Positive enablers #Bamidbar#devartorah#parashathashavua

All Teenagers spend somewhere between 5.5-8 hours a day on their smartphones or screen-based media, with about 50% of teens reporting at least 4 hours of daily screen time. Major activities include social media, video streaming, and gaming, with some studies indicating teens spend 1.5 hours on phones during school hours. Americans spend an average of 5 to 5.4 hours per day on their smartphones. No wonder many of us become anxious when we’re separated from our smartphones. When we have our iPhones or Androids in our hands, we can be fixated on our screens.

Like many things, the Internet and all that it allows us to access become either a distraction or a blessing. It depends on what we do with it. In Proverbs we read, “The heart of the judicious seeks knowledge; but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.” (15:14)

Applying the wisdom of Proverbs to life, we can ask ourselves: Do you check your social networks compulsively throughout the day? What does that say about the things we hunger for? Do the things we read or view online encourage sensible living? ( vv. 16-21) or are we feeding on foolishness-gossip, slander, materialism, or sexual impropriety?

“Commenting on the Numbers 2:7 “The tribe of Zevulun” the Ba’al Haturim notes and reference to certain of the tribes work together with other tribes the Torah as the letter ‘vuv-ו’ which connotes that they are separate but together. But as regards the tribe of Zevulun there is not a ‘vuv.’ This is because the tribe of Yissochor, which is mentioned right above, devoted themselves to Torah study, while the tribe of Zevulun worked to support both of them. Because they enable the tribe of Yissochor to study Torah they are considered as one tribe and the reward is the same.” (Pliskin, Growth Through Torah, page 308-9)

Parents and grandparents who influence enable their children and grandchildren to study Torah have this merit, as too husbands and wives who enable their spouse to study Torah 

Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah, is just one more week away. We should be ready and willing to receive it anew and seek knowledge. Rabban Gamliel used to say, “The more Torah, the more life; The more study, the more wisdom; The more counsel, the more understanding; The more charity, the more peace.” (Avot 2:7) That’s a much better use of our time than all the gossip, slander, materialism, and sexual impropriety we might scroll on the Internet on our smartphones.