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Jewish Culture

The worlds we can create

Moshe Unger
Posted 1/13/23

Thomas Edison is obsessed with making the light bulb cheap and usable. Edison is thinking about it a lot, drawing diagrams, and experimenting. “We will make electricity so cheap that only the …

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Jewish Culture

The worlds we can create

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Thomas Edison is obsessed with making the light bulb cheap and usable. Edison is thinking about it a lot, drawing diagrams, and experimenting. “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles”, was his motto. 

To succeed, he needs a skillful glassblower. Edison makes his rounds looking for glassblowers. He needs the right individual who would share his vision and dedicate many hours to help him.

Finally, he meets the right glassblower, and they get to work. Every night the glassblower heads over to Edison’s house and they spend hours experimenting. They did so for years, until the light bulb emerged as a usable and cheap product.

What is the glassblower’s part in inventing the lightbulb? It’s Edison who invented it and without him it wouldn’t happen. The glassblower seems dispensable, there are many glassblowers in town. However, this glassblower made it happen with his dedication. His dedication is what changed history, and he is an inventor of the lightbulb just like Edison is.

In the process of creation, G-d created the world with all scientific systems and gave power to them. To humans also, G-d gave power to create and to develop earth. But the greatest thing humans and other living organisms can do, is procreate. We can actually create another human being with all its wonders. 

Humans are not able to build a human being from scratch, but we have a built-in system of reproduction. Like Edison and his glassblower, Edison is the inventor and the glassblower is making it happen. G-d is the one who gave us the ability to procreate, and He breathes the life into the child, but it’s still us and our dedication, who makes it happen, and hence we are partners in creation!

In Judaism, the highest ideal is to create a warm and loving family. A warm family creates better people, and it’s the place humans find nourishment and courage to go about the hardships in life. 

Creating a warm and loving family requires a lifetime of attention and dedication, and that is the beauty of it. The most rewarding place to dedicate ourselves, and the place where our dedication makes the biggest difference, is our families. 

It’s not only about children; it’s the other way around too. When children are dedicated to their parents, or siblings to each other, it creates a beautiful world, a world worth living in. Even if someone doesn’t have children, they can still dedicate themselves to strengthen the bond to the family members they do have or even neighbors and friends. With neighbors and friends there is more of a need to be conscious of the boundaries and not overstep it, but still a good friend is an unbelievable blessing and it's worth all the effort that goes into it.

I’d like to dedicate this article to congratulate my wife upon giving birth last week to a lovely baby boy. We named him Chaim Nuchem. May she have the strength to continue to be a dedicated mother to this child and to our entire family for many long years. 

 

Let me know your thoughts…

Email me: moshe@mosheunger.com

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