“Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!”
The greatest strength is the willingness
To critically examine your weaknesses
The Torah is a tool
For critically examining your weaknesses
So that you might be strengthened
Accordingly, the yetzer hara–
Your evil inclination–
Is the massive weight
Which resists the yetzer tov–
Your good inclination–
And the Torah is a guide
To lifting this behemoth
Without breaking your back
By lifting it one day at a time
Until your yetzer tov
Is as strong as time itself
Conversely, addiction to alcohol
Weakens you over time
By seducing the spirit of your yetzer tov
With its own spirits
Which, counterintuitively
Defeat the yetzer tov by offering a resistance
That is next to nothing
And is sometimes called a 12- ounce curl
Bringing us to the internet
Which is called cyberspace because
Everything on the internet is weightless
And unlike alcoholics–
Whose drug of choice offers just enough resistance
So that they can pull themselves out of it–
Internet addicts
Meaning mostly all of us
Receive no resistance whatsoever
Leaving each of us alone
On an untethered cyberspacewalk
Sucking the dwindling oxygen out of life
Or that which passes for life
In our cyberspacesuits
Which compensate for our total lack of muscle
By moving our limbs for us
Like marionettes with wifi
That we mistakenly believe comes with no strings attached
So, perhaps we are tethered after all
And will float forever in cyberspace
Even after the oxygen in our suits run out
Because marionettes are made of wood
And don’t need to breathe
But as Pinocchio knows
Marionettes aren’t real
And neither are we
At the last
It is up to you
Whether or not you believe
The Torah is true
But I know it’s real
And it’s really heavy
