STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS
BAMIDBAR/SHAVUOS 5779
“THE
INNER VOICE”[1]
One night, an elementary school
teacher was sitting on her living room couch grading the essay’s her students
wrote about something they wished for. Her husband was sitting next to her
checking his emails and social media accounts.
Just when the teacher thought she’d finished correcting all
the essays, she noticed that there was one more. She read the essay once and
then she read it again to her husband:
“I wish I was a smartphone, because
then my mom and dad would give me all the attention in the world. Sometimes my
parents are so busy with their phones that they ignore me.
When my mom and dad come home from
work, they are really tired, and they spend time checking up stuff on their
phones. Even when my mom or dad do talk to me, as soon as their phone rings,
they pick it up and forget about me.
When they’re talking with someone on
the phone, even if I’m excited about something that I want to discuss with
them, they shush me and motion that they’re on the phone.
I wish I was a smartphone because then
maybe my parents would want to spend more time with me and would laugh and
smile and become excited with me, the way they do when they look at their
phones.”
The teacher and her husband were in tears
when they realized that that last essay wasn’t from a student; it was from
their son!
The Medrash[2] relates that the Torah was
given in the ownerless desert to symbolize that every person has the right to
study Torah. No one has exclusive rights to the Torah; it is there for the
taking.
The Medrash adds that there is no cost
to traverse the vast expanse of the desert, so too, there is no fee to come and
study Torah, only a desire to glean from its depth and profundity.
The commentaries add another symbolism
of the desert; it is a place of silence, free of distractions.
When the Torah was given there was
thunder, lightning, and the sound of the blowing shofar, and the very earth
shook on its foundation. But the rest of the world was absolutely silent. The
birds didn’t chirp, the angels stopped their song, the waves of the sea did not
crash upon the shore, and no one spoke. Only the Voice of G-d emanated throughout
the world, proclaiming “I am Hashem, your G-d, Who took you out from the land
of Egypt.”[3]
Many years later, following his epic conformation
with the false prophets of Ba’al, Eliyahu Hanavi stood at that same location
and had a revelation of G-d. First Eliyahu experienced a whirlwind followed by an
earthquake and a fire. But G-d informed Eliyahu that none of those tempests represented
revelations of G-d. Rather G-d was to be found in kol demama daka – a
thin, still voice - the sound of silence.[4]
The depth of that message was that if
one wishes to hear/encounter G-d, he must listen inwards to hear the divine from
within!
The haftorah for the second day of
Shavuos begins: “And Hashem is in His holy sanctuary – let the whole earth be
silent before Him!”[5]
Malbim explains that the world needs
to be silent in order to recognize G-d’s glory, and to be filled with awe
before Him.
Perhaps the most well-known component of
Kabbolas HaTorah, was when Klal Yisroel declared “na’aseh v’nishma – we will
do, and we will hear.”[6] It was a declaration of
complete and unconditional submission to the Torah and its mitzvos.
We seem to have a far easier time fulfilling
na’aseh - the things we need to perform and do, then we are about
fulfilling nishma – the ‘hearing components’ of the Torah. Nishma
entails contemplation, to comprehend and decipher, not only the letter of the
law, but also the spirit of the law. It is the ability to comprehend what the
Torah demands of us in living a noble and elevated life.
Deciphering those messages takes
patience and thought. One must silence the noise of life in order to hear the messages
that emanate from within our hearts and minds. Silencing the background din of
life is a tremendous challenge for us in a society inundated and driven by distraction.
A Time magazine article from May 2015,
entitled “Are my devices messing with my brain?”, explains how smartphones negatively
affect output and production. Every time a person shifts his focus there is
something called a switch-cost. The brain stumbles somewhat and it takes some
time before it can reengage in what it was doing. One study showed that it can
take 15 to 25 minutes for a person to become fully re-involved in what he was
doing when he interrupted himself to check an email.
The article quotes Dr. Paul Atchley, a
cognitive psychologist at Kansas University, who noted that lots of device use
bombards the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which plays a central role in willpower
and decision making. The prefrontal cortex is what prevents us from making
foolish decisions, such as eating unhealthily and texting while driving. That
part of the brain isn’t fully developed until a person is in the earlier 20s.
The article concludes with a quote
from Atchley: “Imagine Einstein trying to think about mathematics at a time
when part of his brain was wondering what was going on with Twitter. People make
incredible breakthroughs when they’re concentrating very hard on a specific task,
and I wonder if our devices are taking away our ability to do that.”
For us, as a people who value and
strive to maintain concentration and focus when we are davening or learning
Torah, this struggle becomes all the more relevant and vital.
Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok haKohain Kook
zt’l explains that when it comes to influencing others, one must speak up and be
encouraging. However, in order to receive divine influence, one must be silent
and introspective.[7]
“Silence comes from the depth of the
soul and from emotions beyond human speech. When a deep person remains silent,
worlds are formed, songs are composed in the heights of sanctity, and a great
strength elevates one’s whole being.”[8]
In order to maintain any positive
relationship, there must be communication. Judaism is not meant to be merely a
religion; it is also meant to be a relationship.
In our world, relationships suffer greatly
because of overuse of technology. In order to hear each other, we need to be
able to shut out everything else. Relationships connote exclusivity. If we are
focused on everything simultaneously, we are essentially focused on nothing.
Shabbos grants us the opportunity to
have that internal focus. In order to accept the sanctity of the day we shut out
all the distractions of the outside world.
In that sense, Shabbos is the perfect
introduction for Shavuos and Kabbolas HaTorah, because it is only when we turn
inwards that we can connect upwards.
“A thin, still voice”
“We will do, and we will hear”
Rabbi Dani Staum, LMSW
Rebbe/Guidance Counselor – Heichal HaTorah
Principal – Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
[1] The Following
is the lecture I was privileged to give in Kehillat New Hempstead, Shabbas
Kodesh parshas Bamidbar, Erev Shavuos 5778
[2] Mechilta
d’Rabbi Yishmael, parshas Yisro, Shemos 19:2; Yalkut Shimoni 286
[3] Shemos
Rabbah 29:9
[4] Melachim
I 19:11-12
[5] Chabakuk
2:20
[6] Shemos
24:7
[7] Oros
Hakodesh, volume 1, p.110
[8] Oros
Hakodesh, volume 3, p. 274
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