Elijah and the Still, Small Voice (Rabbi Sacks on Pinchas, Covenant & Conversation)

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to Rabbi Sacks' commentary on the weekly Torah portion. This series of Covenant & Conversation essays examines the ethics we can derive from the Torah, week-by-week, parsha by parsha. You can find the full written article on Pinchas available to read, print, and share, by visiting: www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/pinchas/elijah-and-the-still-small-voice/ For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. This piece was originally written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks in 2015. Covenant & Conversation on Ethics is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Elijah and the still small voice. Then the word of the Lord came to him, why are you here Elijah?
0:07.4	He replied, I'm moved by the zeal, for the Lord God of hosts. The Lord said to him,
0:13.2	Go out and stand on a mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.
0:18.7	Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks
0:23.3	before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was
0:29.7	not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the
0:36.2	fire, a still small voice.
0:39.1	In 1165, an agonizing question confronted Moroccan Jewry.
0:45.0	A fanatical Muslim sect, the Almohards, had seized power,
0:48.6	and were embarked on a policy of forced conversion to Islam.
0:52.6	The Jewish community was faced with a choice to affirm Islamic
0:57.1	faith or die. Some chose martyrdom, others chose exile, but some exceeded to terror and
1:03.8	embraced another faith. Inwardly, though, they remained Jews and practiced Judaism in secret.
1:10.1	They were the conversos, or as the Spanish were later to call them the Moranos.
1:15.9	To other Jews, they posed a formidable moral problem.
1:19.3	How were they to be viewed?
1:20.5	Outwardly, they'd betrayed their community and their religious heritage.
1:24.1	Beside, their example was demoralizing.
1:27.1	It weakened the resolve of Jews who were
1:29.1	determined to resist, come what may. Yet many of the conversos still wished to remain Jewish,
1:35.7	secretly fulfill the commandments, and when they could, attend the synagogue and pray.
1:40.9	One of them addressed this question to a rabbi. He had, he said, converted under coercion,
	...

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