The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction–action film which follows the computer hacker Neo, who is recruited by Morpheus into a rebellion against the machines. One of the most memorable scenes is of a young prophet who has learnt how to manipulate the world of the Matrix. Seemingly wise beyond his years, he teaches Neo how to develop his powers and provides him with wisdom. It is worth rewatching this scene: 

Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon Boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon Boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

In the Matrix there is no spoon, let alone reality, just a perception of one. is our reality that different? The only things we experience is when our brains filter and interpret sensory input through personal beliefs and past experiences. Or in the words of George Orwell, “Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”(1984)

For most of human existence we have been pushed to the extremes of only believing in what we could see or magical thinking of what we did not understand. In a profound way this two sides of the debate came together to prove with evidence from the world that there was more to our reality than we had previously perceived when Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered “cosmic microwave background radiation.” Penzias and Wilson worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers, intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive antenna/receiver system, the pair encountered radio noise that they could not explain. It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by the Milky Way, and it was isotropic, so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwave horn antenna ( image below) showed it was full of bat and pigeon droppings, which Penzias described as “white dielectric material”. After the pair removed the dung buildup the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, Penzias contacted Robert H. Dicke, who suggested it might be the background radiation predicted by some cosmological theories.

Penzias and Wilson, standing under the Holmdel Horn Antenna, NJ ( note shape)

The pair agreed with Dicke to publish side-by-side letters in the Astrophysical Journal, with Penzias and Wilson describing their observations and Dicke suggesting the interpretation as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the radio remnant of the Big Bang. This proved to be landmark evidence for the Big Bang Theory and provided substantial confirmation for earlier predictions. The Big Bang describes how the universe expanded from an early state of high density and temperature. A wide range of empirical evidence strongly favors the Big Bang model, which is now widely accepted. The noise that Penzias and Wilson originally thought was just static turned out to prove that the world we could see around us was anything other than static, but is proof of expanding reality. There is no spoon.

I was thinking about the Matrix and their Horn Antenna recently when learning the Mishna of Rosh HaShana. It seemed strange to me that the first two chapters of Rosh Hashana deal with what seems to be an tangential issue of determining the valid testimony from witnesses who claimed to have seen a new moon. Why is this case? What does over half of the whole book deal with topic that is not core to Rosh HaShana?

This question gets even sharper when we look at the start of the 3rd chapter. There we learn:

If the court and all of the Jewish people saw the new moon, and the witnesses were interrogated, but the court did not manage to say: Sanctified, before nightfall, so that the thirtieth day already passed, the previous month is rendered a full, thirty-day month, and the following day is observed as the New Moon. If the court alone saw the new moon, two members of the court should stand and testify before the others, and the court should say: Sanctified, sanctified... ( Mishnah Rosh Hashana 3:1)

The Mishna is still dealing with the cases of giving testimony regarding a new month. In this particular case we explore what if the court and the entire Jewish people see the new moon, but the court does not. According to the Mishna this is not enough. The courts ruling is what makes it a new month. The power of the court is underscored by the fact that members of the court could themselves be witnesses to the new month. For proof you need two kosher witnesses to provide evidence and the court to believe them.

So we go from two chapters and one mishna of the importance of interrogating what two people see to the topic of Shofar, what people hear. Here we read:

The mishna begins to discuss the primary mitzva of Rosh HaShana, sounding the shofar. All shofarot are fit for blowing except for the horn of a cow, because it is a horn [keren] and not a shofar…( Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:2)

This juxtaposition draws attention to the shift from visual proof to auditory experience. This get even sharper when we look a few mishnayot later. There we learn:

If one sounds a shofar into a pit, or into a cistern, or into a large jug, if he clearly heard the sound of the shofar, he has fulfilled his obligation; but if he heard the sound of an echo, he has not fulfilled his obligation. And similarly, if one was passing behind a synagogue,or his house was adjacent to the synagogue, and he heard the sound of the shofar or the sound of the Scroll of Esther being read, if he focused his heart, i.e. his intent, to fulfill his obligation, he has fulfilled his obligation; but if not, he has not fulfilled his obligation. It is therefore possible for two people to hear the shofar blasts, but only one of them fulfills his obligation. Even though this one heard and also the other one heard, nevertheless, this one focused his heart to fulfill his obligation and has therefore indeed fulfilled it, but the other one did not focus his heart, and so he has not fulfilled his obligation. (Mishna Rosh HaShana 3:7)

Here we learn that two people might be passing by a synagogue and hear the exact some shofar blast on Rosh HaShana, but if one have intention to fulfil the commandment of listening to the shofar it “worked”, where the other one without this intention did not fulfil the commandment. By definition, the intention regarding what they hear is subjective. This stands in sharp contrast to much of what the mishna had been struggling with until this point in determining the “objective” evidence of what was seen.

Rosh HaShana is Yom HaDin, the day of judgement. In this context it is interesting to explore how what we see of the world around us (including ourselves) seem static. In this context is is easy to think we are limited to how other people see us. We will be judged in the court on this simple binary. But then there is the shift to sound. Maybe we will hear the wake up call of the shofar and explore a different intention. If we really listen the the Shofar, like Penzias and Wilson with their shofar shaped Holmdel Horn Antenna, we could hear the noise of a reality expanding. And maybe, just maybe, we could think expansively about who we are, who we want to be, and change for the better. We need not be limited to the judgement of sight, and we can be transformed by the grace, compassion, and imagination of call of the shofar. The sound of the shofar is calling us saying ” it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.”

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• Unrelated idea about there being No Spoon- revisit the Bear post I Get It: Reflecting on Yom Kippur and the Bear