Off The Pulpit: Current Newsletter   "A Time For Silence"
by Rabbi David Wolpe

The world will not keep quiet.

Stores play music, billboards blare, our cars, iPods, and cellphones bombard us with words, images, and music. Still, silence and absence are among our most important teachers. As a great pianist once remarked, his playing uniquely was distinguished less by the notes than the space between the notes. Mystics studied not only the black letters of the Torah, but the white spaces between them. Stillness, absence, silence — the first letter of the Ten Commandments was an aleph, which has no sound.

Ecclesiastes was certainly correct that “there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent.” Silence corresponds sometimes to a deep need inside of us for peace, for a brief cessation of the tumult that disguises our hunger and distracts our sadness. Even our tradition of words knows that words are not always welcome. The Midrash on Koheleth tells a story: The wife of Rabbi Mana died. Rabbi Abin came to pay a condolence call. Rabbi Mana asked, “Are there any words of Torah you would like to offer us in time of grief?” Rabbi Abin answered, “At times like this the Torah takes refuge in silence.”

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A Time For Silence

The world will not keep quiet.

Stores play music, billboards blare, our cars, iPods, and cellphones bombard us with words, images, and music. Still, silence and absence are among our most important teachers. As a great pianist once remarked, his playing uniquely was distinguished less by the notes than the space between the notes. Mystics studied not only the black letters of the Torah, but the white spaces between them. Stillness, absence, silence — the first letter of the Ten Commandments was an aleph, which has no sound.

...click here to read more

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Entering Synagogue - Open or Closed?

How do we walk into synagogue?

Too often we enter in a state of defensiveness and predation: we are both fearful for ourselves and ready to judge the dress, the conduct, and the company of others. Our dismissals are at the ready, firing as soon as the baby cries or the hosiery runs or the congregant behind us loudly whispers. God is little on our minds, since thoughts of God exist uneasily with focus on social hierarchy. Once we have ranked and settled, perhaps we can pray.

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Religious Communities in Tragic Times

The tragedies of the past weeks remind us why religious community matters:

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Take Off Your Shoes

When God appears at the burning bush, what is the first thing Moses is told to do? Take off his shoes.

One explanation offered by the Rabbis is that shoes separate us from the earth. Moses must feel each burr and stone, for he will need to learn to share the sufferings of Israel.

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Just Ask the Trees

How much of our pain is self inflicted? How much of our confusion is self-generated? As Bishop Butler remarked, "men first kick up a dust and then complain they cannot see."

The midrash offers a kindred insight. The Rabbis tell us that when iron was created, the trees began to tremble. Here was their certain foe in the shape of the axe. God said to them "Why are you trembling? If wood is not joined to it, not one of you will suffer." Without the axe handle, the iron is useless. The midrashic lesson is clear: that which we fear often gains its power through our own contribution.

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It's Illogical

Pure logic. Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek's Mr. Spock remind us of their blinding power. The stories are contrived but convincing — if only we could reason like that! Yet some marvelous books of mystery fiction depend upon the masterful detective getting things wrong. In Knox's The Viaduct Murder, and most famously, E.C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case the detective follows a very careful train of argument, meticulously reasoned, and is proved entirely mistaken. Spock too sometimes misfires. And then of course, there is Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory." So logical, so often wrong.
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People of the Wine Stained Book

If you ask yourself whether Jews really deserve the appellation "people of the book" consider the following: every synagogue is architecturally designed to highlight the ark, which contains a book; in praise of the scholar, in the Talmud it was said, upon his internment that, "a scroll of the law was buried today." And for the most famous meal of our tradition it is not enough to eat and drink and talk — one must read out of the Haggadah, which is a book. ...click here to read more

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Never Heard of It

Cultural references were once shared. Now, with the explosion and profusion of media, we no longer watch the same shows or listen to the same music. Denizens of each cultural cul-de-sac lament the ignorance of others who don’t know their favorite band or book, or the blogger, tweeter or pinterest goddess of the moment. ...click here to read more

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Bittersweet

The classical explanation for breaking a glass at the end of the wedding is to recall the destruction of Jerusalem. As the glass is broken, everyone screams out Mazel Tov! There is something peculiar, not only about recalling an historic tragedy at that exact moment, but also shouting for joy just as it is recalled. ...click here to read more

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Foundation of Faith

For many people, when tragedy strikes, faith is challenged. But as the late David Hartman wrote: "If one's whole sense of the life of faith depends upon a miracle-based conception of providence and the biblical promises of reward and punishment, then one risks exchanging God for alternative sources of well-being and security. The fundamental issue in the battle against idolatry is to prevent this from happening." ...click here to read more

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February

In Praise of Ignorance

In the age of knowledge who will say a nice word on behalf of ignorance?

Not deliberate ignorance. Turning away from discovery and insight is cowardice and ultimately destructive. But recognition of the limits of our knowledge is salutary and important. Years ago I heard a writer say that each time you read a biography you should imagine how well your best friend would do recounting your love life. When you realize that even those who know you best have large gaps and misperceptions, you read with a different, more skeptical eye. The story is told of Sir Walter Raleigh that he decided to end his history of the world when he couldn’t find the cause of a quarrel under his window at the Tower of London. ...click here to read more

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The Pleasure of Ruins

Walking through graveyards can be calming and powerful. They enshrine foreverness in a way that nothing else quite does. Each headstone is an emblem of eternity. Behind the inscription is all the passion of life reduced to a name, a few numbers, a brief description. The older and more moldering the yard, the more precious it seems. ...click here to read more

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On Whom Do We Rely?

Deep questions deserve more than one answer. Should we rely on God or on ourselves? In Exodus (14:15) as the Israelites approach the sea, Moses cries out to God. God answers, "Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move forward." So it seems a moment for self-reliance. But Rashi rereads the Hebrew to mean "Why do you cry out? It's on Me." In other words, God is saying — no need to cry out, I will save you. ...click here to read more

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January

Selfless Creation

Selfless creation is the backbone of the world. Like the architect who designs a house he will not inhabit, each of us must shape the world in ways that will not benefit us. We raise children to contribute to life after we are gone. We build businesses or write books or compose music to be enjoyed, we hope, when we are no more. Pitiful is the ambition that does not aim beyond itself. ...click here to read more

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That's Your Best Excuse???

Excuses, excuses. None of us lacks reasons or justifications. As Rabbi Joseph Telulshkin puts it, rationalizations are more important than food. After all, we have all gone a day without eating. ...click here to read more

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What Vanishes?

In his autobiography the great director Akira Kurosawa muses: "'Mono-no-aware,' sadness at the fleeting nature of things, like the sweet, nostalgic sorrow of watching the cherry blossoms fall — when I heard this ancient poetic term, I was suddenly struck by enlightenment as if waking from a dream." To recognize impermanence can be saddening but also an awakening. ...click here to read more

(Click here to read Rabbi Wolpe's take on Lance Armstrong and ego in America)

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The True Power of Now

"Live for the moment." "This is the only time you have." We have all heard these statements, statements of an undeniable but insufficient truth.

How we live now will have powerful implications for our lives in the days and years that follow. Since the odds are pretty good that now will not actually be the only moment we will ever have, don't live as if it were. ...click here to read more

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A New Year's Prayer

...click here to read
also appeared in The Huffington Post