Skip to main content

The unified voice whispering inside of me


 

In Megillas Rus the first pasuk tells a story, but it doesn't have the name of any characters. The second pasuk tells you the story from the perspective of the husband. The third Pasuk tells you the story from the perspective of the wife.  And, then the fourth pasuk tells you the story from the perspective of the sons. So, what is going on here?  The narrator of the story constantly changes, and we are trying to figure out why. Why is this change in narration so important in the book of Ruth?

We could imagine that in the process of a conversion that there are different voices. There is the voice of your past, the voice of relationships, and the voice of your inner drive to connect to something that's certainly there, but, as yet, beyond you.

 

Let’s look at these different voices in the context of Har Sinai. At Har Sinai there was         "Kieesh Echad Bilev Echad" -- right away, the first day B’nei Yisroel were there. Wouldn’t you think that it would make sense to have this idea of a unified voice later, on the actual day of Revelation? You know, different things happened at that time in the desert. In the days between the arrival at Sinai, Kieesh Echad Bilev Echad, we now have “one man with one heart”, and things began to change. Husbands and wives had to separate, some marriages had to be broken up because people were married to sisters or aunts. Many changes had to be made in this process at Har Sinai. And not only were there these external changes that had to be made…

 

If you recall the day of Har Sinai … it’s like … I wake up, okay, and then I hear Moshe Rabbainu saying, “Weinberg! What's the matter? Why don’t you get up?!” But, I don't know G-d is waiting for me over there at Sinai. And, you know, I jump up and put on my clothes, I get out so fast, I didn't even take a shower that morning. I have to tell you, it's just like jumping up. And then the minute I jump up, I hear thunder and lightning and all sorts of sounds! And they open up the door to my cloud and there's all sorts of major sound effects and stunning light effects. And I’m thinking, “Hey, man, there ain't no way I'm going there!” I'm too scared to go anywhere near there! But there’s Moshe, and he’s saying, “Weinberg! GET out here! Now! G-d is standing out there waiting for you the way the bridegroom waits for the bride. Come on!”

 

…Well, okay….

 

So … I had mixed feelings about going, yes?

 

And yet, even though I had mixed feelings about going, the Torah says that I was able to speak in a unified voice. But wait, how could I possibly speak in a unified voice with all of you, if I didn't even have a unified voice inside of myself?

 

If I don't know my own voice, can I really have a unified voice with all of you?

 

So how did we do it?

 

Shavuot was only just a couple days ago, so…? How did we do it?

 

I think that Parsha Naso juxtaposed next to Megillas Rus is telling us something very deep. The message is to elevate you, elevate you.  The “Har Sinai One Voice” and the “Rus different narrator voices” are stories about how to find your own voice, despite the fact that there are so many internal voices inside all of us. And part of this process, is … and we're going to go step by step … but ultimately the process will be that when you are learning Hashem's Torah, when you are davening to Hashem, or when you are observing one of the Mitzvos of the Creator, you will have to have sufficient clarity to understand that you are actually having an internal conversation. You are whispering to yourself, trying to unify all of the different voices.

 

Parsha Naso is taking you through steps that are necessary for you to learn how to have an internal conversation with yourself, and to resolve that conversation. Because one aspect of Torah is the way Torah was taught to Moshe Rabbainu – that Moshe overheard G-d speaking to G-d's Self.  That means that the “Hashem speaking to Himself” is part of the essence of Torah, which means that for you, that when you’re learning Torah, you have this capacity to channel this concept, and if you follow certain steps that are described in this Parsha, to have this internal conversation and to pay attention to it;  to hear the differing whispering voices and to resolve them, then we can try to master this internal conversation**.


Comments by Machberes Avodas Hashem

** See the next blog on “Nishmas” for more on this concept.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Creation

 All was destroyed during the month of Av. Creation began on Elul, and, so it will again. We recite this prayer for the New Month focusing on Creation. “God created the world in order to do good to an other (Derech Hashem 1:2:1).” Creation was an expression of absolute love, the “other” had done nothing to earn it. This is why Elul, the month of Creation is also the month of intense love between God and Israel. I recite this prayer imaging myself participating in the final Heavenly planning meetings before Creation. I am not praying as one who has already existed and experienced success and failure, but as one who has the opportunity to see the world before Creation, and request in this moment of intense love all that I could possibly need and want. I use this prayer to prepare for all my Elul prayers until the 25th of the month when Creation began. For what shall I ask? What will I need to succeed? How will I define success? What do I hope to achieve? Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

Who clothes the naked

"Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of a young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it." "But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas." "Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to t...

SPECIAL THANKS

  “I will sing to God while I live, I will sing praises to my Lord while I endure.” (Psalms 104:33)  A Torah scholar who has a broad mind able to connect different parts of the Torah, one to the other, must add to the  blessing recited by all who merit to study Torah each day:  “Thank you for placing me among those who sit in the Beit Midrash,” with a special blessing for the gift of his mind and ability to discover new ideas. So too, a person who is blessed with a great awareness of God and can therefore attain a higher level of Awe of God, must express his gratitude each day for this gift. Application: “I will sing to God while I live,” refers to singing our gratitude for our spritual gifts, each person focusing on his special strengths. “I will sing praises to my Lord while I endure,” refers to singing our thanks for our physical gifts. (Rabbi Ephraim Yitzchak of Parmishlan – Mishna Rishona) By:  Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y