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Pages tagged "Shmini"


Cherish The Quiet

Posted on Weekly Wisdom by Juliet Silverman · April 25, 2025 7:26 AM

I just returned from Israel.
It was a very special time.
We were blessed to spend the Passover holiday with my Mother.
I’m in that sandwich generation.
Wherever I am, I’m missing someone.
So while I was blessed with the privilege of spending time with my beloved Mom, I really missed the children and grandkids.
It was really quiet.
It’s funny though.
Sometimes in the quietest of places, sounds take on such a profound meaning.
The times I made my Mother laugh were precious. The laughter was all the more resonant as it rang out on its own. There was no competition with other sounds.
As things were so quiet, somehow certain sounds became very impactful.
There were some ominous sounds that had a very different effect.
During the holiday there was a “red alert” the siren that indicates incoming missiles.
That sound propelled me to move my very elderly Mother from her chair out into a protected stairwell. She laboriously made her way down to a landing and sat as the building’s intercom system noisily blasted warnings to take cover.
That noise was jarring and frightening. My Mom was stoic throughout but I know she thinks of the bombs that fell during WW2. She often told me about the “doodlebug” bomb which would enter the area with much noise but would fall eerily silent just before it would explode. How awful that all these years later she has to suffer through those terrible sounds again.
Walking towards the Kotel, the Wailing Wall, I heard another sound that chilled me to the bone. We passed a long line of priests marching as part of a religious ritual. They walked with staffs in hand and knocked the sticks on the ground in a methodical beat.
The reverberations of the staff beating on the cobblestones made a bone chilling sound.
I felt as if I was hearing the call that heralded pogroms of centuries past.
We stopped respectfully to allow the priests to pass, but I shivered inside from that stark sound echoing through the passage of time.
Silence is challenging.

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Make Space For Silence

Posted on Weekly Wisdom by Juliet Silverman · April 05, 2024 8:53 AM

Day 181
It’s hard not to scream.
Our natural reaction to the challenges, the ongoing losses, the lack of support from the world community - it makes you want to scream.
This week’s Torah portion, once again so timely, teaches us how to react in moments of tragedy.
The portion, entitled Shmini, which means the eighth, speaks of the celebration of sanctifying the Tabernacle.
There were eight days of sanctification, and on the eighth day, the height of spirituality, a tragedy occurred.
Nadav and Avihu, two sons of Aaron the High Priest, themselves priests or Cohanim, brought a strange fire into the Tabernacle.
Due to their elevated spiritual status and the intense holiness of the day, their action was punishable by death.
The two sons of Aaron the Cohen, died tragically at the time that should have been the pinnacle of joy.
The Torah records the reaction of Aaron, the bereaved father.
He was silent.
Sivan Rahav Meir and Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi share some incredible insights into this tragic incident and share wisdom with us for our present situation.
The day Aaron’s sons died was a holy day, a joyous day.
So too, October 7 was Simchat Torah, a holy and joyous day.
And so many of our children died.
Pure and holy children.
How do we respond?
Aaron was silent.
This is not because he has no words. Aaron was the orator.
He was the one chosen by Gd to speak on behalf of Moses.
But here he has nothing to say.
He makes space for silence.
This is hard for us to fathom.
We are challenged by silence.
In fact, they are called uncomfortable silences.
It’s hard for us.
We feel the need to keep talking.
We have so many questions and we need answers.
But here Aaron is silent.
Yet this is the most talked about silence ever.
It was a thunderous silence.
One born of faith.
It raises the question for us, why are we so uncomfortable with silence?
When a person is sitting shiva for the loss of a loved one and people come to comfort the mourner, there is a Jewish law regarding the conversation.
The mourner needs to speak first. Until the mourner says something and opens the conversation, the visitors are supposed to sit quietly.
Not talk.
Just be there with the mourner.
Give the mourner space and just give the gift of support and presence.
Without talking.
The Torah teaches us that to help people heal we should be quiet.
“Silence is not an empty void, but a language of its own. We need to hear it’s profound voice.”
There is a renaissance of a Chassidic movement called Breslov. One of its main messages is that of quiet, personal introspection.
This allows one to pause.
It permits quiet, and moments not filled with constant tittle tattle that allow us to hear and perhaps truly listen.

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