Release: Able to disconnect from the network for 25 hours? | Israel today

There is a debate about the impact of the various social media platforms on our psyche and the emotional well-being of human beings and especially youth. This is reflected in the allegations of a former employee of Facebook in her testimony before the US Congress. That same week, the social network also collapsed for six hours - including WhatsApp and Instagram. The world we are used to and already dependent on - shook and we were like addicts begging for the dose of the connection. These bumps in Facebook's path just once again flooded in full force with the same questions: what illusions of "connections" do we weave around our lives as we scroll back and forth on our cell phone day in and day out, hour after hour, to no end. And the main question of all of them is: Is it even possible to get rid of these webs?

I think many of the questions can be answered in the Jewish tradition. One of the great ideas of Judaism is also the most relevant idea to our modern lives: the Sabbath. The definition of the Torah for Shabbat is much more comprehensive than the "weekend." What we know today is a Shabbat institution, regulated in terms of structure and divine command given more than 3,300 years ago at Mount Sinai. With problems here and now.In terms of Shabbat laws as they arise from these traditions, we are not allowed to use electronic devices on Shabbat.No screens, no cell phones, no computers, no social media.Wireless silence.

This divine digital diet is actually a welcome stop amid endless noise: a respite from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for Jews who observe Shabbat for 25 hours each week. This is really emancipation! A man stands up and says, I am sovereign to myself and shuts down his phone. This is a great declaration of personal freedom. Here arises a question that every person in the world should ask himself: Are we able to live without the telephone for one day? And if we can not - are we addicted?

When I think of the break from the screens I think of what I would call an "orientation check". Sometimes the boundaries of reality and digital do not seem to exist. Everything mixes up and seems like one reality. But this is not the case. Behind the white-toothed smiles there is a lot of emptiness. Does the perfect family picture hide a deep pain? Does loneliness motivate us to indulge in social media for so many hours? Does the hunger for insatiable likes remove from us an excessive lack of authenticity? Even without a malicious algorithm perhaps, we know that the content uploaded to the social network is carefully selected. It is mostly engineered, processed and artificial. What we need today more than ever is to engage in real life, with real people and with a sober and unedited view of the world. Bring us the authenticity, the flesh-and-blood friends, the encounters and the smells and tastes.

This is what Shabbat provides.

Significant time to re-tune ourselves and gain perspective on reality.

25 hours to be in a space of real life, of relationships, without filter and without interruption.

To enjoy nature, to engage in ourselves, to get closer to the spirit.

The Sabbath embodies all the essence that has guided our people for thousands of years.

On Saturday we sit around a table as families, singing and talking.

On Shabbat we gather as congregations to pray.

The experience abounds in the words of divine wisdom in the Torah, in prayers, in a sense of sharing with the community, spending time with family, with ourselves.

This week will be the eighth year of the Global Shabbat Project.

This is an opportunity for people who have never tried Shabbat: Take those 25 hours and do an experiment with yourself.

Ask yourself the questions we discussed earlier: Are you able to get along even without and if not then what is?

You may discover true freedom that you have not known for a long time.

The author is the Chief Rabbi of South Africa and the founder of "World Shabbat"