The Sound of Sheer Stillness

Photo by Davidson Luna

The Talmud recommends
that before we pray,
we should sit in Silence
and…meditate.

This is because
if we seek
to know Hashem¹ 
in Silence,
without words,
without concepts,
then we will be able
to address Hashem...
without confusing
our words with
the Truth of Hashem,
who is beyond words.

— David Aaron

The Zohar, refers
to two kinds of prayer:

Those that are
words of the mouth
and ‘the Prayer of Silence,’
those that are
the secret meditations
of the heart…

The Prayer of Silence
is actually spoken
by the Divine Voice within us.² 

— Hans W. Nintzel

...there is no Jewish Silence
and Christian Silence
and Buddhist Silence.

Silence is the one thing
all human beings forever
have always shared.

It's the one thing
in our own lives
that never changes…
It’s eternal.³

— Ted Falcon

What is the path 
to facing and entering 
God's presence? 

It is Silence.⁴

— Eliezer Diamond

Silence is Praise.

— Psalm 65:2 Robert Alter Translation

There is no truth
about G-d.
Truth is G-d.

There is no one
who learns Truth.
You become Truth.

There is no need
to search for Truth.
You have inherited it,
and it is within you.

You need only
learn quietness
to listen
to that inheritance.⁵

— Menachem Mendel Schneerson

[The Bible refers to]
‘a still small voice.”

This is really
a mistranslation.

More accurately,
it means ‘a sound of sheer stillness.’⁶

— Daniel C Matt

The aleph stands for
the silent presence of God.⁷

— Rami Shapiro

Meditation is about
remembering the Silence.

It is about allowing
ourselves to fall
into that Silence.
To fall into that no-thing-ness.
That nothingness.⁸

— Rabbi Ted Falcon

The highest level of Holiness 
is expressed in Silence. 

It is in Silence that 
the Holiness of existence 
is seen in its Wholeness.⁹ 

— Abraham Isaac Kook

That Wholeness,
that Oneness,
is right here, right now,
always, wherever you are.¹⁰ 

— Rabbi Ted Falcon

It is in Silence
that one transcends 
one’s own particularity, 
and lives life
in its universality, 
in the life of all Being.

One becomes
the Light of the Universe, 
which is the basis
of one’s Being, 

and the vitalizing energy
of one’s ongoing life.¹¹ 

— Abraham Isaac Kook

All my days 
I have been raised
among the sages.

I have found
nothing better 
for a person
than Silence.

Not study,
but practice of the Silence, 
is the main thing.¹²

— Shimon ben Gamliel 

One who dwells 
in the secret place 
of the Most High
shall abide 
under the shadow 
of the Almighty. 

— Psalms 91:1

Go
shut thyself 
within thy house.

—Ezekiel 3:24

Enter thou
into thy chambers 
and shut thy doors.

— Isaiah 26:20 JPS

Commune 
with your own heart 
and be still.

— Psalms 4:5

Silence is
the divine manner
of manifestation.

Divinity reveals Itself
to the listening ear...
in complete stillness.

In Silence we find God 
and commune with...Spirit…

Be still 
and in the holy awe 
know that God exists.¹³

— Alfred Moses

Pure prayer begins
at the threshold
of Silence.

It says nothing,
asks for nothing.

It is a kind
of listening.

The deeper
the listening,
the less we listen for,
until silence itself
becomes
the voice of God.¹³

— Stephen Mitchell

God created
even the spaces 
between the words 
in the Torah.

Read the spaces carefully.¹⁴

— Hasidic Teaching

Be still and know that I AM God.

Be still and know that I AM.

Be still and know that I. 

Be still and know.

Be still. 

Be. 

.

.

.

.

— inspired by Psalms 46¹⁵

Waves of the Ocean

[1] “Hashem” means “the Name.” It substitutes for the sacred, four-letter name of God (YHWH).

[2] David Aaron, Seeing God, (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001), p. 32 “Hashem” is a Hebrew name for God. AX 5296

[3] Hans W Nintzel, Meditation And The Western Tradition, http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~panopus/parachemy/parachemyv4.htm 11.29.2003; see also Zohar Pt. 1, fol 169a AX 5246

[4] Ted Falcon, What is oneness and unity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BambQGKXqWg 06.07.01 AX 6566

[5] Eliezer Diamond, For You, Silence Is Praise: Prayer as Meditation, http://www.jtsa.edu/news/jtsmag/8.2/masoret.shtml 03.16.2022 AX 4794

[6] Menachem Mendel Schneerson, words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman, A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe, November 1, 2005 AX 5590

[7] Daniel C Matt, Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBY8KVyGAGc 03.12.2022 see also: https://kavvanah.blog/2023/03/09/becoming-elijah-interview-with-daniel-c-matt/ 09.27.2025 AX 6824

[8] Rami Shapiro, @One Daily Minyan, April 13, 2000 AX 4856

[9] Ted Falcon, The Essence of Kabbalah While Standing on One Foot, https://uucwi.org/wp-content/uploads/Sermons/2014/2014_5_4_The_Essence_of_Kabbalah.pd, 05.14.2014 AX 6383

[10] Abraham Isaac Kook, http://www.rebmichael.com/silence.htm, 01.11.2001 AX 4760

[11] Ibid. AX 4760

[12] Jewish Theological Seminary, Quote of the Week 10.12.1998 AX 1763

[13] Alfred Moses, Jewish Science: Psychology of Health, Joy and Success or The Applied Psychology of Judaism, (Searcy & Pfaff, Ltd., 1920), p. 135 AX 4781

[14] Stephen Mitchell, A Book of Psalms, (New York: Harper Perennial, 1993), p. xv AX 5893

[15] Ted Falcon, The Essence of Kabbalah While Standing on One Foot, https://uucwi.org/wp-content/uploads/Sermons/2014/2014_5_4_The_Essence_of_Kabbalah.pdf 03.27.2021 AX 6383

[16] Shamash.org, http://www.shamash.org/listarchives/mail.liberal-judaism/digests/Volume6/v6n144.archive 08.23.1999 AX 8741

[17] Psalms 46:10 KJV is Psalms 46:11 JTS which reads: “Let be and know that I am God.”

This post includes quotations from readings
Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5785
September 22, 2025
Congregation Beth Shalom, Fairfield, Iowa

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