Hearing the Still Small Voice
It is a mitzvah to hear the sound of the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Maimonides, arguably the greatest rabbi and teacher of all time, reminded us that hearing the sound of the shofar is like an alarm clock that causes we slumberers to rise from our sleep. I am always in awe of the one who sounds the Tekia Gedolah on Rosh Hashanah in the pressure filled moment with hundreds of prayer goers wondering how long he or she will hold that final blast. Our liturgy on the High Holidays reminds us that, “the great Shofar is sounded, a still small voice is heard.” The idea of the “still small voice” comes from the first book of Kings when Elijah experiences a great wind, an earthquake and a fire and realizes that God is not in these great natural occurrences. After the fire, Elijah heard a still small voice, the voice of God, addressing him. Elijah, like us, might expect God to appear with a great sound. We are reminded that God appeared at Sinai with a sound like thunder. It was there that the Shofar was sounded. And yet we wonder how God might be heard in a quiet voice. I imagine that the still small voice is the remnants of the shofar that echo within our soul in the days beyond the Yamim Noraim (the Days of Awe). We are so close to the fire during these days; we are so close to the sound of the powerful blast of the Shofar and we realize that the change does not happen in this short time period. The realization might happen, we might begin to plan, but the change happens over time when the blast of the shofar is a still small voice that might beckon to us from within. It calls to us to fill our lives with compassion, love, acts of loving kindness, and more attention to that which really matters. We must hold onto that blast of the shofar and be sure to acknowledge the still small voice calling on us to change.
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