"People act in accordance with their beliefs, and skeptics are no different. Hence it is reasonable to expect that a skeptic will feel free to use as a basis for action any ideas that are shown to meet his criteria of legitimacy. On this basis, there is not only one, but several proofs for the existence of G-d and, as mentioned, there is no problem if one is forced to say that this existence is not grasped by the senses or the mind, or even if it contradicts rationality. As long as this existence accounts for observed reality and does so better than any other proposition, we have what is usually considered to be conclusive, scientific proof."
The Rebbe - Mind Over Matter - Ch. 1 |
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The Cricket and the Shofar |
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Written by Arnie Gotfryd
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Thursday, 06 September 2007 |
The humble cricket's summer song would evaporate into the night breeze were it not for the acoustically impeccable earthen horn it fashions to optimally amplify its call. Is there a message here for us?
Why did we wake up this morning? Obviously so that today would be better than yesterday. To this end the Baal Shem Tov enjoined us all to take a lesson in our divine service from everything we see or hear. Since everything is according to specific divine providence, each event in our lives is significant as a message towards a more meaningful life.[1]
Take crickets for example. Chances are, that if you walk around your neighborhood tonight, you will probably hear the songs of crickets in some park or field. Of course that's going to get you thinking about Rosh HaShana. How? you may ask. We don't dip a cricket in honey, we use an apple. And we don't chirp or rub our wings together, we blow on a ram's horn to celebrate the New Year, marking the onset of the 10 days of teshuvah, repentance, between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.
The sages say that if the Torah would not have been given, we could learn modesty from a cat, not to steal from an ant, and fidelity from a dove.[2] But what do we learn from a cricket? Let's follow that chirping to its source to find out. In the case of the Mole cricket for example, that source is a hole in the ground, the shape of a shofar! Rubbing its forewings together creates harp-like vibrations that make the familiar chirping sound. But those short wings would not be nearly as loud were it not for the amplification provided by those meticulously formed and utilized burrows that crickets use to amplify their songs as high as 90 decibels, the volume of a train whistle 500 feet away. 
The sound of crickets can be so deafening that vacationers in the countryside often have trouble falling asleep. Similarly, the sound of the Shofar is designed to wake us up from our spiritual slumber so that we can refocus on what's really important in our lives.[3] When we realize how messed up our lives are, we call out to G-d because of our stress and pressures. The Shofar is emblematic of that call, since when you blow with compressed lips at the narrowest part of the horn, the sound becomes magnified as the horn expands upwards. This is why, before hearing the Shofar in synogogue, we recite the verse, "From out of narrowness, I called to G-d; with expansive relief, G-d answered me."[4] The cricket actually makes a point of chirping specifically at the narrowest point in its burrow. From the bulb at the base of the burrow, to the smoothed walls, and to the exponentially curved flare at the top of the horn-shaped hole, the cricket's call center is magnificent structure, acoustically optimized in its every detail.
Our call to our Creator through the simple hollowed horn, is a mixture of pure and broken tones from the depths of the heart. Similarly, our humble cricket, calls out from a simple, hollowed horn with one pure tone, made up of continuous series of broken tones, emanating from deep in its burrow.
As the cricket digs its earthen Shofar over several days, its song gets progressively louder as the acoustics improve, until the burrow is complete and the sound is optimized. One of the many things the Shofar symbolizes is the coming of Moshiach and a world of good. As we hollow out our earthiness and shape our lives properly, our call to the Creator gets progressively better, too, until we've optimized ourselves and the world around us the best we can and then Moshiach arrives, quick as a cricket.
[1] Hayom Yom for the 7th of Tishrei, p.93.
[2] Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Eiruvin, p.100b
[3] Mainmonides, Laws of Repentance Ch.3, Par.4
[4] Psalms 118:5
Cricket facts and diagram from articles by H.C. Bennett-Clark in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 August 2010 )
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