SHema: You Can Listen as well as you hear
by Marc Vidito
In 1988, the band Mike and the Mechanics released the song “The Living Years”. This is one of my favorite songs of that era about the common conflicts between fathers and sons and between one generation and the next. The chorus speaks of resolution with the phrase “You can listen as well as you hear.”
Listen and hear. To words that seem to mean the same and yet are different in their functions. If we turn to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, we find that the meanings can intertwine, but also differ.
Hear: to have the capacity of perceiving sound : to be able to become aware of sound
Listen: to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration
If we look at these to definitions, we see that to “hear” is first and foremost the ear’s automatic response to sound. This does not imply either intention or judgement. This is contrasted with the verb “listen”. Take a look at the words and phrases associated with the word “listen”. “ Thougthful attention; consideration.” This implies both intention and judgement.
How does this relate, then, to the most fundamental Hebrew prayer and the first of all the mitzvot? Let us look at the Shema found in Dueteronomy 6:4.
“Hear (more accurately: listen), Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”
by Mark Ashkenazi
This is both a proclamation and a command. At the beginning of all things we are to “hear”. But, more than that, there is both intentionality and judgement implied in this hearing. Therefore, it is far more than simply hearing these words. We are to give thoughtful attention to them. We are to consider them. Before all of our understanding, before we can act towards God in any way, we must judge, as the people of Israel, both born and grafted into this family, that HaShem, THE Name, is our God. He is Echad, a complete oneness. He is the only. Yeshua calls this and the action associated with it the first and greatest commandment. Listen. Listen, consider, give thoughtful attention to, and then respond. With what do we then respond? Verse 5 continues the Shema with further commands.
“…and as for you, you shall LOVE the Lord your God with all of your HEART, with all of your SOUL, and with all of your STRENGTH.”
Once we pay attention to discern that HaShem is the one and only God, then we are to love Him with everything we are, heart, soul, and strength.
All of our beliefs and intentional acts hang on this first set of commands beginning with listening. Are you listening, or are you simply hearing? Take it from Mike and the Mechanics, it pays to Shema!