Has anyone with real digital product experience tried to build a Jewish religious experience online or through an app? I can imagine a product like my carefully crafted meditation app that works for Jewish ideas and spiritual experience - not in a communal way, but in a solitary or at most family-based way. So I can imagine a Judaism that’s not traditional in a halachik or communal sense but very compelling, subjectively, and if done responsibly it could even represent the tradition well. This would require product managers at the same level as the Sefaria engineers.
My theology, which I've grown into over the past few years, is that the closer you get to the basic building blocks of the world (soil, breath/air, water, direct interactions, etc), the closer you are to Gd. (there's more to it, but that's what's relevant to this conversation.)Your shoes get between you and Gd. Your plastic water bottle furthers you from Gd. So too, would virtual reality tefillot distance you from Gd, rather than bring you closer to Gd, davka [precisely] because it's virtual. I would be curious if there are other stories/narratives/theologies that would make the case for in-person worship. Where is the space for this conversation & what is the correct platform to make these arguments to those who may be taken by virtual worship when it becomes a normative option?
Has anyone with real digital product experience tried to build a Jewish religious experience online or through an app? I can imagine a product like my carefully crafted meditation app that works for Jewish ideas and spiritual experience - not in a communal way, but in a solitary or at most family-based way. So I can imagine a Judaism that’s not traditional in a halachik or communal sense but very compelling, subjectively, and if done responsibly it could even represent the tradition well. This would require product managers at the same level as the Sefaria engineers.
My theology, which I've grown into over the past few years, is that the closer you get to the basic building blocks of the world (soil, breath/air, water, direct interactions, etc), the closer you are to Gd. (there's more to it, but that's what's relevant to this conversation.)Your shoes get between you and Gd. Your plastic water bottle furthers you from Gd. So too, would virtual reality tefillot distance you from Gd, rather than bring you closer to Gd, davka [precisely] because it's virtual. I would be curious if there are other stories/narratives/theologies that would make the case for in-person worship. Where is the space for this conversation & what is the correct platform to make these arguments to those who may be taken by virtual worship when it becomes a normative option?