The world looks pretty crazy from any vantage point. With riots in Greece,a nearly 1,000 drop in the Dow yesterday (it rose a bit toward the end of the day), a terror scare in Times Square, every day seems unrecognizable from the day before. And yet, we are finding more efficient ways of connecting and our lives, at least in a physical sense are made easier with every new development in technology.
Concerning technology, it really is the best and the worst. While it can dramatically make our lives easier it can royally mess things up. The drop in the Dow has been blamed on a technological glitch. The idea that perhaps some mistaken number could have cost investors billions is staggering. We are so powerful and yet so vulnerable. We are kings, but at the same time, we are constantly reminded that we seem to have no more control over certain events than flies do.
And this is what it means to live in a time of increasingly clear and true revelations. We have more access to information and the more we see and know the more we experience the best and the worst of everything all the time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said we are living in a crucial time, when the meaning can be seen more easily in the mundane, when chaos might ensue, and yet one can detect the Divine Order that lies behind it.
Sometimes I wonder if it is “just me,” but others have made comments too. The surreal nature of reality now. From the volcanic ash that suspended flights to the stock market’s insane action yesterday. The geulah (time of the Redemption, when G-dliness fill the world and the Jewish Messiah will be here) will be a “surreal” time, when our notions of reality will be completely revised. That is why the very best and the very worst things are happening at the same time. It is as if you could suddenly see within the ocean and everything that is inside, beautiful neon-hued schools of exotic fish and then an occasional shark. It would be a new world suddenly mingling with your former idea of reality.
The Rambam says “the knowledge of G-d will fill the earth as waters fill the sea.” We are swimming amid an ocean of constant revelation. These revelations will become clearer, the good and the bad will become more vivid and recognizable with time, and we will finally be able to see the sharks, the seaweed and the jewel colored creatures for what they truly are.