How many shalsheles are there in the Torah? Four.
How many in Nach? Three.
Where are they? Lot delaying (Vayeira), Eliezer speaking (Chayei Sarah), Yosef refusing Potifar’s wife (Vayeishev), and Aharon slaughtering (Tzav). Also, in Yeshayah 3:18, Amos 1:2, and Ezra 5:15.
The shalsheles is an unusual note. It goes up and down, up and down, as if unable to move forward to the next note. It was the 16th century commentator Rabbi Joseph Ibn Caspi (in his commentary to Bereishis 19:16) who best understood what it was meant to convey, namely a psychological state of uncertainty and indecision. The graphic notation of the shalsheles itself looks like a streak of lightning, a zigzag movement, a mark that goes repeatedly backwards and forwards. It conveys frozen motion - in which the agent is torn by inner conflict. The shalsheles is the music of ambivalence.
As Rabbi Yonothan Sacks explains in an essay, the Torah does not have a word for ambivalence. It does, however, have a tune for it. This is the rare note known as the shalsheles. It appears three times in Bereishis, each time at a moment of crisis for the individual concerned. In each case it signifies an existential crisis. The agent is called on to make a choice, one on which his whole future will depend, but he finds that he cannot. He is torn between two alternatives, both of which exercise a powerful sway on him. He must resolve the dilemma one way or another, but either way will involve letting go of deeply felt temptations or deeply held aspirations. It is a moment of high psychological drama. Understanding one’s deepest conflict reveals the essence of their personality.
1. Genesis 19:16
But he hesitated, and the men took hold of his hand and his wife's hand, and the hand of his two daughters, out of the Lord's pity for him, and they took him out and placed him outside the city.
1. וירא יט, טז וַּיִתְמַהְמָהּ --וַּיַחֲזִיקוּ הָּאֲנָשִים בְיָדוֹּ וּבְיַד -אִשְתוֹּ וּהֹאִצֹיַוּ ;ויָלָ ּ ע 'ה תַלְמֶ ּ חְב ,ויָתֹנְב יֵּּתְש דַיְבוּ ריִ ּ עָל ץוּחִמ ,וּהֹ ּ חִמַיַוּ.2. Genesis 24:12
And he said, "O Lord, the G-d of my master Abraham, please cause to happen to me today, and perform loving kindness with my master, Abraham.
2. חיי שרה כד, יב וַּיֹאמַר-ה' אֱלֹקי אֲדֹנִי אַבְרָהָּם, הַּקְרֵּה -נָא לְפָנַי הַּיוֹּם; וַּעֲשֵּה-םָהָּרְבַא יִנֹדֲא םִ ּ ע ,דֶסֶ ּ ח.3. Genesis 39:7-8
7. Now it came to pass after these events that his master's wife lifted up her eyes to Joseph, and she said, "Lie with me."
8. But he refused, and he said to his master's wife, "Behold, with me my master knows nothing about anything in the house, and all he has he has given into my hand.
4. Leviticus 8:23
23. And he slaughtered [it], and Moses took some of its blood, and placed it on the cartilage of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
4.צו ח, כג אֹזֶןתְנוּךְ - לַ ּ ע ןֵּּתִיַוּ ,ו מָדִמ הֶשֹמ חַקִיַוּ --טָ ּ חְשִיוַּ - לַ ּ עְו ;תיִנָמְיַהּ ןֹרֲהַא-- Lot conflicted over leaving his wealth behind to destruction in S’dom (B’reishis 19:16, see Rashi)
- Eli’ezer conflicted over the search for a wife for Yitzchak in Charan (B’reishis 24:12) when he actually wished for his own daughter to be that wife (Rashi B’reishis 24:39)
- Yosef conflicted over his desire for Mrs. Potifar (B’reishis 39:8, see second Rashi on 39:11, and on B’reishis 49:24/26)
- Moshe conflicted over never again being able to function as ‘kohen’ and thus never bringing any future korbanos
Understanding one’s deepest conflict reveals the essence of their personality.
