36 | JUNE 6 • 2024
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amidbar is usually read
on the Shabbat before
Shavuot. So the Sages
connected the two. Shavuot is
the time of the giving of the
Torah. Bamibar means, “in the
desert.
” What then is the con-
nection between the desert and
the Torah, the
wilderness and
God’s word?
The Sages gave
several interpreta-
tions. According
to the Mechilta,
the Torah was
given publicly,
openly and in a place no one
owns because had it been given
in the Land of Israel, Jews would
have said to the nations of the
world, “You have no share in it.
”
Instead, whoever wants to come
and accept it, let them come and
accept it.
Another explanation: Had the
Torah been given in Israel, the
nations of the world would have
had an excuse for not accepting
it. This follows the rabbinic
tradition that, before God gave
the Torah to the Israelites, He
offered it to all the other nations,
and each found a reason to
decline. “Yet another: Just as
the wilderness is free — it costs
nothing to enter — so the Torah
is free. It is God’s gift to us.
”
But there is another, more
spiritual reason. The desert is a
place of silence. There is noth-
ing visually to distract you, and
there is no ambient noise to

muffle sound. To be sure, when
the Israelites received the Torah,
there was thunder and lightning
and the sound of a shofar. The
earth felt as if it were shaking
at its foundations. But in a later
age, when the Prophet Elijah
stood at the same mountain
after his confrontation with the
prophets of Baal, he encoun-
tered God not in the whirlwind
or the fire or the earthquake but
in the kol demamah dakah, the
still, small voice, literally “the
sound of a slender silence” (1
Kings 19:9-12).
I define this as the sound you
can only hear if you are listen-
ing. In the silence of the mid-
bar, the desert, you can hear
the Medaber, the Speaker, and
the medubar, that which is spo-
ken. To hear the voice of God
you need a listening silence in
the soul.
Many years ago, British tele-
vision produced a documentary
series, The Long Search, on the
world’s great religions. When
it came to Judaism, the pre-
senter Ronald Eyre seemed
surprised by its blooming,
buzzing confusion, especially
the loud, argumentative voices
in the beit midrash, the house of
study. Remarking on this to Elie
Wiesel, he asked, “Is there such
a thing as a silence in Judaism?
Wiesel replied: “Judaism is full
of silences … but we don’t talk
about them.
”
Judaism is a very verbal cul-
ture, a religion of holy words.

Through words, God created
the universe: “
And God said,
Let there be … and there was.
”
According to the Targum, it is
our ability to speak that makes
us human. It translates the
phrase, “and man became a liv-
ing soul” (Gen. 2:7) as “and man
became a speaking soul.” Words
create. Words communicate.
Our relationships are shaped,
for good or bad, by language.
Much of Judaism is about the
power of words to make or
break worlds.
So silence in Tanach often has
a negative connotation. “
Aaron
was silent,
” says the Torah,
after the death of his two sons
Nadav and Avihu (Lev. 10:3).
“The dead do not praise you,
”
says Psalm 115, “nor do those
who go down to the silence [of
the grave].
” When Job’s friends
came to comfort him after the
loss of his children and other
afflictions, “they sat down with
him on the ground for seven
days and seven nights, yet no
one spoke a word to him, for
they saw that his pain was very
great.
” (Job 2:13).

SILENCE IS PRAISE
But not all silence is sad. Psalms
tells us that “to You, silence is
praise” (Ps. 65:2). If we are truly
in awe at the greatness of God,
the vastness of the universe and
the almost infinite extent of
time, our deepest emotions will
indeed lie too deep for words.
We will experience silent com-

munion.
The Sages valued silence.
They called it “a fence to wis-
dom” (Mishna Avot 3:13). If
words are worth a coin, silence
is worth two (Megilla 18a). R.
Shimon ben Gamliel said: “
All
my days I have grown up among
the wise, and I have found
nothing better than silence.
”
Mishna Avot 1:17
The service of the Priests in
the Temple was accompanied
by silence. The Levites sang in
the courtyard, but the Priests
— unlike their counterparts in
other ancient religions — nei-
ther sang nor spoke while offer-
ing the sacrifices. One scholar,
Israel Knohl, has accordingly
spoken of “the silence of the
sanctuary.
” The Zohar (2a)
speaks of silence as the medium
in which both the Sanctuary
above and the Sanctuary below
are made.
There were also Jews who
cultivated silence as a spiritual
discipline. Bratslav Hassidim
meditate in the fields. There are
Jews who practise ta’anit dibbur,
a “fast of words.
” Our most pro-
found prayer, the private saying
of the Amidah, is called tefillah
be-lachash, the “silent prayer.
”
It is based on the precedent of
Hannah, praying for a child.
“She spoke in her heart. Her lips
moved but her voice was not
heard.
” 1 Sam. 1:13
God hears our silent cry. In
the agonizing tale of how Sarah
told Abraham to send Hagar

The Sound of Silence

Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH