Ezra’s posterous

My mind has been so full of work and other events that I have not written anything really about Hanuka.

Hanuka is an extremely social holiday. To the point where the rabbinic texts talk at length about the placement of the Menorah (modern Hebrew: Hanukiah).

Let me explain: According to the rabbis, the point of Hanuka is to commemorate the miracle that happened, that the Jews were able to reconsecrate the Temple, and that the oil lasted for 8 nights, instead of one. [Please note that I have actually studied the Judeo-Hellenistic literature from the period, and it is fascinating; but this post is primarily about the rabbinic view on the holiday, as this is an analysis of how a religion deals with a social object. (I hope that I am using this term correctly...)]

Therefore, the rabbis decreed that Jews should light a commemorative object (the Menorah/Hanukia) for the 8 nights.

But the buzzword in the rabbinic texts is "Advertising the Miracle". The object must be placed in a location that passerby on the street can see it, it can not be hidden in a closet. It cannot be on too high a floor, unless people within the establishment can see it. It should be lit at dusk, a time when there are still many passerby on the street, but it is dark enough to see lights in a window.

In short, they transfer the spirit of the law (getting people to see the commemoration for the miracle) into the letter of the law (the details where/when/how it should be lit).

Moreover, there are laws concerning families lighting, and how they should spend 1/2 hour sitting in the room with the lights. Not working, not running around. Simply sitting. Everyone. No one should be cooking or anything. If you ever have seen a family or friends lighting together, you can experience true camaraderie. People sing songs, exchange gifts (or give money to children), and just enjoy each other's company.

The social object has importance for active creators and also for the passive receivers.

And this is something that is oft forgotten.

A true social object should have a combination of broadcasting and conversation.

An example: What makes a blog post successful? I would like to say, only if it starts a conversation. If 1 million people read a post, but no one spoke about it, responded to it, or berated it, what is it worth? The author did an excellent job at the marketing (getting 1 million readers is no easy task), but didn't move anyone enough to do anything.
On the flip side, almost anyone would admit that they would rather 1 million readers than 20 readers who all left comments.

Who knows: maybe all million people had long conversations about the post offline, but we can never know.

I personally would enjoy a fraction of that readership with a decent percentage of the readers who leave comments.

At a Hanuka tweetup in Tel Aviv last night, I discussed a social business model with a friend of mine, Naor Mark. He asked me one question: What is the ROI?
Page views don't provide a return. Page views don't provide value. Only the conversation does.

On Hanuka, we discuss internally but broadcast externally. The external broadcasting also allows for the randomness factor of an outsider joining in the celebration (upon seeing the lights).

The objects we create for social discussion online must follow the same framework.
We must be realistic: Not everyone will comment (nor will everyone knock on my door and comment how beautiful the lights in my window are ). But we must be able to encourage some group to react. We must build communities that it is important for them to react, and write content that requires reaction.

Social media is more than just about content, it is also about community. Both aspects must go hand in hand. A social solution should result in something that provides value for every type of user.

Take this as you may. Think of your own examples and let me know what you think.

Have a really happy holiday, whether it is Hanuka, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice or Festivus.

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I was walking down one of the main streets of Jerusalem tonight, and I witnessed desolation.
It wasn't only that the street was empty, destruction was in the air. The streets are being torn up. Buildings are being demolished. I still saw the dust rising over a building and a usually full pedestrian square.
My initial reaction was to take pictures. I wasn't sad, per se, instead my interest piqued.

Then I started thinking about my posterous account. It too, over the last few weeks has deteriorated into a place to upload some videos and pictures, lacking the content that had defined my account a month or two ago.

When I was in college, I had a professor who changed my life. I even called myself a disciple of his, a "hasid" in the vernacular.
One day, when we were studying the last chapter of Lamentations (I studied Bible and Ancient Jewish History with him), we read verse 5:18. "For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it." As a Pavlovian response, I laughed, and the rest of the class looked at me like I was crazy. My professor looked at me and smiled. Slowly, other members of the class understood why I laughed. For the members who didn't, my professor related the Talmudic tale of Rabbi Akiva who saw a fox walking among the ruins of the recently destroyed Second Temple. His comrades cried, yet he laughed. He said that if the the prophecy of Lamentations would come true, so too would the prophecy of Zechariah, that spoke of the Jewish elders sitting in the streets of Jerusalem again, would be fulfilled as well.

I thought about this story while waiting for my bus to pick me up. When I arrived home, I IMed my mother to see how her trip was, and she informed me that she met this professor for the first time today.

To be honest, I have not thought about this professor in a long time, as my latest phase in my life is analyzing theory, content and context in contemporary Social Media, not in 2000 year old sectarian Crumbling Media. (A joke about the Dead Sea Scrolls. He happens to be one of the world experts on them.)

But, as I constantly tell people, all that I have studied led me to where I am.

This brings me back to my posterous account, somehow.

I heard that Seth Godin is launching a program that people, instead of going for an MBA can have an unpaid internship with him. But it won't be a real internship, it will be a learning program together with other brilliant thinkers. You should check it out, it looks quite interesting. I have already had such opportunities in life, its not for me.

Over my life, I have taken many interesting turns, that have led me to many interesting places, where I met, as you can guess, extremely interesting people. About a year and a half ago, I started a path without ever dreaming that it would lead me to where I am today.

My plate is overflowing. That is a good thing. I am currently involved with a very cool social media project for a major Israeli political party, on board with a under-the-radar, pre-beta startup which is creating a social tool so cool that my mouth was watering at a meeting that I had with them yesterday, helping a company socialize a network that they are building, as well as, hopefully creating a social solution for a tour company with thousands of participants a year. This was just how I spent my week. Well, that and making 12second videos to show to someone to try to convince him to turn me into the Israel correspondent for his show. (Watch them backwards. Almost 144 seconds of Ezra.)

No, I am not doing this all alone, but you will read more about those people in a future post. (It has been written already, but I must wait until a launch to publish it.)

Desolation sometimes paves the way for growth. I have not been interacting as much on my social persona, because I have not had time to breath. The time that I invested in understanding both online social environments and ancient self-sequestered  communities is paying off. Hopefully, a renewed city center in Jerusalem will revitalize the city. (I probably won't wait for *that* to happen, though...)

I am the kind of guy who laughs.

Just wanted to let you know that silence sometimes occurs because the noise is so deafening.

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