The commentators are perplexed. What was the point of the 72 bells handing from the hem of the High Priest’s coat, generating racket and rumpus commotion? Elijah perceived G-d in “the subtle, still voice;” why, then, did the Kohen Gadol constantly generate the loud rattling, clattering voice of seventy-two jingling bells hanging on the hem of his coat?

This class offers four divergent perspectives, and then offers a fifth perspective, which gets to the core of the human struggle to make peace with itself and with G-d. Do we experience truth in the silence of sound, or in the sound of silence?