By: Jisrael Yitzchak Rosenfeld
Yesod shebeGevurah – Foundation within Discipline
It is told that a Chassid once spent Shabbat with Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk, and also visited the Kotzker Rebbe.
The Kotzker said to him:
“Don’t sit silently—say something in the name of your Rebbe!”
The Chassid replied:
“My Rebbe teaches that Aaron merited his greatness
because in his most difficult moment—
when his two sons died—he remained silent.
As the verse says:
‘And Aaron was silent.’”
But David reached an even higher level—for from him the Mashiach will come—
because even in his hardest moments, he never stopped praying and singing.
As it is written:
“So that my soul may sing to You and not be silent.”
I once read a profound idea from the esteemed teacher Rabbi Menachem Froman:
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches
that we encounter the “void”—situations without answers—through silence.
Rabbi Shlomo however, teaches
that we encounter that same void through song.
May we be granted the wisdom to know when to be silent—and when to sing.
