What I learn in Avodas Hashem (the service of G-d) from programming - Not to always take things at face value

A program is often measured by how many lines of code it has; if it has many lines of code, it is considered big, if it has few, it is considered small. But this is not always correct. There can be a program which has very few lines of code, but is extremely powerful and does something humongous, and the other way around too.

Recently, I was learning Torah, and I came up to a certain part, and thought, "This is huge! It looks like it will take a long time to finish!".

After a moment, I realized that I can take a lesson from programming, and measuring a program by lines of code: Here I was, measuring the length of this chapter of Torah by its size, but it may be very easy to understand, and enjoyable! The same way a very small program can be very powerful, a very big chapter in Torah, which may be assumed at first glance to be hard (judging by its size) can be easily understandable.

So, I learnt the Torah chapter, and it was not too hard, and it was very enjoyable!

The lesson: Not to take things the way they may seem, but to try to see beyond the "first glance", to the "big picture".

In memory of Harav Menachem Mendel A"H ben YLCHT"A Harav Reuven Tzvi Yehudah Sheyichyeh.

What I learn in Avodas Hashem (the service of G-d) from programming - Thinking about the future

In coding, a program which someone wants to last, but which is coded without thinking about how it may be used and changed in the future, will usually not last through many modifications well, unless it is refactored, and recoded with the future in mind.

So too, in the service of Hashem (G-d), in everything which someone does in their life, if it is done with the future in mind, and one thinks of the possible effects (for the good, or G-d forbid, the opposite), we can do better things.

Our sages said this in Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) 2:9 (a rough translation): "Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai said to his students, 'Go out and see what is a straight path to which a person should cleave'." Five of his students gave answers, each one giving a different answer. One of the students, Rabbi Shimon, said, "Haro'eh Es Hanolad (he who sees what will come out of his actions)".

In memory of Harav Menachem Mendel A"H ben YLCHT"A Harav Reuven Tzvi Yehudah Sheyichyeh.
Copyright © Abbafei Software. All rights reserved.