Why when Jews meet do they LOVE to play "Jewish Geography"?
"Oh you live there. Do you know..." "He is my neighbor". "Oh wow! His wife is my first cousin!!" "That's funny because his wife's sister married my brother's sister in law". "Who is your brother?" "Yitzi .... " "You don't say!! He was my roommate in Yeshiva!!" "Oh you went to Yeshivas .... Do you know ..." "Of COURSE! He was my roommate". "That is so interesting - we work in the same law firm".
This can continue ad infinitum. When I meet people I sometimes don't start it because I know that we know all of the same people so why start when it will never stop and when it just brings out the obvious. But Jews LOVE it. Only we can do it. There are seven billion goyim and unlike us - they don't all either know each other or at the very least know somebody who knows the other person. "Oh - you are a goy from Australia? Do you know so and so - he is also a goy from Australia." Not. But with us - we are all interconnected.
F'rinstence - Three of my friends from back in the day were Binyamin Netanyahu's closest advisors. [One turned on him, one quit and the third is still going]. So even a simple yeshiva bochur-guy like me knows people at the top of the Israeli political scene. And we ALL either know the Orthodox Jews closest to Trump or know a million people who know them. Something to be MUCH prouder of is that I either met or know people who met every great Gadol Bi-Torah in the last 50 years or so. And every other Jew as well [it seems]!
So back to our question. Why do people love to play "Jewish Geography?"
Answer: People want need to feel SOCIALLY CONNECTED. That is a KEY to human happiness, as research shows again, again and yet again. That is the secret of why social media has conquered civilization. It is often fake and artificial, but on some level it satisfies a very primal human need to connect to others.
So here is my eitza for today: Most people don't wake up in the morning and ask to themselves "How am I going to cultivate meaningful relationships today?" No, we don't. We are all too busy [BUSY-BUSY-BUSY. CRRRRRRRRRRRAZZZZY BUSSSYY] and too task oriented. But we SHOULD think that way. It is one of our deepest needs and will give our life so much more meaning and significance.
Listen to the eulogizers. The emphasis is NEVER on how much money the poor [he was, after all, left penniless after his demise...] guy died with but on the quality of his/her relationships. Don't only think about RESUME virtues but about EULOGY virtues [as the NY Times journalist famously wrote], of which a primary one is the ability to form meaningful relationships.
Increasing the quality of your relationships will EXPONENTIALLY enhance your quality of life EVERY DAY. Don't be so busy making a living that you don't have the time to make a life.
Of course it is not only about "me". In Yiddish, the word for "I" is "icccccchhhhhh". It is about bettering the lives of others and making them feeling loved, wanted and appreciated.
