Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) was a French naturalist. He was the author of many works on insect life, remarkable for their vivid and minute observations and received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1910. One experiment he performed on Processionary Caterpillars struck a profound chord in my heart, allowing me to appreciate what Rosh Hashanah can mean for us today.

The Processionary Caterpillar is so named because what makes this little furry insect unique is its instinct to follow the caterpillar in front of it in a procession. Processions consist of 300 caterpillars or more, often fooling predators into thinking the caterpillar processions are snakes. It is a fascinating and charming sight to behold, as they move along nose to tail and in the likeness of a miniature train, with their eyes half-closed, searching for food.

Jean-Henri Fabre took a giant flower pot and placed an abundance of the caterpillars’ favorite food (juicy green leaves) at its center, and then he enticed the lead caterpillar to start circling around the circumference of the flowerpot’s rim. The other caterpillars followed suit in a tight single-file process. Fabre then succeeded in getting the lead caterpillar to connect up with the last one, creating a complete circle, which moved around the pot in a never ending procession; the head of one caterpillar touching the rear end of the caterpillar in front of it. Each caterpillar followed the one ahead, thinking that it was in search of food.

Fabre was certain that after a few circles of the pot, the caterpillars would discover their predicament or tire of their endless progression and veer in another direction. But they continued their circle. Fabre thought that after a day or two, growing hungry and tired, one of them will break out of the circle and head for the food. But, quite unbelievably, seven days and nights passed and not one of them would break the pattern to fetch the food in the center of the pot, less than six inches away.

The end of the story? Each one of the caterpillars died of exhaustion and starvation. 

Not one of the caterpillars stepped out of line. So they all died.

Human Caterpillars

Is it not true that so many of us humans, in our own way, suffer from similar patterns? How many of us often fall into their very pattern of following the masses at the expense of our own food laying right there in middle of the flowerpot? Deep in our hearts we often know that we should or should not be doing something or saying something. But we just fall into the “herd mentality” trap. We know that what we have been doing for so many years is really not nourishing us, but we can’t get ourself to leave the cursed circle. We’d rather die than step out of line.  

We’ve all seen footage of people breaking out into a stampede on Black Friday and trampling others at Target. Viewers often make fun of these groups, wondering how so many customers could be so stupid. But the crowds aren’t really thousands of individuals making dumb decisions. The crowds are just crowds; that’s what crowds do.

We are programmed to follow herds, explained superstar Israeli economist Dan Ariely in his new book, Dollars and Sense, and businesses make use of this mentality. Have you ever been stuck waiting with a group outside a music venue when the spacious building could easily let you all in? They might be keeping you there to get passersby to come to the show.

We assume that, if other people are doing something, then it’s a good idea.

“That’s what we are designed to do,” Ariely says “It’s not something we are aware of.”

This tendency can be dangerous. When fires break out in crowded movie theaters, everyone often runs to the same door and gets stuck in a bottleneck, even when there are two other side doors going unused. It’s very hard to say, ‘Everyone’s running in that direction. Let me sit here and think and look carefully around.’

Like wildebeests on the Serengeti running from lions, our species depends on a tendency for many people to act like one big animal.

This same mental tendency helps us build skyscrapers together and distribute food around the world. It just also means we can be indiscriminate about which groups we join. If you’re in a group, your mind isn’t always your own.

Yogi Berra

The legendary baseball player, Yogi Berra, who died in Sep. 2015, was once asked by his wife: “Yogi: you were born in Missouri, you live in New Jersey, and you played with the New York Yankees. So when you die, where should I bury you?” 

Yogi replied: “Surprise me!”

Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur says: Surprise yourself. Step out of line! This year, give yourself permission to cross the imaginary or real lines that hold you hostage. Transcend the mold.

Surprise yourself. Don’t be predictable. Do it differently. People put all types of limits on themselves, inspired by fear and trauma and status quo. This year — break out.

LeShana Tova

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

The three most important ingredients at the seder table [for Passover] are the wine, matzah and maror (bitter herbs) for these three items capture the three foundational ideas that can allow us to set ourselves free.

A) The first step is wine. Wine possesses deep potency.

“When wine enters, secrets come out,” says the Talmud. 

Wine represents the “secrets” in us — for wine itself is a “secret:” It is initially hidden and concealed within the grape, and it takes much labor to extract it from the source; the grapes have to be crushed and the wine to ferment. Wine, an intoxicating beverage, represents the deeply concealed powerful forces lingering within the human psyche.

The first step in setting yourself free is realizing how much more there is to you than what meets the eye. You must recognize your potential — what you were really meant to be, what you are capable of becoming — for you to break out of the chains.

B) This comes together with step two — maror, which represents the bitterness caused by slavery. In order to set yourself free, you have to be able to stare the pain you endured in the face. Repressing pain and making believe it does not exist, only buries it deeper into our psyche. On the night of our freedom, we have to return to the “maror.” We must gaze into our pain, feel it, sense it, grieve for our hurt and, then, as we are staring into the pain, we will find the inner, secret spark of hope and light buried within it.

If we avoid the pain, we can’t discover its inner light. Only when we gaze at it, can we extract the ember hidden within the ashes.

C) Then we have the critical step of matzah. We eat the matzah, says the Haggadah, because the Jews did not have time to wait until the dough had risen; they rushed out of Egypt. I want to ask you … They waited for 210 years… They could not wait another few hours? What was the rush? And even if they were in a rush, why is that such a central theme in the narrative that for thousands of years we are eating only matzah and avoiding all leavened bread? What happened to the virtue of patience?

Answer: The greatest enemy to setting yourself free is delaying things: tough decisions and bold moves. The message of matzah is when it comes to setting yourself free, you have no time to wait even an extra 18 minutes. Do it now! Make that call now. Send that e-mail now. Make that move now. Set up that meeting now. Make that decision now. Start the new behavior now. Confront the situation now. Start doing it now. If it is worth doing, then do it now. Because, as my Rebbe would say, “We want Moshiach NOW.” We want redemption now.

Community Passover Seder — R.S.V.P. at www.JewishLHP.com.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

The Biblical account of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt has been one of the most inspiring stories for the oppressed, enslaved and downtrodden throughout history. From the American Revolution to the slaves of the American South, to Martin Luther King’s Let Freedom Ring, the narrative of the Exodus provided countless peoples with the courage to hope for a better future, and to act on the dream.

Moses’ first visit to Pharaoh demanding liberty for his people only brought more misery to the Hebrew slaves; the Egyptian monarch increased their torture. The Hebrews now would not listen any longer to the promise of redemption. Now let us pay heed to this strange verse in Exodus:

So G-d spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and He gave them a command (charge) for the children of Israel, and a command to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

G-d is charging Moses with two directives: Command the people of Israel and then command Pharaoh the king. However, the verse is ambiguous: What did G-d command Moses to instruct the people? The message for Pharaoh is clear: Let the children of Israel out of Egypt. But what is it that Moses is supposed to command the people themselves?

The Jerusalem Talmud says something profoundly enigmatic: G-d instructed Moses to command to the Jewish people the laws of freeing slaves.

The Talmud is referring to a law recorded later in Exodus: If a Jew sells himself as a slave, the owner must let him go after six years. He is forbidden to hold on to the slave for longer. This was the law Moses was to share with the Israelites while they were in Egyptian bondage.

Yet, this seems like a cruel joke. The Children of Israel at this point were crushed and tormented slaves themselves, subjugated by a genocidal despot and a tyrannical regime, enduring horrific torture. Yet,at this point in time, G-d wants Moses to command them about the laws relevant to the aristocrat, the feudal lord, the slave-owner?

The answer to this question is profoundly simple and moving, and is vital to the understanding of liberty in the Biblical imagination.

“Before Pharaoh can liberate the Jewish slaves, they must be ready to become free. You can take a man out of slavery, but it may prove more challenging to take slavery out of a man. Externally, you may be free; internally, you may still be enslaved.

What is the first and foremost symptom of being free? That you learn to confer freedom on others.

The dictator, the control freak, or the abusive spouse or parent, does not know how give others freedom. He (or she) feels compelled to force others into the mold that he has created for them. Uncomfortable in his own skin, he is afraid that someone will overshadow him, expose his weaknesses, usurp his position or make him feel extra in this world. Outwardly he attempts to appear powerful, but, inwardly, his power is a symptom of inner misery and confinement.

Only when one learns to embrace others, not for whom he would like them to be, but for whom they are, then can he begin to embrace himself, not for whom he wishes he was, but for whom he is. When we free those around us, we are freeing ourselves. By accepting them, we learn to accept ourselves.

Who is powerful? He who empowers. Who is free? He who can free others. Who is a leader? He who creates other leaders.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power,” President Abraham Lincoln said. Ask yourself, do you know how to celebrate the soaring success of your loved ones and constituents? Do you encourage them to spread their wings and maximize their potentials? Can you allow others to shine?

Pharaoh may set you free physically. But former slaves can become present tyrants. People who were abused often become abusers themselves. It is what they know about life; it is the paradigm they were raised with. They grew up in abuse and slavery, so they continue the cycle with others.

The first commandment the Jews had to hear from Moses, before even he could go the Pharaoh to demand he let them go free, was, “One day you will be free. Remember that freedom is a gift; use it to free others.”

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

To be productive today, you must have learned to use computers and phones. You must be so fluent in using them that you can do anything while still using it. I just read in a recent study that most moments are captured by a person through a phone camera. For example, if you were to go to a sports game and there is a high fly ball to center field – snap, snap, snap – or if you go to a park and there is baby taking her first steps – snap, snap, snap. Those moments are seen and captured forever.

The good thing about being so tech savvy is that we accomplish a lot more in less time. We can send things across the globe in a flash. We can do amazing research on anything and have instant answers to any question we have on any subject. All this has made us much more productive than we ever were. It has made anything possible. So many wonderful things have started because of technology. Relationships, friendships, partnerships, cures are just a few examples of some of the great things the modern world has brought us.

With all that said, there are some negative things as well. I won’t go through the list, but I will point out one which I think we can work on. And that is the lack of personal attention and focus which, before technology, we were forced to have. Say you wanted to tell something to your mom, you would go down the block to your mom’s house and tell her in person. Today, you would text five words. Say you wanted to tell your child “I love you.” In the past, you would have had to tell them in person while looking in their eyes. Today, you text them while you are at work ‘Iluvu.’

We have lost all personal communication and have forgotten how to enjoy each other. We have forgotten how to sit across from each other and be the social, loving and caring creatures that we are!

We need to fix this, but the question is how?

Sunday, Sept. 27, Jews across the world began the seven day Holiday of Sukkos [or Sukkot]. After Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Torah says we must dwell in a Sukkah. (A Sukkah is a hut. It has four walls and a roof made from tree branches). How does one fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah? One should eat, drink and live in the sukkah, both day and night, as one lives in one’s house on the other days of the year: for seven days, a person should make his home his temporary dwelling, and his sukkah his permanent dwelling.

“In Sukkot, you shall dwell for seven days,” instructs the Torah, “…in order that your generations shall know that I made the children of Israel dwell in a sukkah when I took them out of the land of Egypt.” (Lev. 23:42-43).

According to Chabad.org, our sages, noting the Torah’s use of the verb “to dwell” in the above verses, define the mitzvah of sukkah as a commandment that, for the duration of the festival of Sukkot, the sukkah is to become our primary dwelling place. Everything ordinarily done in the home should be done in the sukkah.

So every autumn, just as the weather is turning inhospitable, we move outdoors. For a full week, we exchange our regular home for a home which leaves us at the mercy of the elements, demonstrating our trust in G-d’s providence and protection, as our ancestors did when “following Me in the wilderness, in an uncultivated land.” (Jeremiah 2:2).

Dwelling in the sukkah for seven days is a beautiful and inspiring experience. Perhaps this is the solution to our problem. Leave the modern world and enter into the ancient world. Surround yourself with family and friends … talk to them, spend time with them, learn with them, sing with them, eat with them, play with them, read with them. Experience G-d’s timeless solution to a modern problem. Happy Sukkos.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.