Before satellites, computers, cable, trains, steam ships, the
Jewish people had an Internet ― an ancient communication network
of exiled people stretching from Yemen and India to Germany and
Russia with one compatible computing language ― the Hebrew
Torah. Installed at Sinai and scanned by each generation for
viruses, the Torah has remained the immutable software
internalized into the hardware of the Jewish leadership in every
community ever since. Rabbinic decrees and Y2K-style calendar
checks were updated for the changing eras and conditions.
Spiritual reboots maintained parts of the Jewish web that were
"down" or even destroyed. The Jews also invented portable
technology and the search engine. The entire Torah program was
in the head of every capable man. The average 16-year-old could
do a mental quick search on anything from military strategy to
pre-nuptial agreements, categorize it, individualize it, and
apply it to different situations. And in case of a system crash,
each man owned a back-up ― he was re