Connecting Yom Kippur with Steve Jobs on 5 levels
The absence of iPhone5 on stage at the recent Apple presentation was quickly eclipsed by the saddening news of the passing of Steve Jobs, an inspiring leader who serves as role model as someone who had a dream, a vision and lived it.
In the bigger picture the iPhone 4S is enough of an achievement to cap the lifetime career of someone who revolutionized technology and communication in ways that few others can compare.
So whilst we’ll never be seeing the black turtleneck on stage again, even for the eventual launch of iPhone 5, Steve Jobs achievement in taking us this far is an eternal testimony to the power of the individual to change the world.
There is a lesson in life right here. This Shabbat Yom Kippur we will be reaching a iPhone5 level through the iPray5, in our own revolutionary experience in spiritual technology and communication with our inner most selves and with G‑d.
Torah maps the soul experience and communication in five levels;
Level 1. Our biological life called Nefesh. It manifests in the way we think, speak and act. That’s as basic as the launch of the original iPhone.
Level2. Our Emotional life called the Ruach. This is our ability to love or resist. This added dimension to the human experience was definitely on par with iPhone 2.
Level3. Our Intellectual life called Neshomo. This empowers us to grasp the essence of being beyond the universe of self.
These first three levels represent the totality of human consciousness. We access these levels of your soul is through another tool that G‑d gave us called iPrayer.
That’s why we pray three times a day to access these three levels. Our evening prayers connect us to our most basic, the morning to the emotional and the afternoon to the intellectual.
In Chassidic teachings and very much expressed by the life’s work of Steve Jobs, we keep moving up understand that there is more to our life and human character.
Level 4. There is the fourth level of the soul called Chaya. This is our power of desire, a reflection of the soul’s journey to express its will and choice. This is a sub-conscious level of our being. This is like the touch-screen gadgets, the subconscious life that is present at all time, whether we feel it or not.
And for that we had the launch of iPhone 4S. The S stands for Shabbat. That’s because every Saturday morning we are given exclusive access to the extra fourth Musaf Prayer of Shabbat that empowers us.
And now is the time to launch the spiritual iPhone 5, a level we don’t reach on our own, but on Yom Kippur it’s there for the asking; this is
Level 5. The essence of the soul called Yechida. This is the deepest dimension of the soul. Its the Holy of Holies of the soul that we access on one day of the year. It’s the interface between Creator and the human being, a complete unity with our essence in G‑d.
On Yom Kippur, we are given this connectivity through a fifth prayer of Neilah. One hour a year when the Gates of Heaven are locked – behind us – as we unite with the essence of our being.
On Yom Kippur we experience all 5 levels of our souls.
Let’s not forget to download our iPray5 with meaning and depth.