Welcome to Soulful Jewish Living: Mindful Practices for Every Day with me, Josh Feigelson.
I’m grateful you’re here, and I hope you benefit from our time together.
So I went down a bit of a language rabbit hole the other day.
I started out by wondering about the term news bubble. Feels like an odd expression, right? A news bubble. It seems to come from the term “filter bubble,” which was coined by the author Eli Pariser (Jewish, btw!), back in 2011. Okay, cool. But then I realized I wanted to know about the word bubble itself—like, where does it come from? I know, I have cool hobbies. Anyway, here’s where the rabbit hole got really interesting – at least, interesting to me: The English word bubble comes from the old German word bubbeln, and was also evidently related to the Latin word bulla, which referred to a blister, and the Greek word “bolos,” which means a rounded mass.
But wait, there’s more! In Hebrew, the word for bubble is bu’ah, or babua. And while the Internet insists they are formally unrelated, it also acknowledges that there seems to be a rather common human… thing… to use a “b” sound to describe a bubble. Which makes sense. Just make a b sound right now. “Bbb…” It’s the sound of a bubble, right?! Amazing.
Okay, thanks for indulging that nerd-out. Why did we start there, you ask? Because this is the third episode in our series on engaging with the news without losing your mind. And today’s topic is those news bubbles: What they are, how to be mindfully aware of them, and how we can work with them better.
Let’s go back to Eli Pariser, because he literally wrote the book on this. Back in 2011, Pariser was pointing out how Google and Facebook’s algorithms were creating these totally separate narratives based on what their algorithms thought their users would want to see and hear.
Which is why one person might be surrounded by the news of the devastation of October 7th, different angles of it, over and over, while another person might instead be seeing videos and pictures of the devastation of Gaza. Both may be true, but two really different stories.
And along with the bubble phenomenon, we’ve added a big dose of tribalism: We tend to believe the people who share our version of reality, and fear slash hate people who have a different version. Which is why people who see Israel, and people who see Gaza, often immediately distrust the others, and feel like it’s the other guy who’s seeing a skewed story.
I don’t need to tell you that the result is pretty toxic—and it leads to the kind of News Avoidance Syndrome we talked about in the first episode of this series.
Okay, so what can we do about it? Well, if you’re a tech titan, I’d say: dude, fix it, cuz this whole situation is going south pretty quick.
But for the rest of us, there’s still a lot we can do to stay level-headed. And mindfulness can help.
There’s a story in the Talmud about Rabbi Elazar, a famous rabbi who was returning home from studying with his teacher. He was riding his donkey and feeling pretty good about himself because he was such a good student.
As he went along the way, he came across a man who the Talmud describes as physically unattractive. When the man said hello to him, Rabbi Elazar behaved really poorly. He said, “Worthless, ugly person. Are the people of your town as ugly as you?” (Not the nicest thing for anyone to say, especially not a rabbi.)
But the man had a comeback: “I don’t know,” he said, “but you should go and say to the craftsman who made me: ‘You made a really ugly product.’” – Basically, hey, you’re really being a jerk towards God, not me. Sick burn.
Rabbi Elazar heard it, and he realized he made a big mistake. He got down from the donkey and pleaded for the man to forgive him. He followed the man all the way to the man’s town, where again he begged for forgiveness. The man was clearly hurt, and he only forgave Rabbi Elazar after the people of the town told him he really should.
Immediately after, Rabbi Elazar ran to the Beit Midrash, the study hall, and taught a wonderful phrase: “A person should always be soft like a reed and not stiff like a cedar.” Why? “Because one who is proud like a cedar is likely to sin.”
The Talmud concludes the story by teaching that this is the reason we use a reed to make the quill that we use to write a Torah scroll.
Okay, so there’s a lot to love about this story. It’s a great lesson in humility, compassion, and forgiveness. As a rabbi myself, it’s a great reminder to be mindful of my emotions, my words, and my behavior.
But for our purposes, I think it’s also a great teaching about how we can relate to our news bubbles. When we live in a news bubble—and basically all of us do these days—it can be really easy to become self-righteous. We can get really judgy of other people for their views, and even for the very fact that they get their news from a particular source. And the minute we notice that kind of anger or judgmentalism creeping in, maybe we can remind ourselves: Hey, self—isn’t it better to be like the reed than the cedar? Maybe hold it a little lighter. And maybe even seek out some different sources. Isn’t that what the reed would do?
Like most things, of course, this is easier said than done. So here’s a meditation practice that can help.
Begin by finding a good posture for yourself. Awake and aware. If you’re sitting, try to sit just a little more upright.
Imagine your spine as Jacob’s ladder, a sulam mutzav artza, grounded in the earth, v’rosho magia hashamayma, and your crown reaching up towards the heavens.
Take a few good deep breaths. With each exhalation, see if you can bring a little more relaxation to your body. Allow your mind to settle.If it’s comfortable for you, allow your awareness to center on your breath.
Our theme for this practice is noticing when judgmentalism may arise, and trying to soften its grip. So often our minds, working the way they do, have formed a story—and then they lead us to reactively make the news fit the story we may not even be aware that we want. They can be more like the hard cedar, and less like the soft and flexible reed.
So I’d like to invite you to bring to mind a moment recently when you encountered a news story. Try to just hold that moment in your mind. Maybe something you heard on a podcast or read on social media.
Standing on the balcony, as it were, what do you notice about how your reaction to the story may have formed. Did you already have an opinion when you started taking in the news? Is it possible that you heard or read the story with that opinion in mind? Or do you think you were able to allow the information to enter your mind in a more neutral sort of way?
You don’t need to judge yourself one way or another. Just try to observe.
And now I’d like to invite you to make a kavvanah, an intention, for this week, to try to create a little more distance between your perception or intake of information and your response to it. See if you can create a little more space—just take it in without forming a judgment right away. What does that feel like?
Perhaps more like the reed than the cedar. Not without a spine, not without values, but with some more flexibility, some more softness, some more spaciousness.
May you be soft like the reed, rather than hard like the cedar. May you find a bit more spaciousness, a bit more curiosity, a bit less judgmentalism in your engagement with the news this week.
Blessings for the journey. Know that I’m on it with you.
ENDING
Thank you for joining us for Soulful Jewish Living: Mindful Practices for Every Day, a production of Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. This episode is sponsored by Jonathan and Kori Kalafer and the Somerset Patriots: The Bridgewater, NJ-based AA Affiliate of the New York Yankees. If you like this show, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts. Check out our website, unpacked.media for everything Unpacked-related, and subscribe to our other podcasts, and check out the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Most importantly, be in touch–about what you heard today, what you’d like to hear more about, or to dedicate an episode. Write to me at josh@unpacked.media.
This episode was hosted by me, Rabbi Josh Feigelson. Audio was edited by Rob Pera and we’re produced by Rivky Stern. Thanks for joining us.