as a result of the great
blessing that God had bestowed upon them.”
What does that mean?
Rav Pam zt”l says the key to understanding
this Gemara and what happened to Noach’s
generation can be found in our title character’s
name. The pasuk at the end of Bereishis tells
us that Lemech names his son Noach saying,
“this one will bring us rest from our work and
from the toil of our hands from the ground
which Hashem had cursed.” Rashi explains
that until that time, the world had continued to
suffer from the curse that God gave Adam,
b’zeias apecha tochal lechem, you will have to

work with the sweat of your brow to
draw bread from the ground. Until
Noach was born, man labored from
morning to night and worked
tirelessly with his bare hands just to
have food to eat, leaving no
recreational or down time.
Lemech saw prophetically that
Noach was destined to invent the
plow and other agricultural tools that
would make man much more efficient
and would ease his burden. Lemech
names him “Noach” from the root
“nuach,” to rest, in the sense of providing
relief.
Rav Pam explains that the plow and other
tools were the great blessing that Gemara
referenced that were bestowed upon this
generation and yet, they became corrupt with
it. He explains, the inventions and progress
yielded more free time. That time was
obviously a blessing and gift. It could have
been used constructively, productively and
meaningfully. Instead, the generation
discovered the down time and used it for
corrupt activity. The breakthrough and
advancement could have brought spiritual
ascent, instead they brought moral decline.
Someone shared with me the story of his
friend’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor
who made her way to the United States.
With the characteristic perseverance of one
who could not allow Hitler to win, and
despite her poverty, she raised her children
to value life, learning and the Jewish nation.
At some point in the 1960’s, after a number
of years saving penny by penny, she had
finally saved up enough to buy an electric
washing machine. On the day that she
purchased the washing machine, she called
her children in and told them, “Until now,
I’ve spent an enormous amount of time
washing clothing by hand. Now that we
have this machine, I have discovered
something I haven’t had until now – free
time. Now that I no longer need to spend all
day at home, we’re going to the library. If
we have free time, it’s to be used for
learning.”
We are blessed to live in the greatest era of
technological breakthrough of all time.
Simple tasks that used to eat up our time can
now be accomplished in seconds or through
automation, in no time at all. We’ve
advanced from the washing machine,
dishwasher, bread machine, and microwave,
to time-saving modern wonders like GPS,
lightning-fast computers in our pockets,
smart homes, and more.
Do we use the newfound time to pursue
frivolous activities and indulge in hedonistic

experiences? Or, do we use the time we are
gaining with each breakthrough for
meaningful, productive and constructive
activities? Are our greater comfort and
expanded time leading to moral decay and
decline, or moral development and progress?
The Mishna in Pirkei Avos (3:1) quotes
Akavya ben M’halalel who teaches that a
person should always keep in mind, “Before
Whom he will have to give Din V’cheshbon,
judgment and reckoning.” What is the
difference between din and cheshbon?
The Vilna Gaon explains that din refers to
judgment for mistakes, indiscretions and poor
decisions we made. Cheshbon is not about
what we did wrong during our time, but what
we could have done right during that time. We
will have to account for din, for mistakes we
made, but we will even be held accountable
for the cheshbon, the calculation of what we
could have accomplished if we had only taken
advantage of the time we claimed we don’t
have.
Have you ever found yourself wishing there
were more than 24 hours in a day? This time
of year, your dream comes true. With the
clock change last Motzei Shabbos in Israel
and this week in America, we will be gifted an
extra hour.
A friend of mine in Israel, Akiva Danto, runs a
beautiful learning program the night the clock
is changed. He tells people, we claim we want
to learn but don’t have the time. Well, each
fall we gain an extra hour. What will we do
with it?
Will we just stay out a little longer or watch
just a bit more? Or, will we use it to read the
book we claim to never have time to read or
learn the Torah we say we wish we had time to
learn? Will we waste it or utilize it, let it slip
away or embrace it for something meaningful.
בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך מוליכין ,say rabbis Our
אותו, when we show which path we want to
take, we are helped to move forward on it. In
the merit of utilizing our extra hour for
something noble and meaningful, may we be
blessed to find many “extra hours” during the
year to further our commitment to Torah and
advance our personal growth.