My wife just bought me my first iPod. It was a birthday present for my 28th birthday.
It is kinda cool…There is a certain peacefulness in sitting in a room with those white strings coming out of year ears and you being completely removed from reality. Totally engulfed by the music/lecture/stuff that is being streamlined into your brain.
Earlier this week I was sitting at home preparing for a class and I am listening to a lecture on the topic I was about to speak about. I had downloaded some classes from our site.
All of a sudden my wife is about 3 inches from my face trying to get my attantion!
I hit pause, pull out those strings and asked what is the problem. I have been yelling your name for about 3 minutes and you have been ignoring me! Levi is beating up on Chana and I was feeding Moshe and it sounded like a zoo in here!”
Of course I was oblivious to everything happening around me.
I threw down the study material and got heavily involved in taming the children and getting them ready for dinner.
It reminded me of a story that I heard many years ago:
The third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was studying in his home and his child was sleeping in the next room. The child woke up and starting crying. Being so involved in his studies, he did not hear the child cry.
A few minutes later, Rabbi Menachem Mendel’s grandfather came into the room, holding the child. He reprimanded his grandson as follows: Even when you are connected with the highest levels of spirituality and flying high in religious passion, you can never not hear the cry of a child.
The Rebbe used to say this story often and would conclude that now matter how justified we might be in our spiritual (and physical – business) pursuits, one can never ignore or not pay enough attention to his own children – or for that matter all of G-d’s children.