“Like a Rope” Crimping the Cable

Parshat Haazinu compares Jacob’s heritage to a rope. The Alter Rebbe in Tanya uses the rope analogy to describe our multi-strand, intertwined and interconnected multifaceted connection to G-d (Igeret HaTeshuvah), and to our fellows (Tanya 32).

21st century technology takes this rope analogy to a whole new level! Once you think of the rope as a cable, let’s say like an internet cable, now it has a much richer meaning. The cable does much more than physically connect both sides. In today’s language a cable is a mode of communication and data transfer. And incredible amounts of data! So, the rope that Tanya speaks of that connects us to G-d, and the rope that connects us to each other, is more than just a physical rope, think bandwidth – it’s a multi-faceted powerful data connection. It communicates, with uploads and downloads; it shares, transmits and communicates!

But cables alone are not enough. CAT 5 or CAT 6 wire (internet cables inside your house or between computers) aren’t much good without the “crimping” at the ends, which tie the loose ends and line them up accordingly into a clip that can be placed into a device (like a modem or computer or whatever). Crimping is actually much harder than it seems, its not easy to get the crimping right. You can have yards and yards of cable, but you have to crimp the ends using a crimping tool to get the end-pieces that plug into your computer or modem or wall-socket to line up correctly and work. Of course you can buy pre-made cables in the store, already crimpled and ready to go, but there’s a timely lesson to be learned from crimping.

We’re now in the time between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Haazinu and the verse of “Jacob’s Heritage is like a Rope” is read on the Shabbat in between. On Yom-Kippur we reestablished our connection with G-d. We tightened up the slack in the rope, we mended the torn strings.

Sukkot is when we crimp that cable, so it has a outlet in our lives. We can plug it in to not only pray and repent, but celebrate and experience, make it come alive in our everyday life.