What Do YOU Hear?
I was praying in synagogue the other morning when I suddenly heard a sound; it was a chime from a cell phone which made the same tone that my phone makes when the battery is low.
I make every effort to turn off my cell phone, or at the very least the ringtone, when I come into the synagogue. It is tremendously disrespectful to have one’s phone making noises, and all the more so to actually look at or talk on the phone, while involved in conversation with the Creator and Master of the world!
Despite knowing that it was probably not coming from my phone, there is a Pavlovian-like instinct we all have when we hear a phone making a noise, beckoning us to automatically reach for our phones JUST IN CASE there is someone offering us a million dollars instead of a stupid video of a drunk guy walking into a wall or something. (I have much to write about this topic but it is not the point of this particular article.)
Anyway, I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I heard the beep that my phone was almost out of battery. In 2019, one of life’s greatest sources of angst, of course, is your cell phone battery dying. In addition to my bewilderment at my phone making noise when the ringer should have been off, I was also puzzled about why my battery would be low after my phone had been charging all night.
Despite my reflexive movement towards my phone, I resisted the urge to check my phone during the prayer service. A few minutes later, I heard the beep again. When it happened a third time I finally realized that the sound was not emanating from my phone at all. It was in fact coming from someone else’s phone and apparently that fellow used this same tone to indicate an incoming message or email and not as a low battery indicator.
During the Jewish month of Elul (the month we are currently in), the custom is to blow the shofar at the conclusion of the morning services. Maimonides explains that the purpose of this custom is this: the shofar is meant to be a clarion call, a "spiritual alarm clock," to the Jewish people to awaken us from the spiritual slumber we find ourselves in throughout the year, and to begin preparing for the rapidly approaching great day of judgment known as Rosh Hashanah. Indeed, this particular morning was no different and the services concluded with the customary shofar blast.
The juxtaposition of the phone chime and the post-davening shofar blast led me to the following thought. When I heard the beep of the phone my thought was that it was a signal to me that my phone was dying. In reality, that very beep was this other fellow’s tone alerting him to a message or an email (maybe even that notice of him winning a million dollars!).What was a source of discomfort to me may well have been a source of excitement to my friend.
In other words, two people can hear the same exact thing but it has very different meanings to those people. (In child-rearing this happens all the time. For example, when I tell my son to “clean up his room,” he apparently hears “please continue playing on the computer.”) And there is an important lesson here for us as well.
Sadly, most people (myself included) hear the sound of the shofar blast for an entire month and think nothing more of it other than it signifying the conclusion of davening. We have a full month of daily reminders but we don’t take advantage because we don’t know how to listen. Only those whose focus is to grow and prepare for Rosh Hashanah have the vision and foresight to hear the shofar blast and take it to heart.
The story is told of the saintly Rabbi Yisroel Kagan, colloquially known as the Chofetz Chaim, who once extensively inquired of his student about the suffering of a particular group of tribesmen who lived in a far-away country. After a few minutes of conversation, the student asked his holy teacher why he was so concerned with what was going on with total strangers in a different part of the world? The rabbi answered, “Whatever G-d does in this world is somehow being done to teach the Jewish nation a lesson. I know that if a group of people are suffering and it is in the news then it is a wake-up call from G-d for me to repent.”
What an amazing outlook on life! When most people hear the news, that is exactly what they hear – a random recounting of current events. Yet a spiritual person hears something very different – a call to improve himself.
Those whose mind and vision are focused on the spiritual world see and hear the same things that we do in a different light.
Yet another example of this point: anyone who has attended a Jewish wedding knows that the chuppah ceremony closes with the groom stepping on and breaking a glass. At that moment everybody bursts out in celebration. It is as if the glass breaking is a signal to let everyone know that the party can begin.
In actuality, the custom originated as a way of remembering the destruction of our holy Temple. The thought being that we shatter a glass to symbolize that even in our greatest moments of joy we are mindful of the fact that no joy can be complete as long as G-d is without His resting place in this world. Instead of hearing the glass break and taking a moment to temper our joy, we all break out in celebration. This is because we are lacking the sensitivity to understand what we are hearing. We are hearing celebratory sounds instead of sounds of mourning.
This is a great lesson to apply throughout our lives, whether praying during the month of Elul or, like the Chofetz Chaim taught us, whenever ANYTHING happens in this world. Everything can be used as inspiration for us to improve ourselves as human beings, we just need to train ourselves to see and listen differently than everyone else. It is up to us to decide how we begin to hear the world.
So to my friend who left his phone ringer on during prayers – thank you for inspiring me with this lesson, but please remember to turn off your phone next time you come to pray. I can’t bear thinking my battery is about to die!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
