Cognitive Dissonance
But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD {was} upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. Genesis 19:16 NASB
He hesitated – “The Torah does not have a word for ambivalence—the nearest is Elijah’s question to the Baal-worshipping Israelites: ‘How long will you waver between two opinions?’ (1 Kings 18:21). It does, however, have a tune for it. This is the rare note known as the shalshelet. . . The shalshelet is the music of ambivalence. The rare notation appears three times in Genesis . . .”[1]
This rare musical cantillation mark indicates the inability for a person to decide a course of action.
“The individual is called upon to make a choice, one on which his whole future will depend—but finds that he cannot. He is torn between two alternatives, both of which exercise a powerful sway. He must resolve the dilemma one way or another, but either choice will involve letting go of intensely felt temptations or deeply held aspirations.”[2]
“He [Lot] is a prime example of what Leon Festinger called cognitive dissonance. According to Festinger, the need to avoid dissonance and the unbearable tension it creates, is fundamental to human beings. It is this tension that Lot cannot resolve—and which is signaled by the shalshelet over ‘he hesitated.’”[3]
“He predicted that the more important the issue, the longer the person delays a decision and the harder it is to reverse, the more he or she will agonize over whether they have made the right choice. They have second thoughts; they need reassurance; they ‘look back.’”[4]
We need a bit more information about this unusual marking.
שַׁלְשֶׁלֶת means “chain” in Hebrew and refers to a rare musical cantillation mark in the Torah, shaped like a zigzag or link, that indicates deep emotional turmoil, hesitation, or a significant pause, often appearing at the start of verses where a character faces a difficult choice or internal struggle, like Lot delaying his exit from Sodom or Joseph resisting Potiphar’s wife. . . it is one of the rarest used, occurring just four times in the entire Torah, in Genesis 19:16, 24:12, and 39:8, and in Leviticus 8:23. The four words accented with the shalshelet mark all occur at the beginning of the verse. . . Kabbalistic authors have held that this shows the connection of the worlds by the links of a chain. The symbolism of the shalshelet is that the subject of the story is wrestling with his inner demons and is undergoing some hesitation in his actions.
Sacks suggests a modern example: “ . . . many Jews in Germany and Austria in the 1930’s refused to leave because they would not or could not believe the evidence around them that Hitler was serious in his threats to destroy the Jews.”[5]
Why pay attention to this rare musical indicator? Two reasons: first, its rarity tells us something about decision-making in the Torah. While contemporary religious commitment seems fraught with ambivalence, most characters in the Torah do not exhibit angst. Their choices are clear and they make them. Only occasionally do we find real, personal struggle in the call of God.
Secondly, however, we do find it. It’s not impossible, forbidden, or expunged. It happens—and often at great cost. Mental turmoil, cognitive dissonance, is real—and subject to exponential growth. The longer we hesitate, the harder it gets to decide. Unfortunately, it seems that many of us have hesitated a long time. I am so often reminded of the comment I heard years ago: “I’m comfortable with what I believe.” In other words, don’t challenge me. It’s too difficult to think about any alternative.
Do you feel like sometimes you’re living on the zigzag line?
Topical Index: shalshelet, cognitive dissonance, hesitate, Genesis 19:16
[1] Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Genesis: The Book of Beginnings (Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2009), p. 109.
[2] Ibid., p. 110.
[3] Ibid., p. 114.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., p. 115.
