Telemarketing and Judaism
Today I got a phone call from a woman who was interested in selling me ad space in her magazine. It sounded kinda cool. She said that all she needed was to sit down with me for five minutes to show me the magazine and the ad spaces.
I told her that getting me to sit down for one minute was hard enough, let alone five. The best thing she could do would be to email me the info and that I would look it over and call her back today.
She replied, "I understand how busy you are. Is there any time when we could get together?"
I said, "Look, I'm being honest here...I'm not into meetings. Email me the info, though. I'm very interested."
She said, "Have a nice day" and hung up the phone.
I started thinking, "in the era of skype, email and instant messaging, who does meetings?" Apparently she hasn't gotten the memo that it's 2009 and the world is fine.
I realized that the company she works for is antiquated. The magazine itself is awesome, but her method for sharing it doesn't work anymore. I was interested, but she lost me because she couldn't come to me in a way that I could receive her.
This is the same with Torah. Recently, a guy posted on my facebook that he didn't think I knew anything about Torah, didn't know Hebrew and wasn't teaching Torah properly.
But what is proper? Is it proper to teach Torah in English? is it proper to teach Torah to women? what about sharing Torah with non-Jews? or putting Torah into braille for the blind?
We have to be willing to meet each other in a common place to share ideas. For me, that place is the internet. The telemarketer wouldn't meet me in our common place--I had to share her ideas in the place that SHE wanted, not a place we could both agree on.
In the end, she wasn't able to work with me, and if I couldn't agree to share her ideas in exactly the way she wanted, then I wasn't worth her time. And I wonder, how many people want the blessing of the Torah, but can't find someone willing to meet them where they are?
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You make a good point, but...
ReplyDeleteYou write, "We have to be willing to meet each other in a common place to share ideas. For me, that place is the internet. The telemarketer wouldn't meet me in our common place--I had to share her ideas in the place that SHE wanted, not a place we could both agree on."
The internet wasn't a place that you could both agree on, so just like she would only share her ideas in her place, you would only share your ideas in your place.