Can You Hear It?
The voice that never ends… This is how the Torah describes Hashem’s voice at Sinai. Moshe is repeating the story of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai (Devarim 5:19): “The Lord spoke these words to your entire assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the opaque darkness, with a great voice, which did not cease.” They say that if you speak to Hashem you are religious, if you hear His voice speaking to you, you need to see a doctor. What does “which did not cease” mean?
There are several explanations, including that there was no echo. You would imagine a “great voice” with mountains around would cause an echo, but this one didn’t. An explanation for that is that the Torah is not separate from the world. The whole idea of Torah is to permeate and transform the earth and stone etc, to be absorbed by holiness and to become a vehicle for Hashem’s will. An echo is created when there is something that blocks the voice and it bounces back. There is nothing, however, that blocks Hashem’s word and the light of the Torah. That is this interpretation of the voice that did not cease.
There is another interpretation that is also relevant to each of us in our daily lives. A human voice is created by the breath, the vocal chords and the mouth. The voice is limited and has a beginning and an end. The “voice” of Hashem is the words of the Torah. These words are not just literary prose or great ideas. The Torah is the “blueprint” of the world. Our Sages interpret this to mean that the very spiritual energy of the world flows through the words of the Torah.
It is hard to grasp the meaning of this since our experience is limited to the finite and the physical. But every Hebrew letter contains a spiritual energy, and the combination of those different energies is what creates the physical item. In fact, the Biblical Hebrew name of each thing represents the combination of energies that is its life-force. So while the actual booming great voice of Hashem is no longer heard in the way it was at the Giving of the Torah, Hashem’s “voice” has really never ceased. It is the eternal Divine energy that gives vitality to every living being.
Similarly, the “voice” of Hashem giving us the commandments and connecting us to Him continues in every generation, every day and every moment. Hashem speaks to us today through the Torah. Can we hear His voice? That depends on how attuned we are to listening.
This is why we are encouraged to study the daily portion of the Parsha. Each Parsha is divided into seven parts. On Sunday we study the first portion of the weekly Parsha, on Monday the second etc. In that day’s Parsha is embedded all the secrets of the universe and how to deal with whatever comes up for that day. Yes, it’s true that for most of us the secrets are just that – secret and obscure. But certainly our soul gets it, and that trickles down to our subconscious and ultimately affects our lives.
Here’s a challenge: Study the daily Parsha, ideally with Rashi, on a daily basis for a few months and see if you begin hearing Hashem’s voice in the Torah. And call me if you like any time, I would love to discuss with you any topics you study.
We find it hard to listen to one another, epically in Israel when there are many different religious communities and many different diverse groups. By talking to people religious people that are often seem from the outside as poor or neglected I have learned the value of respecting as oppose to judging. On this journey there is still more to learn, The Torah has many faces to it, I understand while people that deal with morality too much might hate society as a whole - I came to appreciate the rebbe's approach of looking at the positive instead of the negative. I think he would have enjoyed rabbi's kook company if they were alive at the same time. It is too bad that we still have so much senseless hatred towards one another because of the approach of morality as opposed to the approach of hassidus.
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