The first verse in Shoftim, the Torah portion read at or close to the start of the Fall semester, instructs us to have “Judges and Officers at all your gates.” Gates is an unusual word for cities, and some commentaries say that this also references figurative “gates” our personal gates of lips, ears, eyes – with which we interact with the outside world. These gates also need judges and officers, to evaluate and determine what is appropriate to see and hear, to filter what we should or shouldn’t say.
Sometimes modern technology gives us added insight into a biblical verse or Talmudic expression, it can help us see “Judges and officers at all your gates” in a new light:
Indeed, all computer circuitry is built this way. The binary system of 0’s and 1’s opens and closes gates of connection and disconnection. The (programming governing the) switches determine whether the energy pulse flows further or stops there. So the biblical “judges and officers” are indeed at all of our gates…
Think also in term of computer ports and portals, the firewalls at our ports of entry also have “judges and officers” as to what allow and what to protect against. A healthy phone or computer is one that doesn’t allow everything to pass through, but protects against unwanted intrusion, keeps vigilant over risk, it (and we!) can (hopefully!) differentiate between friend and foe!
Reading this verse in Shoftim at the start of one’s college experience (its often read near/around mid-to-end of August and start of the Fall semester) can be a very important and helpful message. It is OK to say no! It is normal and healthy to filter and to protect yourself and your interests and your identity or community. One does not have to go along with the flow and allow everything to pass through. You get to choose. Your choices will determine your path. It’s your gate and you get to decide if it’s open or closed, to whom, and when.
Recent advances in computer chip technology, especially for AI chip development, may add another dimension to all this:
Until now, all computer chips were binary – the gates were open or closed, o or 1, yes vs. no. Sophisticated complex programming comes about through chains and series of thousands of such gates, strings and strings of 0’s and 1’s. But as it gets harder to put more onto smaller chips, new technology is now developing (or trying to) that will allow for more gray options. Instead of Yes/No, the plan is for newer chips to have “it depends” options, or “how much” to open or close. This is a quantum computing addition to the long-standing binary.
And same goes for us, in figurative sense. Some choices are more starkly black and white, open or closed. But we also can govern our personal “gates” with “it depends” and “how much”. Sometimes it can be OK to open up to something or someone, but it may need to have a limit, or it may depend on conditions. These choices get more complicated and have more factors, but they are also choices we make, that make a huge difference both in our college experience and the person (and Jew) we become for life.