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Community Corner

Speaking of Silence

Internal silence enables us to purge our old ideas from our mind so we can experience a true moment of chochma, or wisdom.

What is silence?

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you had to solve a problem and were in desperate need of a solution and an answer that was just not coming? Perhaps you were a student preparing for an exam or a businessman looking for a solution. Whatever it might be, the frustration of not having the solution is frustrating indeed!

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In Kabbalistic terminology, the first state of awareness, when a new idea enters our minds, it is called "chochma" (wisdom). Even more literally, the Hebrew word "chochma" is composed of two words: "choch" (power) and "ma" (what). Together, meaning "the power of ... what?"

When we recognize that we don't know, when we ask "what," we are enabled to become a vessel to receive new wisdom and answers. This is why wisdom is called "the power of … what?"

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How do we hasten to obtain the real solution to problems that in the natural scheme of things do not seem to have any viable solution?

When we submit to the possibility that the answer lies beyond our current space of thinking, that is when we admit to ourselves that we ran out of ideas, then we can ask, "what?" Consequently, we become open to a "chochma" experience, that is when the split second of bright light fills our mind with a new flash of insight that seems to have arrived from beyond.

Know this: We cannot have chochma without internal silence.

Internal silence enables us to purge our old ideas from our mind so we can experience a true moment of "chochma."

Imagine how different our world would be if each person practiced a little more internal silence!

Shabbat Shalom!

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