In an Age of Distraction, Judaism can be the Still-Small Voice We Need

We live in an age of distraction. This is Chris Hayes’ finding in his new book, The Siren’s Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource. He explores in detail the attention economy that has left American society straining to keep up with the constant inundation of information, all while companies attempt to monetize our focus for their own financial gains.

It is difficult, in a world like the one Hayes describes, to parse the true motivations of those who are vying for a slice of the attentional pie. Insurance companies are happy to use television commercials to tell us how much they care about our well-being and safety, yet do all they can to pay the minimum in situations when we need to make a claim. Drug companies go to great lengths to convince us that we need the latest and greatest prescriptions in order to live our best lives, even while knowing that they are marking up the prices to ensure their bottom line. Even our cell phones, which promise constant entertainment and connectedness, do so often at the expense of our psychological well-being, selling our eyes to the highest bidder. It is, as Hayes puts it, as if we are at a dinner party where everyone has been handed a megaphone; it makes it easier for everyone to shout at us, but no easier for us to hear the most important messages.

Judaism, though, is left in a tough spot in this paradigm. After all, like any other business in the Attention Economy, Jewish institutions have to participate in the cacophony. We post on social media to attract followers, advertise on the radio, in publications, on community pages. We do everything we can to remain a compelling option for how people spend their time and resources, all with the promise that it will be beneficial to the “customer” at the end of the day. Jewish professionals, of course, believe deeply in what we’re “selling,” but that does little to help elevate our reach in a setting where everyone claims to believe in theirs as well.

But Judaism was never meant to be a megaphone, shouting above the crush of noise. No, Judaism has always been more counter-cultural, more subversive in the ways we react to the outside world. Instead, Judaism embodies the still-small voice of which we read in the book of Kings, a subtle yet impactful message available to anyone who is willing to listen to its call. It is an invitation to a deeper understanding of the world, a proclamation of the life-affirming meaning-making process that has been our people’s inheritance throughout the ages. At a time where our attention feels infected by the overwhelming disease of distraction, our Jewish tradition can be a powerful antidote to that which ails us.

Jewish space can be the one place where we are allowed to feel grounded, to feel connected without the necessity for a device. Jewish community can be the one place where we are accepted and cherished without fear of getting “canceled”. Jewish education can be a place where our curiosity and wonder can be indulged by deep thinking, rather than soundbites and clickbait. In a world that is far too fast, Judaism can be the exact moment of slowness that allows us to catch our breath and remember what it truly means to be alive.

In every age, human beings have confronted the question: what does it mean to make the most of this finite gift that is life? And in every generation, Judaism has helped to offer us an answer. In this era, no matter how loud the world around us gets, there is always the opportunity to slow down, to sit quietly, and to allow the still-small voice to whisper in our ear the ways in which we can most movingly find peace.

 

 

Austin Zoot is the Rabbi Educator at the Valley Temple in Wyoming, Ohio.