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The Sound of the Aleph
Sermon by Rabbi Jonathan Miller
Temple Emanu-El
Birmingham, Alabama
February 9, 2007
Parashat Yitro
This week’s Torah portion Yitro, is the most exciting Torah portion in the Bible. I know that I say that every non-Levitical week, but this time I mean it—at least until next week. This week’s Torah portion speaks about the experience of Am Yisrael, the Children of Israel at Sinai. Much preparation goes into this singular event.
In preparation for Sinai—God created the universe and expelled Adam and Eve from Eden’s Garden.
In preparation for Sinai—God had Noah build an ark.
In preparation for Sinai —God called Avram and told him and Sarai to leave their homes for the unknown Canaan to be a blessing to the world.
In preparation for Sinai—Abraham followed God’s command and bound his son, Isaac, on the altar for a sacrifice.
In preparation for Sinai—Jacob’s sons sold their brother to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites.
In preparation for Sinai—Egypt provided food and sanctuary for the Israel’s children.
In preparation for Sinai—The Egyptians turned on the Israelites and enslaved them and threw their baby boys into the Nile River.
In preparation for Sinai—God appeared to Moses at the burning bush and summoned him into service.
In preparation for Sinai—Moses confronted Pharaoh with freedom’s striking demand, “Let My people go!”
In preparation for Sinai—God unleashed on the Egyptians plagues of blood, frogs, lice, vermin, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness.
In preparation for Sinai—The firstborn Egyptians were slaughtered by the Angel of Death.
In preparation for Sinai—The Israelites fled Egypt in the middle of the night.
In preparation for Sinai—God parted the Red Sea for these fleeing slaves and drowned their pursuers.
In preparation for Sinai—The Israelites observed their first Passover in the desert, and then were sustained by manna from heaven.
In preparation for Sinai—The Israelites encamped at the desert, washed their clothes, fenced off the mountain, and prepared to encounter God.
In preparation for Sinai—The mountain shook. Its top was covered with thunder and lightening. The air was filled with smoke and the sound of the shofar reverberated from the heavens.
Every moment of history was in preparation for Sinai, and all existence turned to this magnificent event and waited . . .
And then God spoke these ten utterances. God spoke in a way that all the Israelites assembled at Sinai’s foot could hear. God spoke in a way that all Jews who ever were and who ever were to come to be, all those Jews now and always before us and after us could hear God speaking plainly from Sinai. This was the moment when the mountain stilled and the thunder retreated, when the world went silent—quiet in anticipation of God’s voice, and then God spoke,
Anochi Adonai Eloheicha, I am the Adonai your God, asher hotseiticha meretz mitrayim me’beit avadim, Who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
This was the only time that God spoke so all could hear; that the world was silent to hear God’s voice; that God’s voice would echo throughout history. What did that voice sound like? What did we Jews, the children of the children of Israel actually come to hear?
Listening, my friends, is tricky. And if it is tricky when people speak, how much the more so is it tricky when God speaks. Our rabbis taught that God speaks in one voice, but God is heard in many different voices. Some hear God speak with a deep and commanding resonance that booms with authority. Others hear God speak with the voice of a mother’s compassion for her children. Others hear a still soft murmuring sound, which echoes in the heart and soul of every Jew. Others hear the cooing flight of souls who have died or the flight of souls who are yet to be born. Some hear the sound of the heart beating or the sound of the universe breathing. The sound of God’s voice is the sound of the entire universe and the sound of nothing in the universe. The sound of God’s voice is the sound of being and the sound of redemption and the sound of freedom and the sound of virtue.
That is why the first letter of the first word of God’s speech, the first sound heard by Israel at Sinai was the Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The Aleph is a hard consonant. But this hard consonant makes no sound. It is the sound of the throat opening and of the beginning of speech. In the same way that the color white is a mixture of all the colors in the visible spectrum, and hence has no definable color itself; the sound of the Aleph is a conglomeration of all the sounds of the universe that were and that will be. Thrown together into one letter on the top of Mt. Sinai, this introduction to God’s speech contains every sound and has no sound. It is the silent that is full of meaning and being that can be understood as potential and fulfillment.
This is the way that God speaks.
It is not the way that we speak.
Anochi Adonai eloheicha, I am the Adonai your God, asher hotseiticha meretz mitzrayim me’beit avadim, Who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Why does God open with this statement, of all statements? Here the Israelites are at the foot of the mountain, which thunders and shakes with clouds and smoke and the sound of the shofar.
Like—excuse me—Who else might be speaking here, if not God itself?
Who else can speak with the Aleph and still be understood. Who else can speak so that every sound can be heard, and every person hears God’s voice in his or her own fashion. Or course it is the Anochi of God, the “I” of God Who is speaking. But why go there at all in the first place?
But maybe God is trying to give the Israelites a message. The power that sent the blood and the frogs and the lice and the darkness is God, but God is more than that. The power that sent the Angel of Death and that parted the Red Sea is God, but God is more than that. The power sustains you and protects you every day in the desert with manna and water is God, but God is more than that. This is your God, O Israel. This is your God, the source of your freedom, and the source of your liberation, and the source of your greatness, and the source of your comfort, this God who speaks to you from the mountaintop, this in reality is God in speech in its purest form. Anochi, I am Adonai your God. All the commandments flow from here. All God’s teaching flows from this statement of relationship. God and Israel and you all mixed up together, all made one in the Aleph!
What does God’s statement mean? How was it heard?
Perhaps it was the summons to personal responsibility. I am Adonai, your God, who brought YOU out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This is what I have done for you! Here are my commandments, you owe Me your obedience.
Perhaps it was the assurance of freedom. I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Do not be afraid, with this Torah you will never be enslaved again. You will never go back to Egypt. I am with you.
Perhaps it was directions, signposts for those lost on the way. I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You may not know where we are going on this journey to freedom, but I do. Follow me, and you will never be lost.
Perhaps it was words of assurance. I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Others may come to seduce you and take you upon paths that are not your own, but I am Adonai your God. I am the one who has done wondrous things for you.
And perhaps it was words of pleading. I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Do not leave Me. I am the God of Israel. I need you. As I am your God, you are My children. Do not leave me alone, again.
Thunder, lightning, the readiness of the people, the sound of the aleph, all these occurred at the foot of Sinai. It was a sound staged like none other in history.
And if you are really quiet and really still, you might hear the sound of the Aleph, the sound of Sinai, waiting to be heard . . .
Shabbat Shalom
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