Rabbi
Joshua ben Levi used to listen, every Friday, to his grandson reciting the
weekly parasha. One week he forgot this, and entered the bathhouse. After he
had begun bathing, he remembered that he had not yet heard the weekly parasha
from his grandson, and he left the bathhouse. They asked him why he was leaving
in the middle of his bathing, since the Mishnah teaches that once you have
begun bathing on a Friday afternoon you do not have to interrupt. He replied,
“Is this such a small thing in your eyes? For whoever hears the parasha from
his grandchild is as if he heard it directly from Mount Sinai . . .” -Yerushalmi, Shabbat 1:2
“Between 1305 and the early 1800’s. the House of Taxis ran a form of pony express service all over Europe…. Its couriers clad in blue and silver uniforms, crisscrossed the continent carrying messages between princes and generals, merchants and money lenders.” –Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave We may think we are the first generation consumed by rapid communication but we are not. Throughout our history it has been a priority. Of course, now in the 21 st century we must ask: are we better or worse for it?
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