by Aron Moss
Question: I'm not coping well with what's going on in Israel. As an Israeli in Australia, I am glued to my phone all day, watching news and social media clips. My guilt at not being in Israel now is eating me up. I know it's starting to affect my family. I want to throw my phone away, but I know I can't do that. Any help?
Response: We can all understand why you feel so torn. Many of us who are not Israeli, and never served in the army, have a strong urge now to fly off to Israel and join the war effort. How much stronger would that urge be for a former soldier like yourself.
You have to make a choice. Either make a move and go to Israel, or stay here and make yourself useful. But watching the news all day helps nobody. Glued to your phone, you are neither here nor there - not in Israel serving your country, and not present at home looking after your family.
Yes, you need to keep updated with what is happening. But passively watching the news will only bring you down and increase your feeling of helplessness. Maybe you can't drop everything and go to Israel. But you can still help from here.
Let me make a suggestion. Each time you are about to open any news site or social media, or are about to check your family whatsapp for updates, first say a chapter or two of Tehillim, the Psalms of King David. It will only take a minute or so to read. And it will change everything.
The words of Tehillim lift you to a place of calm, faith and confidence. Saying a prayer is an active way to help, rather than feeling helpless and passive. This small shift in your habits will take you out of your frozen state of impotence, and put you back into active service.
You can even pray from your phone. Get a Tehillim app, and whenever you touch your phone, open Tehillim before anything else. If you know you have to read a prayer every time you open your phone, you may open your phone less. Sometimes laziness is the best antidote to addiction.
Start saying Tehillim, and you will turn your phone into a weapon of mass construction. Your prayers will build a spiritual wall of protection around yourself and the people who need you most - your family in Israel, and your family right here at home.
