Listen To Your Soul - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

What do you do if you want someone to listen to raise your finger to your lips and you say, The sound of air flowing over the lips is the universal sign to be still, to be quiet. The English word hush derives from the Hebrew hush. The root of the month of Cheshvan is hush. The very name of the month tells us to be still, to be quiet. And what is it that we should hear in the stillness of Cheshvan? It's two months since the beginning of Elul. The shofar blast that begins the month of Elul signals the onset of a gathering storm. A cataclysm is about to be unleashed. And on Rosh Hashanah, the entire world stands at attention in front of the master. All the dwellers of Earth pass before the divine throne like sheep. Nations are judged, fortunes are made and lost, earthquakes and hurricanes are prepared and canceled, and in the inner world, the heart of man is examined in all-penetrating detail. Who are you? Will you recognize that life has been given to you to strive for eternity and follow the spiritual path? >> [music] >> Or will you fritter away your time trying to immortalize yourself through fame or cryogenics? These are the great storm-tossed moments of truth that we experience during the days of awe. And then, we return to our normal lives and the great storm has passed. The month of Cheshvan says to us, "Hush. Be still. Listen to your heart. Listen to the quiet after the storm. Listen to the still, small voice of the soul washed pure by the great storm of Tishrei." In Hebrew, the word for the senses is chushim. The senses operate in silence. They are the silent recorders of reality. They record in silence and they play their message back in silence. And to decode what our senses tell us when they replay the soul's diary of the month of Tishrei, we must listen to the sounds of their silence. As the leaves fall, we reflect on how transitory is our brief walk on this planet. How much have we made of that most precious gift called time? >> [music]