After a month of disrupted routine, countless Shabbats and holidays that confuse the weekly order, and a departure from the routine of life, we have reached the moment of - after the holidays.
There is so much to write about the holiday season: a month that began with fear of God and ended with boundless joy; a month of forgiveness, unity, and brotherhood; a month of special family gatherings and holiday visits - passed by in favor of a grueling daily routine.
We finished the holiday of Sukkot, a holiday that is all about connecting with nature and people. We left the luxurious permanent apartment in favor of a dilapidated apartment, replaced the luxurious bed with a thin mattress, and the air conditioner with natural weather. Under a thatch made of branches or reeds, we remained exposed to rain and sun, smelling the natural smell of wood, looking at the small ants and hearing the meowing of cats outside.
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In the Haredi areas, holiday meals have transformed from family to communal, with Hasidic singing merging with Eastern Jewish poetry, everyone singing with everyone, everyone talking with everyone. Or, more accurately: everyone listening to everyone.
It's not just that we love the holiday of Sukkot, it's a holiday that stops us from the media and digital routine and takes us back a few years, to the days when everything was natural and genuine, and the atmosphere of family and unity was sincere and special.
Today, just before returning to routine, when the fingers that only a week ago touched the etrog are about to run on the keyboard, and the body that has adapted to all weathers is once again addicted to the air conditioner, just before we leave the wooden Sukkots decorated with children's drawings and enter concrete castings coated with various screens, we must take a little of this natural and real holiday with us into the digital and fake reality in which we live.
Try to stay grounded and set aside at least an hour a day to spend more with family and less with digital media, more with real friends and less with virtual friends.
A time when we will be ourselves, us and the good in us, us and the beauty of creation around us.
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This coming Saturday, Parshat Noah, we celebrate 'World Sabbath Day,' a special initiative by a South African rabbi, who has recruited many celebrities to raise awareness of 'Digital-Free Day.' Some symbolically, they marked Parshat Noah as a global day of rest, the day when millions of Jews and non-Jews will connect with family and not with social media, recharge their souls instead of their smartphones, and talk face-to-face, not just on Skype.
Yes, today the world already understands that we can't continue living like this. The digital world is destroying the remnants of happiness in our lives, and we must cling to the lifelines of a day a week or an hour a day without media, in order to maintain sanity and balance in a world that is changing around us at a dizzying pace.
We must pull ourselves together, otherwise the day will not be far off when we will find ourselves singing the 'Selfie Song' of the Festigal with our child around the Shabbat table.
We must engrave the sweet memories of the transience of Sukkot on the tablet of our hearts, and remember every morning that this world is only a corridor leading to the real world. Only in this way can we focus on the good and positive in our daily lives.
''After the holidays' is happy and...times for routine.
