Once upon a time, somewhere in the universe very far away from here, lived a tranquil star, which moved tranquilly in the immensity of the sky, surrounded by a crowd of tranquil planets about which we have not a thing to report. This star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous: and here a reporter’s difficulties begin. We have written “very far,” “big,” “hot,” “enormous”: Australia is very far, an elephant is big and a house is bigger, this morning I had a hot bath, Everest is enormous. It’s clear that something in our lexicon is not working. (A Tranquil Star by Primo Levi)

Our lexicon is certainly insufficient to express the depths of our relationship with God in a two plus column song, and yet that is exactly the message of this week’s portion, or, more accurately, song.

I cannot find the words to describe my feelings when I watch my students grow into magnificent human beings. There are no words to portray the love I feel for some people. No vocabulary exists to express the joy of prayer. It is laughable to expect the combined vocabularies of the world to illustrate the rapture of learning Torah. There is no language that reaches so far beyond our physical senses that it can depict the power of a relationship with the Infinite Creator. But, I am not frustrated. I have learned to enjoy that very feeling of something beyond words. It is a silence beyond words. That is my song, and that is how I sing the song of Ha’azinu.

Silence Beyond Words

By

Alter Esselin

In the silence of the night


The trees stand in melancholy calm.


Only a faint rustle of leaves.


On high—a star tremor.


Fireflies flash in the folded bed linen of the fields.


Silence streams from the moon,


Silence covers the world.


And from my heart there comes joy,


Joy that overflows in courage, praise


And expectation of honors.

How quick the flight to highest height;


The fall into deepest abyss.

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