TheYeshiva.net - Rabbi YY Jacobson

The Tragic Music of Ambivalence

The Secret of the Shalsheles Note in the Stories of Lot, Eliezer, and Joseph

59 min

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Class Summary:

The shalsheles is an unusual note. It goes up and down, up and down, as if unable to move forward to the next note. It was the 16th century commentator Rabbi Joseph Ibn Caspi (in his commentary to Bereishis 19:16) who best understood what it was meant to convey, namely a psychological state of uncertainty and indecision. The graphic notation of the shalsheles itself looks like a streak of lightning, a zigzag movement, a mark that goes repeatedly backwards and forwards. It conveys frozen motion - in which the agent is torn by inner conflict. The shalsheles is the music of ambivalence.

As Rabbi Jonothan Sacks explains in an essay, the Torah does not have a word for ambivalence. It does, however, have a tune for it. This is the rare note known as the shalsheles. It appears three times in Bereishis, each time at a moment of crisis for the individual concerned. In each case it signifies an existential crisis. The agent is called on to make a choice, one on which his whole future will depend, but he finds that he cannot. He is torn between two alternatives, both of which exercise a powerful sway on him. He must resolve the dilemma one way or another, but either way will involve letting go of deeply felt temptations or deeply held aspirations. It is a moment of high psychological drama. Understanding one’s deepest conflict reveals the essence of their personality.

This class will analyze three personalities: Lot, Eliezer, and Joseph (order of appearance) and demonstrate the crucial struggle of each, immortalized in synagogues until today with the remarkable tune of shalsheles. We will also seek to understand the shalsheles’s fourth and final appearance in Vayikra 8: 23, in the middle of a discussion of sacrifices.

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Please leave your comment below!

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Sammy -6 years ago
Firstly, I want to tell you that your Parsha shiurim have inspired me more than you can imagine; my commute to work (in London) is now filled with your sweet words of Torah. I can’t thank you enough!

I had the wonderful zechus of listening to your idea about the ambivalence represented by the Shalsheles in Sefer Bereishis. I had a thought relating to this idea that I thought I would share to see what you think! If you look at these instances of ambivalence/shalsheles, it appears to be 3 types of ambivalence. The first, of Lot, is an ambivalence brought on by a desire for Kovod (as you said - he had just been made a judge). Eliezer’s ambivalence has an element of Kin’ah - he desired Avraham’s son for his daughter. Finally Yosef - he was driven by Ta’avah - an innate desire to sleep with Eishes Potifar. It is no coincidence that this corresponds with the Mishnah in Avos that says that Kinah, Taavah and Kovod take a person out of this world. It is these moments of ambivalence precisely in these spheres that the Torah Is teaching us to be particularly wary of, because they can have to most deleterious impact on the path that our life will take.

Again, thank you for publishing your shiurim online!

Kol tuv
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Aliza -6 years ago
I listen to your shiurim regularly, and love to share them. I am a part of Partners in Torah and shared your shiur about the shalsheles by Yosef. I explained that there are 4 times there's a shalsheles in Torah and we discussed each one. My partner brought it up yesterday, and we were wondering where the other 3 times in Nach that there's a shalsheles. She was told that there was one in this weeks Haftorah (Parshas Zachor), but we didn't see it.
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  Aliza -6 years ago
  ונבהלו (Is. 13:8)
  
  ויאמר (Amos 1:2)
  
  ואמר-לה (Ezra 5:15)
  
  I found the 3 times in Nach there's a Shalsheles. Now I can get back to my Partner in Torah.
  
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Shua -11 years ago
Re: Daughters of Lot
The daughters of Lot were engaged but not married yet.

Hope this answers your question.
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Hillel -13 years ago
Shuir
That was a great lesson, I enjoyed it very much. The lesson reminded me of my days in Yeshiva.

The ambivilence of Lot is all around us today. It exists between Jews and between Goyim and between the two opposing groups. It exists where one Jew is hidden but known by his fellow Jews and they look upon him with distrust. It is easy to understand historically why this would happen. It goes the other way around too. One Jew who is openly Jewish in an area where most Jews are hidden those who are hidden look upon him with ambivilence and distrust. We must move together forward past this and gather all Jews together. We must find a way to move past their desires to assimiliate and reverse the trend. I have discovered it is no easy task and it will take all of us.
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Anonymous -13 years ago
why do we gossip?
A reader sent me this email today:

"The only reason I find why people gossip is because they are unsatisfied with their own lives. Lacking fulfillment, they seek adventure in tearing down others... Someone who is happy in his own shoes usually doesn't care about the lives of others."

I think this is a valid explanation for at least many instances of gossip. There are of course some other motivations: feeling bad about yourself, feeling bored, trying to fit into a certain social group of people by telling interesting stories, and many more factors.
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- JA
  Jeff Aronchick -13 years ago
  Re: why do we gossip?
  Thank you for sharing, Rabbi. What I'm hearing in your reader's message is that many of us seem to have a certain element of wanting to feel "popular" and "important" - that is, many of us are focusing outside to feel "full" and validated in who we are. It seems like we have the tendency to easily forget and be distracted from our identity.
  
  Conversely, what I've been learning is that the only person we need to feel popular and important with is our spouse and Hashem. Then 1) we know who we are (we know our identity), and 2) the "outside" seems to lose its competition for our attention.
  
  Much of this "lacking fulfillment" and "seeking outwards" phenomena is addressed in Rabbi Shais Taub's insightful book, "G-d of Our Understanding." Including your teachings, Rabbi J, both my wife and I are learning very powerful and enriching information for our marriage. Many thanks!
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Class Vayeira/Chayei Sarah/Vayeishev

Rabbi YY Jacobson

October 18, 2010
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10 Cheshvan 5771
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5560 views

Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein in the loving memory of Alta Shula Swerdlov And in the merit of Yetta Alta Shula, "Aliya," Schottenstein