 |
| Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash |
The Book of Leviticus opens with G-d calling to Moses, thus
giving this third book of the Torah its name in Hebrew, “Vayikra”. Have you
ever wondered what G-d’s voice sounds like? At Mount Sinai G-d’s voice appears
to be overwhelming and frightening. The people who hear it beg Moses to speak
to G-d in their stead. The Divine voice frightens them when G-d speaks to them.
On the other hand, the prophet Elijah has a different experience when G-d
speaks to him.
G-d tells the Prophet Elijah to stand on the
mountain and wait for G-d to pass by:
“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart
and shattered the rocks, …… but the G-d was
not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but
the G-d was not in the earthquake. After
the earthquake came a fire, but the G-d was not in the fire. And
after the fire came a still small voice……Then a voice said to him, “What are
you doing here, Elijah?” In this story, G-d’s voice comes in a gentle whisper. (New
International Version translation)
Samuel the prophet has a different experience hearing the
voice of G-d. When he was a young boy his mother, Hannah, sent him to live with
the aged priest, Eli. One night Samuel awoke to a voice calling him. He went to
Eli and asked him what he wanted. Eli said he did not call him and told him to
go back to sleep. This happened a second time. Again, Eli told him he had not
called. When it happened a third time, Eli told him it must be the voice of
G-d, and he should listen carefully. And indeed, it was. In this story, the
voice of G-d sounds very much like the voice of any human being.
What seems clear is that G-d’s voice changes depending on who
is listening. To the people of Israel standing at Sinai the voice was a roar;
to Elijah a whisper, to Samuel, the voice of his teacher. Recently, researchers
have been examining changes in the human voice. Dr. Yoram Levanon, a
leading Israeli scientist, discovered that researchers can identify the onset
of some diseases just by monitoring the change in a person’s voice. At first,
they were able to diagnose Parkinson’s disease before the appearance of any
other symptoms. They then found that they could identify coronary artery
disease just by the sound of someone’s voice. Imagine being able to call an
emergency room if you were experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath,
and be told, just by analyzing your voice, whether you were having a heart
attack or simply experiencing anxiety!
On December 11 of last year Dr. Levanon announced that his
company, Vocalis Health, would focus on developing ways to diagnose coronary
and respiratory diseases through vocal analysis. They are now turning their
focus on a particular respiratory disease -- trying to identify people infected
by Covid19 by identifying vocal biomarkers, vocal signatures beyond the
capacity of the human ear but detectable through artificial intelligence. The
hope is that early symptom detection and monitoring at home could be done
through a smart phone. If it can be done, it would be an ideal way to do the
millions of tests necessary to get us back on the road to normality.
What is more, each one of us can participate in this research
by going to Vocalishealth.com, filling out a health questionnaire and recording
our voice.
That is the message of hope that I want to leave you with
today. There are some very smart and dedicated scientists out there who are tenaciously
working on developing ways that human beings worldwide can return to normal in
a safe and responsible way. Curious to think that we are just beginning to
discover what the human voice might express without our knowledge. Our
ancestors discovered the sublime wisdom in the voice of G-d; we are uncovering
the hidden secrets of the voice of humankind.
Shabbat Shalom
Posts
