The Elijah Problem

Many years ago, a good friend attended the 100th anniversary of a synagogue in a small town in Canada. It was a festive occasion with much fanfare and celebration. Local people were joined by other community members and Jews from around the country. My friend returned to Toronto and was elated.

That synagogue is now on life support. He recently reflected that what he witnessed was not a celebration but an obituary.

His experience reflects the situation in many towns in Canada. In the U.S., the Conservative movement has gone from a majority of American Jews to only 18% in one generation. In Canada, Conservative Jews are the majority, but very large synagogues are in merger talks in order to cope with dwindling numbers. The difference between large cities and small towns is only a matter of scale.

In times of disruptive change, it is instructive to look to our past. In the first Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah exposes the prophets of the god Ba’al as frauds by way of a test. Each side prepares an offering, and the one to Baal is left intact, rejected by God, while Elijah’s offering is consumed by a heavenly flame in a dramatic affirmation of Elijah as a real prophet. In spite of Elijah’s great feat, the Jewish idol-worshipping king Ahab and his queen, the notorious Jezebel, threaten Elijah’s life and he flees.

In one of the most thought-provoking episodes of the Hebrew Bible, God then instructs Elijah to bear witness as He has a powerful wind smash mountains, followed by an earthquake and then a great fire. After each one, He tells Elijah that God is not in the wind, not in the earthquake and not in the fire. He resides, instead, in the still, small voice.

The great spectacle of Elijah’s offering may have been awe-inspiring in the moment, but, in the end, it was fleeting. The king and the people reverted to idol worship because, like all spectacles, it was an external show that did not engage the inner self, the soul.

Elijah was dejected after the failure of his grand gesture, because he knew that his victory was short-lived, and he had lost the battle for the future. He was forced to realize that the only transformative experience of the Divine that can be sustained is one that involves an internal encounter with the still, small voice of God.

The “Elijah Problem” is the challenge that Jews and people of all religions face today. How can the religion of the past become the religion of the future?

The “Elijah Problem” is the challenge that Jews and people of all religions face today. How can the religion of the past become the religion of the future? All “outreach” organizations would give anything to be able to answer that question. Young people, now mesmerized by modern culture, do not turn to religion for stimulation or engagement or meaning. In Elijah’s time, God makes him aware of the need to cultivate an inner quest to seek a personal connection with the Divine. But where is that still, small voice today? Who is guiding people toward an inner search for the sublime and the ineffable?

There was no solution to Elijah’s problem then, but society carried on with periods of renewal and rededication. They, too, had their challenges, but the culture was essentially religious.

The modern age is a secular one and organized religion may be facing its greatest crisis in history. The distractions of our age have driven most people to opt out of religion, often by default. In the “sound and fury” of our era, it is increasingly hard to hear the still small voice of God, or even to know that it is there waiting, if sought. You cannot find what you’re not looking for.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Waterloo.