29 Elul 5784

The Sanctity of Silence

There is a moment in the Selichot service when the Ark stands empty.

The sacred scrolls have been removed and their mantles are being changed. While “modern Levites” do their work, peeling away the colourful covers to reveal the simplicity that underlies all things, the Holy Ark contains nothing but space. The doors are wide open.

That moment is full of potential. That moment is holy.

In that moment, words are gone – the rules, the stories, the concepts, the allusions. There are no letters or vowels. There is nothing to say. Emptiness prevails.

That is how I strive to be during the Days of Awe. Although I speak and sing and pray many words, my goal is emptiness – that is, a deep acknowledgement that:

• I don’t know what the year ahead holds for my body and my life, my family and friends, my community and world.
• I fool myself if I think I know what’s right for myself, what I need.
• My attempts to manipulate the future, to woo a certain outcome, are feeble.
• I have nothing to offer God, the Source and Substance of the Cosmos, except my openness and acceptance. There is nothing to do but let go, to surrender to the Divine Will.

Silence is not empty. It has power. It contains freedom from doing, striving, advancing. It is an invitation to stop, to breathe, be, experience, hold, gestate. It may be preparation for what comes next, but not necessarily. Quiet has many moods, many flavours. It can be gentle, heavy, expansive, oppressive, delicious, or crystalline. True silence is an echo of the Universe before God spoke the first word, before potential even existed. Silence has the power to invite something meaningful into being.

“R. Shimon ben Gamaliel said: ‘I grew up all of my days among the sages and I have found nothing better for oneself than silence’” (Avot 1:17).

The open doors of Aron HaKodesh represent, for me, the Gates of Prayer. Although the ark doors will be opened and closed many times throughout Elul and the Yamim Noraim, the Gates of Prayer are always as open – as open as the ark doors are at that Selichot moment of transformation. They forever encourage us to empty ourselves in true prayer. The invitation to wholeness, and wholeness of prayer, is always there.

These Days of Awe, may your silences be full.