CLERGY CORNER: To really listen

Posted on 16 May 2013 by LeslieM

The Ten Commandments are referred to by many Sages as The Ten Utterances. The Ten Commandments were carved in stone, but, before they were written, The Children of Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and heard those utterances. Some say we heard the words as though they all came at once. Others say that we each heard the utterances one word at a time, and still others say that each of us heard the utterances in our own way, to the best of our understanding. I adhere to this particular theory. I believe we hear most everything through a filter; not just the filter of our ears, but through the filter of our knowledge, our experience and our culture.

Perhaps that is why, each time we re-hear a chapter in the Torah chanted, we can glean something new out of it. The Torah hasn’t changed at all. It has the same words it has always had. But, hopefully, we have changed. We have grown, and, with that growth, we hear the words in a whole new and exciting way.

Words of Torah are, indeed, words we should listen to. But there are other words … mean words, nasty words, gossip that we should try to avoid letting into our ears.

In ancient days, it was suggested that we have a flap on our ears for just that reason. Of course, it has also been said that G-d gave us long fingers so that we could stick them in our ears for the very same reason. And, that G-d gave us feet so that we could walk away from evil speech. Wow, three ways to avoid having to listen to something sinful.

Austin O’Malley said, “We should thank G-d that He did not give us the power of hearing through walls, or we would have no friends.”

And there is even an expression that sums up the Ten Utterances well … you will all recognize the words, “Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.”

The ancients asked the question, “Why did G-d give us two ears but only one mouth,”and the answer was that so we should listen at least twice as much as we speak.

But poet Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that “The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue.” Of course, we know that if we listen to Loshen Hora there is a good chance that we are going to repeat it; after all, as human beings, we seem to get some great joy in being able to say something bad about someone, as long as that someone is not us.”

But, when we listen to The Ten Utterances, we are supposed to hear with more than just our ears … we are also supposed to listen with our eyes, our nose, our hands and, yes, our heart and our soul. This caused Groucho Marx to state, “One of the best hearing aides a man can have is an attentive wife.” I like that expression, especially as many have likened the event at Sinai to a marriage between G-d and The Children of Israel. If you are married, you had better take time to listen to your spouse when they need to talk. But, it is also true that if you really love someone, you have the ability to hear their unspoken needs. You can read the person you love like we read the Torah. You can hear the changes in inflection. You notice the little nuances. You listen, really listen, with every fiber of your being.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains. He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

Comments are closed.

Advertise Here
Advertise Here