The Pager/Beeper story was really quite something, it was so extraordinary, it seemed to be the stuff of science-fiction or fanciful spy movies.

But the Baal Shem Tov taught that there are spiritual life messages in all things that we see or hear and we ought to extract them. What’s the message in this pager/beeper story for us? Especially as we enter Rosh Hashanah in the shadow or afterglow of this most unusual operation. We aren’t Mossad agents, what are we to learn from it? How can we turn this buzz into a meaningful inspiration on a personal level?

PATIENCE AND LONG-TERM THINKING
Patience and longer-term thinking has to be one part of it. Think of the long-term foresight that went into planning and implementing something like this, and the patient diligent silent waiting until the opportune moment. Nowadays we’re so eager for quick turnarounds, instant gratification and immediate results. But not all things work that way, and some things work out much better if we give it the time it needs. While we are often focused on the short-term, the pager story reminds us of the importance of some longer-term planning. Our decisions can’t only be based on here and now (especially when it comes to things like relationships) but also going forward into the future.

THE FEAR FACTOR, THE DISTRUST DISRUPTER
One derivative effect of the exploding pagers was the distrust and fear of all electronics and devices this pager attack caused. There are memes going around about operatives afraid to use a toaster, lest it was tampered with. Fear can paralyze, distrust can ruin relationships and bring down entire organizations.

And the inverse is also true: Courage and fearlessness empowers and enables, and trust is an essential building block of relationships and communities. In relationships an important question to ask ourselves is: Does this choice or behavior build trust or erode trust? Like a bad haircut, trust is easy to destroy but is long and hard to rebuild!

So many times  Torah tells us “Do not fear!” It may be the most frequent message that G-d tells the Jewish people throughout the Jewish Bible! It’s also the opening words to set of verses said at the end  of daily prayers that the Rebbe encouraged children to sing vigorously, especially in times of challenge or distress.

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
No doubt Israel is making the most of advanced technologies and the very latest in AI to pull off these military and intelligence successes.  Israel is renown for its technological prowess and this is the direction everyone is going in. But its evident that technology alone can’t  pull this off and there has to be a significant amount of human intelligence on the ground to make all this happen. Much of this, especially their tracking of elusive Nasrallah, had to have people on the ground, on the inside, helping with it. (Some say that the gross intelligence failures of October 7th had a lot to do with over-reliance on technological intelligence and not having enough human intelligence). Now human intelligence has its share of problems. Humans have flaws, there’s much more risk, they’re not as predictable or expendable as computerized intelligence is. But along with all the benefits of artificial intelligence and computerized awareness, there is still nothing like having eyes and ears on the ground, someone (a human!) on the inside.

It’s possible we’ve become over reliant on technology, and there’s not enough emphasis on the human element. We have to remember that technology is a tool, not a replacement for human effort, ingenuity, exploration and discovery, care and concern, and all the rest of it.

Take a step further, let’s apply this to areas of inspiration and self-growth. Some may try to outsource this to artificial means, other forms of stimulants. Anything but personal human effort, or what Chassidus calls “Avodah” – the work or the service. Honestly, shortcuts don’t work. It might feel like they do, but they don’t really do the job. And yes, our efforts have their ups and downs and may not always feel as good. But nothing can replace that.

GETTING THE SCIENCE RIGHT
Of course I am not a weapons expert and don’t know the first thing about explosives. May we never know! But there was much buzz online as to what explosive they might have used inside the pagers that can lie dormant in an ordinary device for years and only detonate on demand, perhaps years later. It had to be strong enough to do the job, but weak enough to hang around for that long, undetected and undisturbed.

Getting this Goldilocks balance right is a valuable skill in many other areas of life, even if you’re not a covert Mossad agent. Teachers and parents, even sales-people, have to know how hard they can go with pushing encouragement before it might backfire. Even in ourselves, its an art to know how far to push ourselves beyond our comfort zone, how tight we can stretch our “string” before it snaps. You may want to challenge yourself, to make the most of your time, to take on extra responsibility, to maximize your impact and potential (all good things!) but also have to know our limits and the risks and dangers of exceeding our limits.

APPRECIATING THE MIRACLES
All the human ingenuity, all the best tech capability, it all has its limits. It’s important to be able to recognize the (small) miracle, the divine assistance, in our success and achievements. Torah warns us against attributing success solely to our own talents and abilities, it is not our own strength. This is not only true on the macro level for the Jewish people as a whole, but also each of us individually, in recognizing and appreciating the many miracles in our own lives. Rebbe says (learning this from a biblical story of King Hezekiah) that such appreciation is a prerequisite for redemption!