In VaYakel, this week’s Torah portion, we learn of Bezalel the master artist behind the creation of the Tabernacle and all of the accouterments. There we read ,” And God has put in his heart that he may teach..” ( Exodus 35:14). On this Ibn Ezra comments that some scholars have a great deal of wisdom but do not always want to or have the ability to share what they know with others. It is noteworthy that the Torah tells us that Bezalel was given a knowing heart coupled with the ability and desire to teach. This project of the community would not have come together without a leader like Bezalel.
I am struck but how much brilliance of our community is locked up in intellectual property issues. While people should be rewarded for their efforts, it seems strange that we limit ourselves to antiquated rules of who owns Torah. We need to find ways to get our teachers to realize their God given gifts to teach and to incentivize them to share it on any and every platform.
I encourage you to watch this TED talk.
Larry Lessig’s points seem to ask the right questions. How do we reward the innovators while not hampering innovation itself? How do we build for the future?
When discussing children in his Prophet, Kahlil Gibran wrote:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
I have to ask, do we own our ideas any more or less then we own our children? Bezalel asks us to reconsider the house that me might build. This could be a house for God, our children, or for ideas themselves. What are we doing to insure that we creating an environment in which we are all driven to share the overflow of these wonderful ideas? They are clearly the key to our sustained happiness if not our collective survival.
I encourage you to read up on Aharon Varady’s Open Siddur Project. This represents an interesting venture that is asking us all to teach from an open heart.
Said to Myself 