CHOOSE TO SHINE

The world’s first pilotless Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicle (EVTOL) completed its initial flight in Shanghai, China in January 2025. The company is Ehang. Its EH216-S is the first air taxi to receive certification for autonomous flight.  Other firms are also close to releasing their “flying cars.” One such company is called Doroni Aerospace, based in Florida. Its CEO is Doron Merdinger, an Israeli-born entrepreneur and designer (with his family’s well-known Hazorfim silversmiths). His HX-1 is a two-seat passenger drone receiving Special Airworthiness Certification from the FAA in 2023. A Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) was created for the first time in nearly 80 years to accommodate powered-lift aircraft. Another company, called Alef, is developing a flying car that can also be driven like a car on the street, and then lift off vertically.

Can you imagine how our world will change when EVTOL flying cars populate our skies? At an estimated $300k initial MSRP, passenger drones will likely be a rare sight. As technology improves, costs come down, confidence rises, and sales increase, there will be an ever-larger number of vehicles in our skies. Add delivery drones, which I already covered in this column (see Choose to Shine January 2015). It will be a very different environment sooner than later.

Here on the ground, breakthroughs in Quantum Computing, such as with Google’s Willow chip, blow away the fastest classic supercomputers ever made. It can calculate in under five minutes what would take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years on today’s supercomputers. This will revolutionize everything, from weather forecasting to threatening the security of your bank password encryption. Banks are exploring Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), developing algorithms that will be resistant to quantum attacks.

Artificial Intelligence is being leveraged to analyze MRIs to detect diseases at earlier stages and to develop new drugs and therapies.  3-D bioprinting technology allows techs to print organs customized for each patient. I’ve already written in this column about CAR-T therapies to teach our immune systems how to target cancer cells (see Choose to Shine September 2022).

Can you imagine explaining any of these things to someone living 3500 years ago in the time of Pharaoh in Egypt, or even 350 years ago? They would look at you like you are from outer space, or perhaps belong in their version of an insane asylum. That’s assuming you spoke ancient Egyptian.

But what if you spoke Hebrew? At least your words would be understood, if not the concepts you were trying to convey.  As detached as we are from that ancient culture, our nation has survived for 3337 years since that seminal event, the Exodus, which forged our people into Hashem’s nation. No matter how much technology changes, no matter how society evolves, no matter what happens, the people of Israel exist as a nation because Hashem took us out of the land of Egypt to choose us as His nation and to serve Him.  His Torah applies to every generation, including the ones that experience the greatest scientific breakthroughs. The Torah is timeless, and it always applies. It is up to our Rabbanim who have been handed the written and oral law from teacher to student for millennia to decide how the Torah laws apply to each case they review, but it is always relevant. We are the same nation rescued from Egypt over 3000 years ago. Had Hashem not taken us out of Egypt, we would still be slaves there. Instead, we received the privilege of belonging to the Chosen People, and the ultimate gift of serving Hashem, setting an example for the nations. We have been given a holy mission, and it is our sacred duty to continue living as holy Jews and bringing up our children in the manner passed down to us from father to son for all time.

This year when we celebrate the joyous holiday of Pesach, let us all take a moment to recognize the wondrous signs and unique mission of this amazing time. Make the story relevant to your children and grandchildren. May you and yours enjoy the very best times together, and may we merit the final redemption very soon.

Full disclosure: The author owns stock in Doroni Aerospace.