I’m delighted to introduce a new voice to this site, that of Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein. Daniel and I first met and worked together when he was a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in NY. To our mutual delight, he has continued writing with me from his home in Israel. Last year I offered him these pre-Shavuot prompts: What are you approaching this year, as you move toward Sinai again? What do you hear? What do you hope to hear? What emerged was the poem below which Daniel is in the process of recording.

Revelation

Three thousand times I have come to this mountain
So many lifetimes, I'm tired of counting
I know it I smell it, it's with me it's in me
But this is the first time I've even been me

And you are not you that was you yesterday
That was you that was then but where atoms can play
There's a choice there's a voice there's a brand-new creation
The you that is you in this moment awakens

And that's why the ends of the earth are all shaking
The birds have gone silent the animals quaking
And even the people are pausing to notice
There's something that happens when we can just focus

Not magic not mystical no metaphysical
No hocus no pocus there's nothing to give at all
Knowing just nothing is all that is needed
To see it to hear it to help to complete it

I'm there I mean now in the thick of the crowd
Among hundreds of thousands we circle around it
The mountain the fountain the flame and the cloud
It is calling me up as the Heavens come down

But the fences are there to protect us from death
Cos this body is only a vessel and yet
We can see we can sense there is more there is something
That we cannot touch but it's constantly coming

A voice – like nothing that's ever been heard
A call that contains every letter and word
Ever said ever thought ever dreamed or imagined
A silence so total my being unravels

And millions around me the sea that surrounds me
In an instant evaporates particles separate
Nothing -

Then we return
From death,
Now empty,
We're ready,
To learn.

Beit midrash/discussion/writing prompts:

What is familiar and what is unique about this moment of revelation, right now?

What feels reliable and what feels precarious, new, uncertain?

The midrash says that the people died when they heard the Divine Voice and were then revived to continue receiving the Torah. What parts of you might you be ready to let go of, to facilitate receiving something new?

Can you find enough quiet and stillness to access the inner voice that does not use language, but deep intuition? If so, what is it saying?

Daniel Raphael Silverstein is a rabbi, educator, meditation teacher and MC/poet who performs by the name Danny Raphael. He lives in Israel with his family, where he directs Applied Jewish Spirituality, an online portal which makes the transformative spiritual wisdom of our tradition accessible to all who seek it.