“Hineni” - ‘Here I am” is a Hebrew expression that appears 250 times in the Hebrew Bible, often in response to a momentous call that comes from the Divine source. To respond with Hineni, as Leonard Cohen made manifest in his last album, is to know the secret password, to show up to the transcendent, prepared to be present to one’s unique call in life.
Young Samuel, apprentice to Eli the High Priest in Shiloh, hears his name called out three times during one fateful night in today’s chapter. According to Josephus’ account the boy is thirteen and has spent most of his childhood in this shrine. He thinks at first that it’s his boss Eli calling him from beyond the curtain, where the old man sleeps, guarding the ark, but by the third time Eli is woken up by the confused boy he knows what’s up and how to prepare his apprentice for an in initiation - his first revelation:
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר עֵלִ֣י לִשְׁמוּאֵל֮ לֵ֣ךְ ׀ שְׁכָב֒ וְהָיָה֙ אִם־יִקְרָ֣א אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְאָֽמַרְתָּ֙ דַּבֵּ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י שֹׁמֵ֖עַ עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ שְׁמוּאֵ֔ל וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב בִּמְקוֹמֽוֹ׃
“And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down. If you are called again, say, ‘Speak, Adonai, for Your servant is listening.’” And Samuel went to his place and lay down”
This tender moment of mid-night mentorship is meaningful, especially since what Samuel is about to hear will confirm what Eli already knows - his leadership and spiritual lineage is over and Samuel, not his sons, will be his heir.
Samuel’s name is called out twice - as happens in the more dramatic vision scenes such as the call to Abraham or Moses. He knows what to respond. But the message is not all about him. Samuel’s first prophetic transmission is indeed a harsh indictment of his mentor whose time is up, in a system that is corrupt beyond correction. A new religious regime is soon on its way and Samuel some day will be its voice. Once trained to hear The Voice - he won’t doubt it again.
“The law is not thrust upon man”, wrote Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher who was very interested in the divine art of dialogue, “ it rests deep within him, to waken when the call comes.”
For Buber, hearing God’s voice is not limited to dramatic revelations. We are invited into dialogue with mystery through our encounters with each other’s truth, through nature, and when we wisen up enough to silence our mind and pay attention to the pulse of presence often heard within our heart.
Samuel’s nocturnal call to service continues to intrigue artists and mystics, psychologists and poets. What does it mean to hear and heed The Call? Where and how does delusion dance with divinity?
@Steven Millhauser, an American author, joins Samuel in Shiloh as he tries to make sense of his own faith and identity, in ‘A Voice in the Night’, a fascinating piece published some years ago in The New Yorker, with this excerpt as a teaser:
“The boy in Stratford is listening for his name in the night. The story of Samuel has made him nervous, tense as a cat. The slightest sound stiffens his whole body. He never thinks about the old man with a beard on the front of his “Child’s Illustrated Old Testament,” but now he’s wondering. What would his voice be like? His father says God is a story that people made up to explain things they don’t understand. When his father speaks about God to company at dinner, his eyes grow angry and gleeful behind his glasses. But the voice in the night is scary as witches. The voice in the night knows you’re there, even though you’re hidden in the dark. If the voice calls your name, you have to answer. The boy imagines the voice calling his name. It comes from the ceiling, it comes from the walls. It’s like a terrible touch, all over his body. He doesn’t want to hear the voice, but if he hears it he’ll have to answer. You can’t get out of it. He pulls the covers up to his chin and thinks of the walls of water crashing down on the Egyptians, on their chariots and horses. Through the window screens the crickets seem to be growing louder.”
When the sun rises, Samuel is busy opening the shrine doors and goes about his tasks, avoiding Eli. But the old priest wants to know what Samuel has heard, and takes the news with heartbreaking acceptance.
From that day on, Samuel’s fame grows from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the South. The people sense the difference. A prophet is born.
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Good story. Vivid midrash.