Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Dan, for you older folks, and by older folks, in this. In this particular context, that means you were watching TV in the 1970s or 80s, probably us TV, but maybe internationally. I'm going to say a phrase.
You're going to fill in the response. Okay, it's just one. It's very easy when Ef Hutton talks.
Good.
My broker says, in the long run, that kind of investment could be a good idea.
What's your broker say?
Well, my broker is ef Hutton.
And Ef Hutton says, when ef Hutton talks, people listen.
Three times in the Torah, Moses is called.
There are only three times at which we find this word to call him. Can you tell me the first one?
The burning bush. Exodus three. When Hashem saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him, Vayikra, when's the second one?
It was another big thing that Moses was a part of Mount Sinai. Exodus 19 three.
And Moses went up to Hashem, and Hashem called to him from the mountain, saying, and the last one, this one you should get if you read the Torah portion this week. Vayikra, Hashem Vayikra.
He called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying a bunch of things.
Each one of these calls, these three unique calls, has something very obvious in common.
What comes after it is absolutely momentous. There is a massive thing that needs to happen now with the burning bush and with Mount Sinai. That seems obvious, right?
But something monumentally important is about to happen in this as well. First, deliver Israel. He says, at the burning bush at Mount Sinai. He says, I want you to teach them. I want them to know me. I want them to understand, have no other gods before me. Moses, I'm telling you these things. Bring the instructions to Israel. And now in Vayikra, I want you to instruct them in the way in which they will approach me, in the way in which they will draw near to me to stay in connection, to be reconciled. Remember the book of Exodus which we just finished? It ended with this situation. Moses had completed the work. The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the presence of Hashem filled the tabernacle. Moses barged right in, right? No, Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the presence of Hashem filled the tabernacle. And now he's calling to God from the tent of meeting.
And you can be assured if when E. F. Hutton talks, people listen.
When God calls you from the tent of meeting, you listen.
And I had to show you that commercial, because some of you, first of all are too young to remember it, and that breaks my heart. But I wanted you to see something that you probably, you noticed, but it may just not have resonated with you.
When they all stopped, when all the activity ceased, what did you hear?
Nothing.
Silence.
Why?
Because everyone was listening.
Everyone wanted to hear. Everyone knew something important was coming. And so you can imagine all the more the perspective, the posture, the lean in of Moses, when God calls Moses, and there's silence as Moses listens.
Silence.
More than any other book of the TOrah, before or after this one, God will speak. More in Leviticus than any other place, God will speak.
And unlike genesis, especially Exodus, the Exodus, the book of mighty acts and miraculous occurrences and action and movement and all these things, we arrive now at the stillness of Leviticus.
Everything happens in one place. There's no moving.
It's still.
And God calls to speak to Moses about law and life and love, and he commands him to share it with the people, to teach them. You see, the people now know God, right? They know the Hebrew word Yada. Most people know this word. To know Yada, they know him. That was like the big Thing in Exodus 15 times. I don't remember the exact count, but so that Egypt will know that I am God. So that the children of Israel will know that I am God. So Israel will know, so Pharaoh will know that I am God. Guess what? They know him.
That word shows up one time in Leviticus. It's toward the end. They already know him, but now they're going to know about him and them.
And drawing near through his mouthpiece, Moses, the one who is called, the one who will, they will learn what he wants them to do, because they know him.
And for Moses to accomplish this task, though he is silent, he listens.
My God is Hashem.
And when Hashem calls, I listen.
You notice at the burning bush, you can see how Moses has matured a little bit and understood now the value of this. At the burning bush, God calls to him, Moses, Moses, Hinei.
Here I am. What is what?
But through Sinai, and now, especially in Leviticus, there is no response. There's just.
Listen.
What is silence? I don't mean the absence of sound. I don't even mean of speaking clearly. God was speaking here, and Moses was hearing. And I'm talking actually about a different kind of silence, that of focus, of contemplation, a mindset, of preparing oneself to hear things, really important things, not to be thinking of what needs to be said or saying. I wish they'd stopped talking. I've got something great to say, which is how almost everyone converses in humanity.
You're talking, and they're like, you just can't stop. You can't listen, you can't wait. That's not the silence. That's not focused, that's not contemplative. I'm talking about the lost art of embracing silence in order to hear what actually needs to be heard, and especially when God is calling, and I still believe he is calling. I still believe that. That God still calls us. Maybe not with the level of call that Moses got, but a calling nonetheless. Deep into our hearts, into our restless minds, sometimes into our troubled souls. God speaks in a way that can be heard there, but we're not very good at hearing it, because the world, our world that we've created and we perpetuate, knows no silence.
And Pierke Avot Chimon, who was the son of Gamliel, used to say, all my days, I grew up among the sages. I've found nothing better for a person than silence.
And I know what you're thinking. He's right.
Nothing better for a person than silence. I so much wish so and so would shut up.
He's talking to you and to me.
Nothing better for you and me than silence. That's what Shimon said.
Leviticus offers us such a beautiful story. Not a story, such a study, such beautiful material.
It's ironic, I know, to talk about. I say it all the time. I make jokes about blood and fat and livers, but it's beautiful when you understand it. And people love to study the book of Leviticus and uncover deeper meanings. And I did a series on YouTube called a better covenant. First Torah Club does Leviticus great. Five minute Torah does great work with Leviticus. But, you know, I can't help this. I'm a practical kind of guy. And this year, at this time, reading those words, vayikra, hashem, vayikra, and God called to Moses.
He just spoke to me, and those words echoed in my soul.
I'm still calling.
Are we listening?
Can we hear it?
So, with all the beauty of sacrifices available for your personal study, my introduction to the book of Leviticus this year has to do with a different kind of sacrifice. It is equally important, maybe even more important, the kind of sacrifice I believe, that Moshe offered before he heard anything about sacrifices. And that is simply the sacrifice of silence, one that may, in this crazy world, restore some peace and sanity into not only your mind, but also your soul.
Because, really, the book of Leviticus is about a lot more than sacrifices. I mean, we read on about all the ways we're supposed to love one another, right? And how we're not supposed to put stumbling blocks in front of people. But learning to offer this type of sacrifice will help you do both of these things. Kelly's teaching a Musar class on shalom at home right now. If you've never done Musar classes with Kelly Eisner, you've missed out, and you should. You can't do this one. It's too late. But the next one she does, you should do so. Some of her materials are laying around, and I picked one up and read it.
Actually, she told me I needed to read it.
And it's on this week's attribute, Stika.
Silence.
She told me to read it. You get it?
Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Shh. Be silent.
But you see, having these thoughts already roaming around in my head of Moses being called and listening intently to the words of Hashem, when I read this quote from the book everyday holiness by Alan Morinus, he said this, the central statement of faith in Judaism is the shema, which reads, here, o Israel. Here, o Israel. Here, o Israel. The Lord is our God.
It sets a tone for receiving, which is so deeply intertwined with silence and attentiveness. This contrasts so sharply with our current era, where silence is often filled with distractions, noise, and constant stimulation.
And that quote knocked me over quietly.
The value of science is certainly science. Science is good sometimes. But the value of silence is not uniquely jewish. That's quite obvious.
Zeno, one of my favorite stoics, the founder of stoicism, is the one who's quoted, often quoted. It's probably right. We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Mother Teresa. We need to find God. He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. The Dalai Lama. Silence is sometimes the best answer. St. Isaac of Syria, a christian monk. Silence is the language of the age to come, and prayer is its dialect. Rumi, the 13th century Sufi persian mystic. The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. Gandhi. In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in a clearer light.
That's a lot of traditions represented, but it should not surprise you that Rabbi Jonathan Sachs encapsulates for me best.
Silence is the language of faith.
True faith is the faith that can stand in the presence of God with all the noise and confusion of the world and still know that in this place, silence speaks more eloquently than words.
That is to say, to be in tune with the voice of God requires that we are listening because sometimes, at especially important times in your life, God is speaking to you quietly.
Just ask who?
Elijah.
And you all know the scenario. Elijah had done this amazing thing. Then somebody talked nasty to him and he got scared and he ran and he's pouring it all out before God.
What am I going to do, kill me?
Yet he witnessed all the loud things, right? The fire and the earthquake and the great strong wind. Yet the text tells us that the Lord was not in any of these dramatic displays. God was revealing himself in a kol damama daka.
That is what you know to be a still, small voice or a soft murmuring sound. But I love the NRSV's translation of this, the sound of sheer silence.
And the point is made. It's where God was, and he called to Elijah from that place.
And how many of those opportunities do you allow in the course of your day?
That's a question for you.
I want to draw on the rich tradition of Musar to give you two practical applications for cultivating silence, for reaping the benefits of this sacrifice of silence in the Musar way of thinking. There's a lot of talk about silence, but it's really more about restraint of speaking than it is this contemplative quiet or the absence of sound. Let me speak to all those things. But first and foremost, the most difficult kind of silence that one must learn speaks to a very different issue than what you hear. It speaks to what comes out of your mouth.
Learning to develop the idea to keep your mouth closed, that is a very valuable silence and a gift.
My brother is like vice president of some major company in Atlanta, and he's their sales guru. And he has a whole team of people under him. And I can't even believe it because he's just my little punk brother, but he's actually good at what he does. And I was having a conversation with him this week, and I was trying to convince him of the merit and of an idea that I had. And he said, well, he agreed with me, which was amazing. He doesn't do that very often.
And I kept on talking, presenting some of the other benefits. He goes, Damien, I said, yes.
Sales rule number one, when they say yes, stop talking.
And I thought to myself, man, how relevant in so many areas outside of sales, right?
I mean, don't blow it for yourself. Proverbs 17 says a knowledgeable man is sparing with his words. A man of understanding is reticent. And this is my favorite, 1728, even a fool, if he keeps silent, is deemed wise, intelligent. If he seals his lips, don't blow it for yourself. That's a universal rule. But Judaism speaks specifically to this type of silence, this act of speech, restraint, with these words.
Shmirat Lashon. Everyone knows lashon hara, right? Everyone knows the term evil speech, evil tongue, wicked speech, talking about people.
But you know how you prevent. Lashan Hara, Shmirat Lashon.
To guard one's tongue, to learn restraint in speech, this is something you must incorporate guarding the tongue from the word shomer. You heard the term shomer shabbos. That means one who observes, who guards, who protects.
The summary is very simple.
Say less. And above all, in nearly every single case, that has something to do with talking about someone else, say nothing.
You got that rule? Say less. And about other people, say nothing.
This is important. And here's what I thought of when I was writing this. What is this talk teaching.
I thought, how amazing would it be if you hooked up an electric shock collar to every human being in the world?
It just a little jolt or a big jolt into the neck. When we spoke a word about someone else, I bet you. I bet you within a week, the world would be so quiet, you thought you lived on the moon.
Imagine. Imagine cable news television.
Imagine politicians.
Imagine the water cooler conversations.
I mean, the divine shock collar zaps. When you begin to talk about someone else. And I'm not just talking about gossip. I'm talking about even negative statements that are true, zap.
Gossip. Definite zap. Negative speech that is not true.
Zap. Zap.
Even speech that implies negativity about another human.
Zap.
Can you even imagine how quiet the world would be?
Very few people will commit a sexual offense. More people in matters of theft. Yet everyone transgresses the tongue.
Now, what's funny, actually not funny at all, about the shot collar, is that we actually have one.
I tell you that for every careless or useless word, Yeshua says in Matthew twelve that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned. You may not feel the shock collar, but it's there, and you will feel it.
Now, listen, I did a podcast with Heidi Barr about a near death experience, and I think it was that or some other video I saw about someone reporting something that happened to them.
And one of the most profound experiences that they encountered was some point in their life. They had been in the backseat of a car with another friend or little boy whom they said incredibly hurtful words to and in this life review, she felt his pain.
I want you to think about that for 1 second. I'm not speaking about near death experiences or weighing in on these at all, but I just want you to think about what Yeshua said and what that experience. I'm not talking about scaring the hell out of you or fire and brimstone. I'm talking about, can you imagine if in this process, you have to feel the hurt that you inflicted from your words to another human being, or thousands of them? I don't know.
That's enough to say, God help me to never speak an ill word of someone, even it says a careless word.
There was a rabbi who had a dream, and in it appeared to him another rabbi Yehuda. And rabbi Yehuda, his hair was glowing. His beard, every hair of his beard was flaming with light. And the rabbi said, rav, yehuda, what have you done? He had died. He's coming back in this dream. And he says, rav, yehuda, what is going on?
How?
And he said, it's just because I was so cautious to never speak a careless word of another.
It's just wake up time. I'm joking about a shock collar, but it's shock time. It's shock to your system, because I want you to go out of here, and when you start talking with people, I want you to get that spiritual shock that says, oh, my gosh. I was sitting in a purple chair in Macon, and he said this was going to happen.
When you start talking about somebody else and you just stop it.
You just stop it and you walk away.
It's a silence. You must know I am not good at it just because I'm standing up here. I'm in ministry. Do you know how bad I like to talk about? I'm just kidding.
But you see all this noise? The noise blocks out our spiritual ears from hearing the voice we really need to be hearing. It's not your own. It's not your gossipy coworker.
It's the one who speaks quietly.
There's a second part of the practice of silence. There are many parts, but this one I want to tell you, because it's not just about other people. It's about you. This is really important.
You've got to tune out the noise. And in this life, man, that requires sacrifice. It really does.
It really does. We have become so averse to silence and to boredom that we can barely tolerate a moment without something to do. I'm a musician. When I drive down the road, especially since I've been doing this, I'm like, to turn on the radio.
I got to hear music. No, just sit there and drive and listen.
We were going somewhere after dinner, and we were in two cars. She was following me, and I immediately want to get in the car and jam some kind of awesome music that I love. But I'm watching her drive in front of me, and I just don't put the music on. And I'm looking at her jetting down the road in her little Ford in front of me in pure silence. And you know what it did? It opened up my mind to thoughts of gratitude about my wife and how happy I was.
Such a small thing. But if you make space in the quiet to hear, you never know what can be revealed to you.
To wait quietly for something. Oh, to stand in line. What do you do?
The screens, man. The screens, the phones, the sounds, the noise.
We need to just contemplate to hear the world around us. It's not even strictly silence. Listen to birds and rain and wind and just sit there and cultivate that. It's not silence necessarily outside of you, but from within. Listen. We say we want to be closer to God. We want to acquire wisdom, right?
Of course we do. You want wisdom. Pirkayavot Rabbi Akiva said, offense to wisdom is silence.
That means silence preserves wisdom. Silence is seen as a virtue that allows you to listen, reflect, consider, make space for wisdom. And again to Moses being called, and in turn listening. Yes, it was audible, but he was quiet just taking it in. He didn't have an iPhone.
He wouldn't have taken it out of his pocket anyway, because he needed to hear. Judaism ascribes silence as this vessel of the secret, that is to say, silence, the necessary condition before any profound revelation or insight can show up for you. Do you hear that?
Glass? Half full, half empty. You want a fully empty glass when you're sitting in silence, waiting to hear.
It's full of potential. It's the vessel into which the divine wisdom can pour, and it must be empty. Silence can hold secrets of the divine that can't be fully articulated in human language. So now listen. I'm speaking to all the zealous students among us, which is all of us, right? This is messianic Judaism, and we're all scholars and we're studying and we're learning, and we've got the podcast going and we've got the YouTube teacher going, and we've got whatever, everything. We're just taking it in, man, learning, discussing, laboring to pursue knowledge and wisdom at every opportunity.
If I'm in my car, I'm listening to a podcast. Did you hear that? Podcast.
Meanwhile, they've got their earphones in their ears, talking to me. Everybody's walking around with an earphone in their ear because not you, but like a lot of people, so that there's a constant inflow.
But I'm learning.
I'm constantly getting something from God. How much are you listening really hearing, just being there in the silence?
How empty is your vessel of silence? Do you ever stop and sit? Do you ever just be quiet? Are you ever truly still listening for that revelation? Your soul needs silence, you hear me? Contemplative silence. You need.
And it's hard to find it if you don't make it.
I'm not even talking about your prayer.
And yes, I am talking for a while today because you drove to Macon. So that's what I got to do.
There's this concept in hasidic Judaism called chit bode, which is from this word boded. It means alone, solitary.
Okay.
You are often seclusion, going away from the world, isolating yourself, which is certainly conducive to silence. Here's something that Rabbi Shlomo Wolby said. This is from also in everyday holiness, you can only get a feeling for your internal life when you are alone. With a half hour of being alone, you can come to feel things that you never knew about yourself and see what you're lacking in spirituality.
You will set new goals to reach. This can only be done if you spend time alone in seclusion. This way you start to build your internal spiritual world. And then you passionately make your prayers known unto God.
That is, to speak to him after you've made room for him to speak to you.
This is different than your prayer time, I guess. This is prep time for prayer time. This is the most authentic version of quiet time one could ever have.
The Mishnah, very old text, five one. There's a tradition that the early generations of pious men, this is the Anshegidolim, the men of the great assembly, would wait 1 hour in order to reach the solemn frame of mind appropriate for prayer. Did you hear that?
Would wait 1 hour and then pray so that they would focus their hearts toward the Father in heaven, Mother Teresa. Again, God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.
An hour may be too much to ask. 30 minutes may be too much to ask. How about ten minutes?
How about starting there?
How about five minutes? Starting there to sit.
Thomas Merton was a trappist monk. He said, silence is God's first language. Everything else is a poor translation. I wouldn't necessarily agree it's the first language, but it's up there. Just ask Elijah, and for that matter, ask Yeshua, who was known for going off his own version of hitbodeut. And I guarantee you, when he got there, I can't say I guarantee you. Scratch that from the record, my inclination tells me that when he got there, it wasn't walking into the presence. Say, all right, here's the deal, God. But, dad, listen up. I got this going on. I got this going on. I got this going on. I imagine it was something more along the lines of and just feeling the embrace.
See, even that silence is awkward, isn't it? We're not used to it.
Yeshua, when he was accused by Pilate, he said nothing.
When Herod challenged him, he said nothing. Like a sheep, Isaiah says, led to the slaughter. Silent. He said nothing. But he heard the voice of God amidst the clamor because he was filled in so many ways. But I imagine in this way as well.
Ecclesiastes, a time to be silent, a time to speak. Yeshua spoke, and he knew when to be silent. He knew the power of it, and we should, too. There is a time to speak. It's Purim tonight, the Book of Esther. It's in essence a book kind of, of silence, isn't it? God is behind the scenes.
Esther knows what has to be done, but she spends this time preparing herself, fasting in prayer and probably a lot of contemplative thought and silence. It's after fasting, after seeking, after hearing, to listen, that then she goes before the king Moses, after being called to hear, to listen in three essential moments of action. Then he spoke. Elijah, his encounter with a still, small voice. He heard it, then he spoke. But you know what? He spoke most profoundly to his own wretched internal thoughts.
And he encountered God in a life altering way. And here's the conclusion for you.
Spending ten or 15 minutes just sitting quietly once or twice a day will change your life.
This focused concentration will spill over into all areas of life and generate peace and creativity and inner healing. That's Alan from everyday holiness, whether it's in the silent prayer or the liturgy or fast of silence or meditation, even though our lips may be closed so that no sound emerges, we still may not know. Quiet.
Inner quiet. That's because in its essence, silence is not just the absence of sound.
It is absolutely an inner state that goes to stillness and the noisiest things in your life are not usually a jet engine or a train or a screaming child.
They're your own thoughts from inside.
So seek stillness as we study and move through the book of Sacrifice, the Torah's book, I want to encourage you to take up a different kind of sacrifice, which is called som shtika tsom fast, a fast of silence.
Commit yourself to the idea that your soul needs silence, not for silent sake, but for you to make ample room for God to get in, to open up some space for God to get in past the noise and the screens and yes, the podcasts, even. Shalom, Macon.
It's hard for many of us, but you need to press on a true sacrifice of silence, even moments, minutes of silence, for your sake and for the voice of the creator to sound in your spirit. Hashem Vayikra, God is calling.
Still, I want to invite you to hear the voice.
Shabbat Shalom we're now going to have five minutes of contemplative silence.
Let's stand.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Please visit our website, shalommaken.org, to learn more about us. Join our live services, access other teachings, sign up for our newsletter, join our private network that will connect you with our greater community from around the world, or contribute to the work of Shalom, Macon thank you for watching, and we look forward to connecting with.
