STUFFED EARS AND HEARTS

Print-friendly version

STUFFED EARS AND HEARTS

Harav Y. Reuven Rubin Shlita

“RABBI RUBIN”, the voice was loud, announcing my turn to enter the inner sanctum of the doctor’s examination suite. Loud out of care, not discourtesy.

I happen to be hard of hearing but get by without having others raising their tone to capture my attention. Technology has given me back my hearing through the wonder of hearing aids. My life swims by without nary a second thought regarding my hearing loss, it’s just a bit bothersome, but nothing one can’t get used to. Until the debris, then everything comes to a screaming halt. This is not meant to be a medical treatise, so briefly allow me to explain that skin sheds in the airless area surrounding the inserted hearing aide, and sometimes this debris destroys the ability for the aids to do their job. Nothing happens suddenly, it all comes in increments, unexplained whistling, loss of clarity, volume corruption, then, panic, you’re back to the first steps, living in a salad of sounds and murmurs. I had to send back my aids to the manufacturers and make do with an old pair, hence the doctor raising his voice to get my attention. Boruch Hashem this will soon be fixed, the maker of the aides will clean them out, damage will be repaired and I will again skip my way back into the land of the hearing.

I share this vignette for a purpose, it’s not merely about the state of one Yied’s ability to hear, there is a much greater problem than ear debris.  The filth that seeps into our hearts can clog up our soul and create a deafness to kedushah. This spiritual often minuscule dirt is the product of a golus that is totally imbued with meaninglessness.  Technology spews its darkness wherever it can, and the deafness of a broken soul rips at our essence. The chaos of our golus is such, that we often become totally deaf to what is real, and what is soul destroying. Unfortunately, there is no medical doctor who can clean out our hearts circuitry and bring back our clarity. The only way to regain our solid hold on our moral hearing is to open our hearts to the truth of the Torah. When the Yidden stood by Har Sinai, they heard with total clarity what Hashem’s Will is. Chazal tell us that at that moment, everyone who had an ailment, be it blind or lame was cured. It was the power of Hashem’s love for His children that opened the channels of kedushah that invigorated even the most weakened of hearts. We each have to reach out to the Eibishter on Shevuos and Daven that we have the strength to shake off the dross of this mindless golus.

Over the years I have had the merit to learn with a number of candidates for Geirus and witnessed how these strong -willed souls have stepped up to the world of Torah light and left the darkness. Each of them has a story, often miraculous never mundane. They have fought the deafness of a society that is hostile to what they have chosen. Yet, their every mitzvah brings a fresh voice of truth.

Listen dear Yidden, there is hope beyond the deafness of golus, Kabolus Hatorah is here and now, today and forever.