The differential

This week I had two very similar yet different problems that caught my attention: the same thing happened twice in the same week! The Baal Shem Tov said that one should learn a lesson from everything one hears and sees in service to God, so once the problems have passed, one is left to meditate on their meaning and the lessons learned. Furthermore, our holy books declare that every occurrence is linked to the weekly Torah reading, so one should also look for a connection with the weekly section of Devarim (words).

First, the problems. The Chabad House lost power, and after much back and forth and almost two months of a temporary connection, the power company came to break up the sidewalk to reconnect the permanent power (which, in any case, they didn't finish...). They cut the power, worked, and reconnected it (again, temporarily). When the power came back on, everything was working, except for one circuit. When they flipped the circuit breaker (whatever that means, for those unfamiliar with electricity), the residual current device (RCD) tripped (which I'll explain in a moment). After a lot of time and work, it turned out that the problem was that the power company had reversed the polarity of the connection, which was causing the RCD to trip.

The second problem. Between Wednesday and Thursday, it rained all night and Thursday morning as well. Around 7:00 a.m., the circuit breaker tripped in my house. Ready to pray, with my tallit and tefillin, I started going around the house unplugging all the electrical appliances to find the problem, without success. I decided to pray in near darkness (there was very little natural light and I only had an emergency light) and see what I could do afterward. I ended up calling an electrician who came at 11:30 a.m. to analyze the situation. After much investigation, it turned out that a little water was leaking through a wall and seeping into a fluorescent tube in the kitchen. When the tube got wet, it was causing a short circuit and tripping the circuit breaker. Once the tube was removed, everything went back to normal.

Twice in the same week, a problem with the residual current device (RCD)! But what exactly is an RCD? It's a small electrical device, connected to the main electrical supply of your house, that measures electrical currents. It works by combining a bit of magnetism with electricity. When it detects a current leak (which could be because an appliance is grounded or, heaven forbid, because a person is plugged into an outlet), it disconnects the electricity very quickly (50 milliseconds!). It literally saves lives.

As I mentioned before, although the two problems were similar (differential), they were different (one was reverse polarity and the other a current leak). What can be learned from this?

The idea of polarity reversal symbolizes that energy is being inverted, applied in reverse. It often happens that we dedicate more time and energy to irrelevant matters (like the internet, television, empty literature, etc.) than to our connection with God, whether through Torah study, prayer, or mitzvot. We reverse the polarity of our energies: we apply the positive to trivialities and the neutral to God (in the best-case scenario...).

The idea of a current leak is similar, yet different. In this case, the polarity is correctly applied, but something is leaking out... It's not enough to invest most of your energy in Torah, prayer, and mitzvot, but leave a door open for things outside the realm of Judaism (like soccer, a passion for food, honor, arrogance, etc.). One must ensure that no energy is leaking to an inappropriate place. Of course, this is what life is all about, and it's a long process to achieve mastery, but that doesn't mean one should stop trying. Every now and then, the circuit breaker trips, indicating that something has leaked out...

And the parashahFrom this point on parashah Moses repeatedly warned the generation about to enter the Land of Israel about the problems they would encounter there, in terms of their relationship with God (idolatry, forbidden foods, pagan customs, etc.). Moses is like a differential. He activates as soon as he detects something improper, a misdirection of energy, or a leak. Every generation has its Moses, and in ours we have the Rebbe, who shows us the right path in serving God.