Shalsheles | Rabbi YY Jacobson

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks ע”ה once wrote, The Hebrew language doesn't have a word for ambivalence, but it does have a musical note for it, The musical note of Shalsheles is found only four times in Chumash. Parshas Vayeira, Parshas Chayei Sarah, Parshas Vayeishev and Parshas Tzav. Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor explains that the Shalsheles represents a state of ambivalence, emotional paralysis. I don't have the fortitude, the courage, the clarity to be able to forge ahead with decisive, unwavering commitment. I am stuck. That's why the Shalsheles looks like a zigzag. I go here, but then I go back and I go here and I go back and I hesitate and I procrastinate. And that's what the word ‘Shalsheles’ means. I'm chained by something. I'm chained, I'm stuck. In all four instances, when the Torah uses the musical note of Shalsheles there is that state of ambivalence. Parshas Vayeira - ויתמהמה Parshas Chayei Sarah - ויאמר Eliezer’s Tefillah, and Parshas Vayeishev - וימאן וימאן! Yosef refuses to surrender, to succumb to the incessant pleas, the demands of Potifar’s wife to be with him. And the Gemara describes in Yuma, how she dressed up every day in three different ways and how she offered him the greatest rewards and then threatened him with the most heinous punishments and torture. וימאן - Yosef refuses, and there's a Shalsheles there. וימאן You hear the musical note? I'm, like, ready... Okay. Go, move forward. You're reflecting, now make a decision. No. And according to Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor, Yosef refused, but it did not come without profound struggle, did not come without a profound battle, as the Gemara describes in Masechet Sota 36 and Rashi quotes that according to one opinion, Yosef almost surrendered to Potifar’s wife, and yet at the last moment, וינס ויצא החוצה וימאן he managed to take the courageous step forward and abstain from that moment. We all have to realize there are moments in life when we are stuck in that Shalsheles, when there are chains of temptation that threaten to hold me down, that threaten to divorce me from my vision, from my soul, that threaten to overwhelm me. That Shalsheles is normal. It's part of the fabric of the human psyche. And it's at such a moment when you have to be able to have that vision and that clarity of knowing what is healthy, what is unhealthy, what is productive, what is destructive, what has brought you benefit before, and what has brought disaster and wreaked havoc in your life before. And then have the courage to say, וינס ויצא החוצה.