By Marco Del Monte
“Vaidom Aharon”…And Aharon remained silent (Leviticus 10:3).
The parashah of Shemini describes a devastating yet deeply meaningful moment: Immersed in the immense joy of the inauguration of the Mishkan, the souls of Aharon’s sons ascend to heaven.
Aharon's reaction is disarming: “Vaidom Aharon”, Aharon remained silent, the High Priest is silent. He does not weep, he does not scream, he does not protest. A silence that resonates louder than any cry. Aharon teaches us the power of silence, demonstrating that sometimes it is necessary to speak, but at other times words cannot express the depth of the soul, whereas silence can. The Torah describes an almost paradoxical situation: when one finds oneself in the centre of the desert, called in Hebrew *Midbar*, whose different vocalisation can lead the word to be read as *Medaber*, the speaker, it is as if one were in a context of words that totally surrounds the people; yet in this situation, there are those who still manage to keep silent.
In our era, an incessant chorus of voices fills every moment; everyone yearns to speak, to shout their opinion to the wind, often without first informing themselves or truly reflecting. Words flow copiously, uttered lightly, all too often devoid of substance or true knowledge.
The initial use of the Word in the Torah served to bring order to chaos – *Tohu vavohu*: “And G-d said”. Today seems more like the era of a modern Babel, where everyone speaks in their “own language”, failing to truly listen and above all to understand the other; noise overpowers meaning, and the wise voice risks getting lost. Whoever still attempts to listen and find meaning is overwhelmed by a sea of empty opinions. How many times, faced with this din, do we yearn for a moment of silence, for a pause that restores weight and dignity to every word?
Fortunately, the Chachamim have filled texts on the value of silence. “A time to be silent and a time to speak” (Kohelet 3:7), King Solomon teaches us; “A fence for wisdom is silence” (Avot 3:13); or as another master who also appears in Pirkei Avot stated, Shimon ben Gamliel, who affirmed: “All my life I have grown up among the Sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence” (Avot 1:17); and the same passage continues stating: “Whoever multiplies words multiplies sin.” The Midrash recounts that at the moment of the Matan Torah (Giving of the Torah) “no bird chirped, no ox bellowed, and absolute silence enveloped the world”: the desert, seemingly empty and sterile, was transformed into a place of living word because the people were ready to listen. Even the prophet Elijah discovered God neither in the mighty wind nor in the thunderous fire, but in a “still small voice” (*kol demamah dakah*). This oxymoron – the sound of silence – teaches that Hashem speaks in the silence of the heart (a concept written multiple times in Likutei Moharan). In such a context, the ancient wisdom taught to us by Aharon resonates as current and urgent, exalting the merit of silence and the value of every well-considered word. Never as now have we needed to rediscover that wisdom according to which a thought-out word is worth more than a thousand spoken in vain, where silence is the custodian of profound truths.
Shabbat Shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.