Rosh Hashana Day 2 - "The Answerer of Whispers"

Rosh Hashana - Day 2

Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

עונה לחש   The Answerer of Whispers -

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019

Dear friends,

With Hashem's help, I will be taking a trip to NY next week with my family, from Wednesday September 4th to Wednesday September 11th. If you would like to visit, please text or whatsapp (917)634-0706 or email rabbi@chabadwestvillage.com

This is a big undertaking for my wife, family, friends, Hatzolo and the Hurwitz family fund. I am grateful to them for making this trip possible, I don't know when I will be able to do it again.

The above blog post^[1] contains just under 100 words.  It was sent by Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz in advance of his son’s bar mitzvah and it likely took him an hour or so to compose.  Rabbi Hurwitz, a Chabad emissary in California, suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, the disease that famously struck Lou Gherig as well as the central character in Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie”.

Yitzi’s disease has rendered him immobile, he is unable to speak or type, but through the miracles of modern technology he uses his eyes to dictate his communications to the world.  His divrei Torah and words of encouragement have garnered a massive following and are sent out several times per week.   Many of us spend a lifetime looking for our authentic voice, trying desperately to be heard, to use our voice so that we may impact the world in some meaningful way.  This remarkable individual has managed to wield a far greater influence precisely because he has no voice at all.

Every holiday has a cheftza d’mitzvah - from Matzah on Pesach, to the Sukkah or Lulav and Esrog on Succot and the candles on Chanukah.  What is the cheftza, the tool utilized in worship on Rosh Hashana?  You might be quick to respond that, of course, it is the Shofar.  However, the shofar is not everything, in fact, on those years in which Rosh Hashana coincides with Shabbat, we don’t pick the shofar up at all!  Rather, the object is the קול, the voice.

There are two kinds of voices which find expression today.  There is at once the booming voice of the shofar gadol, and then there is the faint and subtle voice referred to as a קול דממה דקה, a silent and still sound.

What is a קול דממה דקה?   In the piyut “וכל מאמינים”, authored in the 5th century by one of Israel’s earliest liturgical poets, Yanai, this lower key, more reserved and subdued tone is mentioned:

וכל מאמינים שהוא עונה לחש

                       And all believe that He responds in in a whisper

Rav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, author of the sefer Em habanim Semeicha, in his work Mishnat Sachir explains that this means that God answers us בלחש, in a whisper, so that no one else should hear, no one else should sense that we are being favored in Judgement:

משנת שכיר, רב טייכטל

וכל מאמינים שהוא עונה לחש

...עפ"י הזוהר הקדוש שאומרים קודם תקיעת שופר שיושב בי"ד למעלה, והכל כאשר הוא למטה, עיי"ש. ולפעמים אם הבעל דין הוא אהוב להדיין השופט עליו ומבקש ממנו שייטיב עמו, הוא עונה אותו לחש כדי שלא ישמעו האחרים. כמו כן אנו מבקשים מהקב"ה, 'מלפניך משפטינו יצא עיניך תחזינה מישרים', ע"ז הוא עונה אותנו לחש שיעשה רצוננו, אבל עכ"פ אנו מוכרחים לעשות עכ"פ תשובה. ודו"ק.

How does God respond to us?  He whispers.

God answers us with little hints in quiet unassuming ways not in broad sweeping movements.

We call out to Him all to him - but because He responds בלחש it can prove difficult to detect.  His influence is the small stroke of a paintbrush on a canvas with a busy background.  Our challenge is to diffuse the background noise and tune in to the word of God.

Every evening in my home we try our best to do just that during our nightly family dinners.  We have recently introduced a new “ritual” in which each family member is required to participate.  We put the phones and devices away, on a shelf, in a drawer or somewhere else out of reach. Next, we pose the same question day in, day out - not “how was school?  Or “how did the test go?” - rather - “Where did you see Hashem today in your life?

Then the responses begin to come:
“I received partial credit for an answer on a difficult exam!” then the next, “Me teacher paid me a compliment!” , “I made a shot from the third line”...It can be done by any of us.. Just think about the small voice of God in your life!  Where did you hear His voice?  Was it something validating?  He surely spoke with you today, but do you know what He said?

When we ask for our needs today, for life, for prosperity, for chinuch, for an ailing parent or friend, remember God responds with a whisper.  Do not despair if the answer doesn't come all at once or with large grandiose gestures.  For God speaks to his beloved children in whisper!

It is thus not surprising that the kriat ha’Torah for Rosh Hashana features moments in which the Almighty is responding בלחש:  On the first day of Rosh Hashana we read the story of Hagar and her son, Yishmael  If you recall, Yishmael was on the brink of death from dehydration.  In that moment Hagar issued a guttural cry:

בראשית פרק כא

 אֶת־קֹלָ֖הּ וַתֵּֽבְךְּ וַתִּשָּׂ֥א

And she lifted up her voice and cried

To which God responded by providing a vision -

וַיִּפְקַ֤ח אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־עֵינֶ֔יהָ וַתֵּ֖רֶא בְּאֵ֣ר מָ֑יִם וַתֵּ֜לֶךְ וַתְּמַלֵּ֤א אֶת־הַחֵ֙מֶת֙ מַ֔יִם וַתַּ֖שְׁקְ אֶת־הַנָּֽעַר

And the Lord opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad to drink

Radak understands that it's possible that the well was there all along - all God did was open up her eyes and call her attention to it:

  רד"ק בראשית פרק כא

(יט) ויפקח - אפשר שהיה הבאר שם והיה מכוסה בין השיחים או היה רחוק ממנה; כמו ותלך ותמלא, ואלהים הטיב ראותה לפי שעה לראותו.

There wasn't a sweeping miracle by any means, rather a tiny nudge, a subtle call to her attention, so as to say “remember, I am still here, I will guide you through this crisis”.

The same thing happened to Avraham at the akeida:

God showed Avraham a horn caught in an entanglement of branches:

בראשית פרק כב

וַיִּשָּׂ֨א אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֶת־עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּרְא֙ וְהִנֵּה־אַ֔יִל אַחַ֕ר נֶאֱחַ֥ז בַּסְּבַ֖ךְ בְּקַרְנָ֑יו

What changed from one moment to the next?  What miracle was wrought that meant the difference between life and death?  Not much at all, an animal rustling in the bushes, the sort of noise you might hear on a nature hike and ignore.

We want an indication that He cares and that He is listening, we can have that, just look up, or put your ear to the tracks, listen carefully. Can we hear the whisper?  Can you see Hashem in your life?  

I want to share another possible interpretation of the words:

 וכל מאמינים שהוא עונה לחש

Perhaps Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not responding in a לחש, rather He is the One who responds to the לחש.

Maybe God is not whispering, maybe we are the ones whispering:

The story of Chana (Haftara for the first day of Rosh Hashana) is not just a story about a barren woman whose prayers are answered, but the story of someone who prays in a whisper:

שמואל א פרק א

(יג) וְחַנָּ֗ה הִ֚יא מְדַבֶּ֣רֶת עַל־לִבָּ֔הּ רַ֚ק שְׂפָתֶ֣יהָ נָּע֔וֹת וְקוֹלָ֖הּ לֹ֣א יִשָּׁמֵ֑עַ וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ עֵלִ֖י לְשִׁכֹּרָֽה:

(יד) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ עֵלִ֔י עַד־מָתַ֖י תִּשְׁתַּכָּרִ֑ין הָסִ֥ירִי אֶת־יֵינֵ֖ךְ מֵעָלָֽיִךְ:

(טו) וַתַּ֨עַן חַנָּ֤ה וַתֹּ֙אמֶר֙ לֹ֣א אֲדֹנִ֔י אִשָּׁ֤ה קְשַׁת־ר֙וּחַ֙ אָנֹ֔כִי וְיַ֥יִן וְשֵׁכָ֖ר לֹ֣א שָׁתִ֑יתִי וָאֶשְׁפֹּ֥ךְ אֶת־נַפְשִׁ֖י לִפְנֵ֥י יְקֹוָֽק:

13 Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard; therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken.

14 And Eli said unto her: 'How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.'

15 And Hannah answered and said: 'No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before the LORD.

The Gemara teaches that we derive many of the laws of tefila from Chana’s prayer including the halacha that amidah should be inaudible to others:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת ברכות דף לא עמוד א

יכול ישמיע קולו בתפלתו? - כבר מפורש על ידי חנה, שנאמר: וקולה לא ישמע.

Thus, the spokeswoman for Rosh Hashana is also the founder of a new sort of encounter with God - the avoda of לחש, the quiet, discreet and intimate mode of service. 

This sort of prayer was foreign to Eli, the High Priest.  For him, worshiping God had always been done in a loud and boisterous manner - the type of holy activity that is accompanied by blaring horns and great fanfare. Chana teaches us that one can have a private relationship with Hashem, one which no one else is privy to.   

Let us recall, that Avraham’s greatest nisayon, the Akeidat Yitzchak, does not happen before all to witness - in fact, he is given instructions to travel to an undisclosed location, “a place that will be shown to him”.  When he and Yitzchak finally arrive at this mountain without an address, he instructs his company Yishmael and Eliezer to remain at the base! - שבו לכם פה. 

The message is unmistakable: to serve properly we don't need the whole world to take notice, we prefer not publishing everything we do in a bombastic and ostentatious manner.  For this reason, the Gemara instructs us to set up a מקום קבוע during tefila, and that in doing so we find the God of Avraham in our corner:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת ברכות דף ו עמוד ב

אמר רבי חלבו אמר רב הונא: כל הקובע מקום לתפלתו - אלהי אברהם בעזרו.

The great challenge of our time is not open orthodoxy or ultra orthodoxy, its social orthodoxy;  A religion which is only worthwhile if someone sees me doing it, where we only speak about בן אדם לחבירו, and not about בן אדם למקום, where the worth of a person or organization is what they exhibit to the world, where I can only learn Torah if its hosted at a certain home or support a tzedaka that my peers are interested in supporting.  Or think about what we force our children to do in advance of their bar or bat mitzvah - the notion that every boy read his entire parsha, (and perhaps makes a siyum), and the need to engage in a Chesed project - like crocheting blankets for poor immigrants - being sure to stamp each item with the bat mitzvah girl’s personalized logo.    

I can't imagine that the angels are shaking in Heaven (ומלאכים יחפזון) when we wear our altruism and virtues on our sleeves. 

That stuff belongs to the world of the Shofar Gadol...but we belong to a different class - קול דממה דקה

  

Remember Chana, for whom real tefila is confined to the heart, to the words no one can hear.  Today’s tefila is the whisper of the person who doesn't even know how to wield the shofar - either because they are timid, unpopular, or believe that the establishment doesn't care about their voice, to the victims and the פשוטי עם... for them and for all of us, God is the עונה לחש, the one who responds to the whisper, the voice that has no one else to hear it.

This past Shabbos at mincha something painful and took place.

As I was reciting the א-ל מלא for the upcoming yarzheits, a member of our kehila approached me with a name – חנה בת דוד הלוי.  There was a sense of gravity an urgency worn on his face, more so than the usual resolve which is typically accorded to to a relative during the memorial prayer.   Once the prayer was completed, he turned to me and said – “you know that you just performed a great mitzvah.”  Intrigued, I asked “what would that be?” He said – “that was a Kel Malei Rachamim for my aunt, she was taken from the family in 1943 in Czechoslovakia by the cursed ones along with a number of other young girls, we never saw her again, we never spoke about her in the family.”  Perhaps it was too painful, perhaps there were no words to speak.  “I recently found out about her (a memorial plaque in her name has just been affixed to the wall) and so this was the very first opportunity to recite a El Malei for her neshama”.

It’s no accident that her name was Chana – like her namesake, she cried, but for so very long nobody could hear her voice or wipe away her tears.

But as we come close to the Yom HaDin – we are reminded that there is and was always One who listened!

The Rav’s relationship with his wife, Tonya Soloveitchik z”l is one of the most incredible stories of mutual love and affection.  He spoke about his wife as his closest friend and confidant, noting that he could tell things to his wife that he couldn't confide in anyone else in the world. 

And yet, as close as they were the Rav stated, in a truly self-revelatory moment, that there were things he couldn't even confide in his wife, but he always had God^[2] - He is the closest relationship any of us will ever have. 

Many of us feel that nobody understands our struggle, our concealed yearnings and ambitions, our pain, our prayers - remember, the עונה לחש gets it, He awaits our prayers, whether they come through a שופר גדול or a sacred .קול דממה דקה

---

^[1] http://yitzihurwitz.blogspot.com/

^[2] There is a similar idea in the Sforno’s commentary on Chumash - that we shouldnt mourn a parent excessively because there is one relationship which is closer and more intimate than any other in the world:

ספורנו דברים פרק יד פסוק א

(א) בנים אתם לה' אלהיכם לא תתגודדו. שאין ראוי להראות תכלית הדאגה והצער על הקרוב המת כשנשאר קרוב נכבד ממנו במעלה ובתקות טוב לפיכך אתם בנים לה' שהוא אביכם קיים לעד אין ראוי שתדאגו ותתאבלו בתכלית על שום מת: