More Than The Matrix

(With school, tax time and summer, I haven't been able to free my mind and my schedule to blog anything new. Shavuot (Pentecost) is here, and More than the Matrix seems to be in the spirit of the holiday.)


Netanel and I are into The Matrix trilogy. For those who haven't seen or at least heard of it, it's about Neo who is a cyber messiah, mankind's last hope in the face of a race of robots that sustains itself by turning human beings into living batteries. It's a kind of alternate energy nightmare.


Neo has the perfect life. His day job is hacking into the robots' network ("the Matrix") and playing the ultimate computer game on line, beating up bad guys that look like grown ups in business suits. After a hard day of kicking the crap out of adults on line, Neo retires to human kind's secret underground base ("Zion") with his hot babe and they go to this great trance party.

"Mr. Smith", a personified antivirus program inventing by the robots to protect the Matrix from hackers like Neo that has shorted out and is running amuck. Out of control and driven by hatred for humans and robots alike, Smith becomes a menace to one and all.

Morpheus, the prophet that discovered Neo, is convinced that he will save mankind. In the end, Neo martyrs himself for the sake of humankind (and robotkind) in a classic 'good triumphing over evil' battle, and defeats Smith.

Humans and robots, now friends, are all grateful and The Matrix ends with the promise of a brighter tomorrow for everyone.

But what then? Do they have a party? And what about the computer games?

Did the Israelites think their deliverance from Egypt was a cosmic version of The Matrix? There was this big bad villain and God saved them with lots of special effects and pyrotechnics. Did they figure that they were free to pursue their own devices? Because that's what they did.

Just as soon as that old fuddy-duddy Moses had his back turned and was busy hammering the Ten Commandments out of stone on the mountain, they rigged up a golden calf and had a trance party.

They didn't get it. God didn't free them from the flesh pots of Egypt to set up new ones of their own. Salvation is an opportunity to start a life that means something. God expected more of them. And He expects more of us.

Passover is not only about freedom from slavery, but also about liberating ourselves from the Egypt within. About finding more in life than pleasure and self gratification.

I don't think that Neo gave his life in order that those he left behind could carry on hacking into 'The Matrix' and partying like there's no tomorrow. He died to give them a chance to build a new world; one with meaning. Not a virtual simulation on a computer program, but a real life with substance.


Neo wanted humans to live like he lived, to love like he loved.

Neo expected more of men than The Matrix.