Chayei Sara- The Art of Courting

This week in our epic tale of love and tragedy we find one of our protagonists on the search for love. Of course Isaac did not go himself, Avram sent a servant with a criteria for choosing the future mother of a nation. He would go to the well in the land which Avram came from and if a woman would assist him and offer to hydrate his camels then she would be a suitable match for Isaac. The servant found this in Rebecca the daughter of Avrams nephew.

Then the classic meet cute followed by the act of falling in love and before you knew it they were married.

This portion of the Torah brought up the idea of love in the 21^st century for me. It made me think about the decreasing rate of romantics in society and the overbearing dependency of technology in the art of courting. It made me think of the growing statistics and rates of failed love and divorce. However, more present in my mind was the knowledge that J-Crush existed.

The art of love and courting a partner used to be an expression of passion, lust and humanity. Has it turned to utter piss with the reliance of smart phone apps? Do people even meet in bars anymore? We used to have to be peacocks, showing off our character and charm to garner the attention of the opposite sex. Tinder and J-Crush allow us to express ourselves with a seductive picture, stream of Judaism and a cheeky line to grab the imagination of people that will either, “Oi Vay” or “yes please” you without second guessing.

I ask myself if I am being ignorant to the pros of these apps. Maybe, I know plenty of people who met online and got married or still dating. It is no doubt a convenient way of meeting people without needing to leave your house as the cold winter months approach. I suppose I just want to hear the when Harry met Sally moments and experience the Danny and Sandy summer romance, maybe we have moved on from that and our dependency on technology for a perfect suitor has passed the point of no return. Were our heroes of the Torah the revolutionaries of courting, relying on external sources to find love? Who knows, Isaac and Rebecca went on to be in love for decades.

I may just have to live with it, but I stay strong in my belief that my future love is sitting out there at a live music gig somewhere waiting for me to accidentally spill my drink on her in the crowd of people. Meet Cute.

Ale Vehagshem