Talmud Class: Shalshelet - The Cantillation Mark That Speaks to the Angst of Our Age

There is a rare cantillation mark called the shalshelet that occurs only four times in the entire Torah. The shalshelet goes up and down and is conspicuously drawn out, to evoke a deep hesitation.

In Genesis 19:16, Lot hesitates before leaving Sodom with his family. He knows it is marked for destruction, but he is stuck. More than we know what we like, we like what we know. Sodom wasn’t perfect, but he hesitated leaving it.

In Genesis 24:12, Abraham’s servant Eliezer hesitates before praying to God to help send an appropriate partner for Isaac.

In Genesis 39:8, Joseph hesitates before refusing the advances of Potiphar’s wife, who tries to seduce him.

In last Shabbat’s reading, in Leviticus 8:23, Moses hesitates before slaughtering the sacrificial animal that would ordain Aaron and his sons as the priests.

In each case, the protagonist wrestles with an inner demon before doing the right thing. Angst, self-doubt, indecision precede deed.

What do we learn from the shalshelet, and the wrestling of Lot, Eliezer, Joseph, and Moses with their demons, about how to handle the angst of our age?