Change is Not Dangerous : The South Shore Standard

Change is Not Dangerous : The South Shore Standard

A pious man is forced onto the roof of his home as floodwaters keep rising. A man in a canoe passes by and offers him a ride. “God will help me,” says the man on the roof. As the waters rise further a speedboat stops by and offers the man a ride. Once again he says, “No thanks, God will help me.” The waters rise further and a helicopter hovers around the roof and lowers a ladder – once again “God will help me.” Eventually, the pious man drowns. When he arrives in heaven and meets his Maker he challenges Him, “I always had so much faith in you, why didn’t you save me?” God replies, “I sent you a canoe, a speedboat and helicopter and you refused them all.”

-       Old Joke

This weekend, the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot is celebrated. The holiday commemorates God giving the Torah to the Israelites after redeeming them from slavery in Egypt. While God remains an active participant in the biblical narrative, his role becomes less obvious, first speaking through judges, then prophets and priests. Ultimately, the miracles God performs become less and less obvious to people as he retreats and leaves the ever-growing human race to figure it out for themselves.

In my mind, the Torah is the canoe. It is a blueprint for building a society, given to former slaves and the children of slaves, people unaware and unaccustomed to “civilized” society. Like a canoe, it is a crude but competent vehicle so long as there are no strong winds or heavy rains. The speedboat certainly is the grand hild of the canoe, adding power, muscle and ease in navigating the waters. Finally, the helicopter the great grandchild of the speedboat, enables one to transcend the waters altogether.

Use of any those vehicles was not a guarantee of the pious man making it to safety. Weather, obstacles and the navigators’ competence are important factors. History shows that man is constantly improving the canoe out of sheer necessity with innovation and creativity. While some would argue that the speedboat is an improvement on the canoe, there are those that argue that the speedboat is dangerous. It can take people to further destinations thus exposing them to outside influences. The sheer power of the machine can do harm and hurt people if not used properly. Ultimately, we have found a way to have our speedboat and somehow placate those fears, or so it seems.

In a world where innovative, technological breakthroughs happen rapidly, fear and distrust of this metamorphous becomes a rallying cry for many. This past Sunday’s rally in CitiField to alert people to the dangers of the Internet is an example of this distrust. Rather than entrusting us to self-filter our usage we are exhorted to not use it at all or to obtain rabbinic permission.

While I enjoy canoeing I also like a speedboat and I fly because it’s practical. There are dangers and risks in all of them and hopefully I take precautions in using any of those modes of transportation. That is the message I take from Shavuot. We were given a set of guidelines, a living document, which changes and improves with modifications to our daily life. We need to live within those guidelines together with the changes not to their exclusion.

Looking Good : The South Shore Standard

Looking Good : The South Shore Standard

I left town recently for a long business trip and decided after a ten-year stretch to shave my beard. I’ve pretty much sported a beard most of my life. I’ve tried different lengths and widths over the years. I determined after one or two tries of letting it get Hasidic Rebbe long, that the texture of my beard was too thick and thus uncomfortable so my dream of looking like Theodore Hertzl never panned out. I kept mine closely cropped “a number 4” on the trimmer.

One reason I kept that beard all these years is because I am self conscious of the shape of my head and felt the beard helped square a round face. I experimented by trying to copy styles; Al Pacino in Serpico, Michael Douglas in China Syndrome, Robert De Niro in Deer Hunter. I tried a goatee it was a disaster. The moustache alone made me look like a Halloween pumpkin with dirt under its nose.

When I was a kid and was able to grow a full beard before my older brothers I wore it as a badge of masculinity. When the hair on my head was thicker and I wore that longer, the close-cropped beard made me feel downtown, urban. I definitely felt the beard made me “look” Jewish and I sensed that people picked up on it even if the name Moskowitz did not give it away at first. To people I met from places other than New York my beard identified me as a New Yorker though sometimes some guessed wrongly that I hailed from Los Angeles.

There was a time when facial hair was pretty common, but considering that it’s been about 100 years since we’ve elected a president with any, it’s safe to say that bearded-Americans are in the minority. After all, the shaving industry accounts for billions in revenue and I’m referring just to the men’s products. It is widely known that Gillette spent $1 billion on research for their Fusion razor. With that kind of cultural and commercial pressure it is safe to say that those that do keep facial hair have some guts or are trying to make a statement.

I spent some time trying to figure out my statement or if I had one. Besides my vanity and self-consciousness, men in my family have had beards for generations and so it was a natural step for me to take. However, there was no religious pressure on me to grow one and oddly, I admit that when I was younger I felt rebellious having one.

Now I simply feel like I wore my beard as a mask, mysteriously hiding something. Now I have liberated my face to face those demons. I have not gone completely facial hairless, I left a moustache and soul patch. I like the look and am getting used to it. I can see sticking with this a while. There’s and old saying that if you change places you change your luck. Maybe to change your luck you have to change your look.