I was at an Amazon fulfillment center tour last summer, where they bring you into the warehouse and show you how their packing system works, and how quick and efficient it is. Amazon globally produces over 200 packages a second, every second.
It takes a mix of people, many different types of robots, and miles and miles of conveyor belts, all coordinating to bring the item from the shelf, to the delivery truck.
As we were walking between the conveyor belts – so close you can touch them – and near the robots, with packages moving at high speed all around, I knew that there are countless lessons in serving Hashem to be learned from all these systems, but one system stood out from the rest:
One of the most striking features, on the 3rd floor, are the moving robots, invented by Kiva systems.
Each robot carries a shelf full of different products, and it moves around the floor, to different packing stations, depending on if a product it carries is needed here or there.
There are hundreds and hundreds of these robots moving at the same time on the same floor! They scan qr codes on the floor and that keeps track of where each robot is, so they don’t bump into each other.
It’s a fascinating thing to watch and it carries an important lesson.
Coming from the days of Sefiras Ha’omer, and 50 years since the 12 Pesukim, the words of Rebbi Akiva – that the love of a fellow Jew is a central principle in the Torah – come to life.
Being unified in such a way that we all complement each other in the bigger picture, and never ever getting in anyone’s way while doing so.
These robots stay focused on their mission and don’t disrupt each other, because at every moment they account for each other – where they are, where they are going, what they are up to – and that is the key to their success.
If we would stop and think about those around us periodically – with the purpose of simply making a note of them – we would have much more sensitivity while we go about our own mission.
in short: be like a Kiva!