It's All About the Question

Interactive experiences are all the rage these days, be they educational, gaming, virtual touring, virtual anything else for that matter.

And this brings us to the Ramchal who makes fourteen key points in the first perek of the Mesillas Yeshurim. In one of them he describes the nature of  D'veykus as getting a feeling of closeness to Hashem.

Rabbi Yisroel Brog, in the name of the Ramchal, wrenches the expression interactive out of it's current digital moorings and breathes life into it as he points out that the feeling of closeness to Hashem means getting a feeling of interactivity with Hashem.

One who is close to Hashem is not in a static relationship.  There is rather a subtle give and take which in truth is more like a give and sense/feel to real D'veykus.

Initially it is the mitzvohs that have to bring you to the awareness of being close to Hashem.  But as a person's D'veykus to Hashem intensifies, so does his sense of what Hashem requires of him in any given circumstance over and above baseline halachik considerations.

Rabbi Brog tells that Hashem wants every Jew to function from a position of closeness to Hashem which gives us a feel for what Hashem would like from us as opposed to what the Torah demands from us.

At the core it'a all about asking the right questions.

Rabbi Brog let's us hear that one who is seeking closeness to Hashem does not always ask if a certain thing is or is not an aveira, i.e. T.V., sports and the like (they're not).

One who strives to interact with Hashem asks a different question.

He asks whether T.V., sports, or any other proposed activity will bring him closer to Hashem because as the Ramchal teaches us, D'veykus to Hashem is the bottom line of our tachlis in this world.  And the answer to that question is relative to the circumstantial context of the person asking because it might well be that sports or any other activity could bring a given individual closer to Hashem albeit indirectly.

It's all about the question and a Baal D'veykus knows how to ask it.