The Sound of Silence

Searching YouTube earlier today for Hanukah songs by the Maccabeats, I came across their moving rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s classic “The Sound of Silence,” starring and presented by Jew in the City. What makes this rendition unique is the contrast of the “Sound of Silence” with the beauty of the Jewish Sabbath. The take home message is clear, there is a wall of silence modern man builds around himself with his devices and ‘social networks.’ This limits, maybe even erases, true communication between man and his fellow, even with his own family. The Jewish Sabbath, during which the use of electronic devices is outlawed, breaks down the wall of silence and supports building bonds between spouses and family members.

Hearing the song reminded me of our discussion of a few weeks ago on Narnian Astronomy. In that post we characterized the music of the spheres as praises of God played by the Heavenly orbs as they follow His laws of physics. Even a prophet of the stature of Joshua cannot command the spheres to silence their music without singing God’s praises in their stead. Silencing the praise of God, is not permissible. The negative aspect of silence in Simon and Garfunkel's song builds a wall that will block the music of the spheres thus causing a lapse in the praise of God. This encouraged me to think more generally about the roles of silence and noise in the Chronicles of Narnia and other works of C.S. Lewis. That got me thinking about how Judaism portrays these phenomena. Below (and subsequent posts) is an attempt to piece together what that may look like.

Lewis’ most evocative statement on silence in the Chronicles of Narnia is found in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The most dangerous of the islands visited by the ship the Dawn Treader and her crew, is the Dark Island. The Dark Island, as they are soon to learn, is the island where dreams (not daydreams, dreams) come true. As the Dawn Treader attempts to row away and escape the island, we are told that, “Though the rowing made a good deal of noise it did not quite conceal the total silence which surrounded the ship.” The silence of the island and its surroundings is foreboding, even threatening. It is waiting to be filled, with each man’s dreams. Those dreams, the ones we wake up from sweating and scared, the ones that will not allow us to fall back asleep. The ones against which we use whatever distractions we can in hopes of drowning them out of our thoughts. Those dreams are lurking behind the silence, menacing at the passengers on the Dawn Treader. And, however hard the crew tries to concentrate on the rowing, the only noise at their disposal, it is insufficient to block out the silence.

Yet, in another part of the Chronicles, silence is imperative for religious contemplation and realization of truth. Edmund, for instance, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, needed silence to internalize the truth of Aslan’s good and the Witch’s evil. After separating from his siblings and seeking solace in the house of the White Witch, Edmund is forced to ride with her in attempt to capture his siblings. It is during that ride that winter which has for so long gripped Narnia, miraculously and suddenly begins to transform into Spring. This causes a thaw, making it almost impossible for the reindeer to pull the sleigh. The Witch's dwarf, who is attempting to drive the reindeer in the melting snow, resorts to whipping and shouting, but eventually the sleigh is stuck fast. When that realization hits, for one moment there was silence. “In that silence Edmund could at last listen to the other noise properly.” Until that point Edmund hears and sees spring all around him but cannot internalize its true meaning. Only in the moment of silence can Edmund hear the truth.

This positive aspect of contemplative silence is also addressed by Lewis in the Screwtape Letters. Right at the beginning, in Letter 1, Screwtape, an important tempter of humans, tells of a "patient" of his who, while reading quietly in the British Museum, started rethinking his atheist beliefs. There, in the silence of the library Screwtape suddenly saw his hard work begin to topple. In the silence, the man was beginning to contemplate God, he was beginning to internalize the truth! A possible counter for Screwtape would have been to argue intellectually and philosophically against the existence of God. However, there was a much easier way - remove the silence! So, he suggested that it was time for lunch, leading the man back to “real life” and away from the silence. This convinced the patient that, “whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of ‘real life’ (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all ‘that sort of thing’ just couldn’t be true.” In fact, ‘real life’ was the distraction, what is truly important can only be heard in silence.

Lewis returns to this theme even more explicitly in Letter 22. Wormwood’s patient has fallen in love with a Christian woman and her home and garden are Heavenly in that they are, “regions where there is only life and therefore all that is not music is silence.” Screwtape, of course, wants none of that! “Music and silence — how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our father entered hell... all has been occupied by noise…”

For Lewis then, silence operates on two planes, one negative, one positive. (1) Silence relaying absence, the passengers on the Dawn Treader hear silence and are dreading what is missing. (2) Silence as a means of hearing something else, Edmund only heard Spring when silence reigned. 

The litmus test of silence is the music of the spheres. Man should always hear the praise of God, the music of the spheres. Sometimes, however, the music can be drowned out by noise, the distractions of the trivialities of everyday life. Sometimes the music can be overcome by silence, when a wall is built separating man from God. Such a silence is terrifying. What fills the silence in place of the music of the spheres?