Sometimes a message comes loud and clear.
Sometimes it comes in a much more clouded way.
And sometimes a person doesn't even know.
A person may receive a very clear message without knowing it.
Sometimes events, life or things converge upon a person, but that person doesn't recognize that he is being called.
You may have more than one call.
Sometimes the call comes not through any kind of voice.
Sometimes the call comes because you are put into a position in which a choice is made for you that you never imaged.
It may begin with anything from an accident to a disaster.
And it may come through a chance.
Sometimes you ask a question at large, and you receive a very clear answer when the person who answered it, who was the instrument for answering it, didn't ever know that he was giving you an answer.
So what I'm saying is that the change, whatever the change is, seems to be that there is something that I now know.
I know at a certain level that I am being told something.
What I do with that knowledge is a completely different thing.
It could even be that I will ignore it.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From "The Command is to Hear: An Interview with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz" in Parabola, March 01, 1994, conducted by Jean Sulzberger.