Ki Tavo: The Silence Before the Sound
Parashat Ki Tavo repeats the words “Shema Yisrael” again and again. It is a cry for the Jewish people to listen, to hear, to pay attention.
Moshe tells the Jewish people, “Hasket u’shema” be silent and listen. And then he tells them that on that very day they are becoming a people to Hashem.
The important message here is that before we can truly hear, we have to become quiet, be silent.
We live surrounded by noise, voices, opinions, expectations, distractions, and the constant chatter inside our own minds. Sometimes the greatest obstacle to hearing G-d is not that He is silent, but that we are not quiet enough to hear.
Another voice we need to hear is that of our own inner voice; the voice of the soul that knows something deeper about who we are and what we are meant to become.
Perhaps this is part of the meaning of the shofar that we hear and are enjoined to listen to throughout Elul and until the end of Yom Kippur. The sound of the shofar is raw and primal. It has no words. It is simply breath transformed into sound.
And perhaps, in some mystical sense, when we blow the shofar, we are participating in a shared breath with G-d.
G-d breathes life into us, and we in turn breathe that breath back to G-d.
There is an intertwining, a connection between the Divine breath that sustains us and the breath that comes from within us and calls back to Him.
We can only truly hear that connection when we become silent.
The silence of Elul is not empty. It is a space where we quiet the noise that keeps us from remembering how deeply connected and holy we truly are.
And when we begin to deeply listen to G-d, to our souls, and to hear what is being asked of us we create a deep and intimate connection with G-d that brings true joy.
Moshe is teaching us in Ki Tavo to stop, be silent, and to listen.
Be silent in order to listen to G-d.
Quieten the noise to listen to our soul.
Be attentive and present in order to listen to the shofar.
When we do that, we can achieve a deep connection between ourselves and our Creator bringing us real joy and a life of eternal meaning.
With much love for a Shabbat shalom
Elissa
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