“We must first change into nothing if we want to change from one reality to another. To become a new creature, we must cease to be the creature that we are,” wrote Dr. Maurice Friedman in A Dialogue with Hasidic Tales. He then repeated the words from the Hasidic tradition:
The kernel which is sown in earth must fall to pieces so that the ear of grain can sprout from it. Strength cannot be resurrected until it has dwelt in deep secrecy. To doff a shape, to don a shape- this is done in the instant of pure nothingness…. On the day of destruction, power lies at the bottom of the depths and grows.
Just as the phoenix rises again out of the ashes, when we are at our worst, we discover how to recover ourselves. When we are in the deepest despair, we fall to the ground. From there we can look up and see the light.
Out of the silence comes the song.