Dr. Allen Goldstein, Dr. Robert Goldman, Rabbi’s Isaac Oelbaum, Yossi Bilus, Yitzchak Aminov, Akiva Tatz and from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
“SHEMA YISRAEL HASHEM ELOKANU HASHEM EHCHAD-Hear Israel, G-d is our G-d, G-d is one” is the most famous prayer that we Jews utter. It’s the first catch phrase we teach our children.
The question is asked why did G-d choose to use the sense of hearing as opposed to seeing as the vehicle to achieve this lofty spiritual act.
Is hearing more powerful then seeing? What is the difference between them?
In this weeks parsha we learn that if a Jewish slave decides to remain a slave and stay with his master rejecting freedom, “then his master shall bring him to the court and shall bring him to the door or door post and he shall bore through his ears with an awl”(Shemot 21:6). This is a symbolic punishment. We are rebuking him for not exercising his rights of freedom. We were taken out of Egypt primarily so we can be servants only to G-d, not slaves to man. By choosing subordination to flesh and blood one is depriving himself of basic Jewish rights and the ability to serve G-d properly.
The sages asked why is the ear singled out? Our entire body experienced the revelation at Har Sinai. The nose, eyes, arms, legs all were present when we received the Torah where we committed ourselves to serving G-d. Secondly , perhaps we should hit the ear after every sin we make. If one desecrates the Shabbat just wack the ear. If you insult your mother-in-law the ear will get abused. Why only in this particular incident do we go through this procedure? I remember many years ago there would be frequent audio recording on a devise called a tape recorder where only sound can be heard. Also in those days home made movies had no sound. Today my son’s spy watch is more sophisticated then those recording devises of yesteryear. If one views and hears those images and sounds some time later, one can ask, which has more of an impact and conjures up stronger emotions, the sound of the tape recording or sight of the homemade silent films?
Lets understand sight and sound a little bit more deeply.
One of the more puzzling passages in the Torah is when we were on mount Sinai “All the people saw the sounds, the flames….” Rabbi Akiva interprets this verse to mean that the Jews then “saw that which is heard, and heard that which is seen.” Thus, “the sounds” which by nature are normally heard were literally seen, and “the flames” which are customarily seen were actually heard.
The special effects were probably very neat. However, why did the Torah have to mention this point? What does this passage mean? How does it relate to us receiving the Torah? Also the expression NAASEH V’ NISHMA “we will do and we will hear” was pronounced. The word “hear” is used where perhaps understand would be more fitting.
Our Jewish law favors sight more than sound. With regard to the person, sight has a more profound impact on the viewer than hearing has on the listener. Accordingly, the person who sees something is surer of the information conveyed to him by his sense of sight than the listener is of that which is conveyed to him by his power of hearing.
This fact results in the law that “a witness [to an event] may not serve as a judge,” for as the Gemara explains, since he actually saw the person commit the misdeed, it will be impossible for him to find extenuating circumstances and deal leniently with the perpetrator.
However, when a judge merely hears the testimony of witnesses, he is still capable of dealing leniently with the defendant by reason of extenuating circumstances. This is so, even when he is thoroughly convinced that the eyewitnesses are telling the complete truth, and that the person did indeed commit the misdeed for which he stands accused.
Apparently, sight is seemingly more important then sound. However, in the Jewish court of law if one makes one deaf he has to pay full compensation for the person as opposed to blinding him, which receives a lessor penalty. If sight is more vital then hearing why is this so? There seems to be a special mystique about hearing.
Perhaps we can get enlightened by King Shlomo who said NATAN AVDECHA LEV SHMIAH-you gave your servant a heart that can hear. There seams to be a connection between the heart and listening.
Many commentaries mention that Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, heard then internalized all what had happened to the Jews. He then converted to Judaism. As a physical being, man is naturally closer to the material than to the spiritual. It follows that he will grasp a material object – with his power of sight – more intimately and thoroughly than something spiritual. However, sound is soulful and can penetrate deep inside a person. Perhaps for this reason music has such a mesmerizing effect on a person. The ancient Greeks were very much into art and physical beauty; It was all about vision. The Jews, on the other hand, had a different approach. When the Talmud introduces a question, if one notices the expression is TAH SHEMA-come and hear. Why not come and see? The expression SHMA MINA- I would have thought” is also used. Hearing is closely associated with deep thinking and spirituality.
We can identify more closely to the physical world of sight than the spiritual world of sound. When the verse states “seeing that which is heard, and hearing that which is seen.” Spirituality is generally only “heard” by means of experiencing it from a distance. When G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, however, He raised them to a level where they became capable of “seeing” and grasping spirituality through direct perception.In contrast, the physical world, which had always been clearly seen by them, now became distant from them. Their heightened spiritual state made it difficult for them to “see” and fully grasp the material world; they were now only able to recognize it with their weaker sense of “hearing.”
G-d had provided them with an opportunity to get close to him in the most intense way by bringing the spiritual sound in full sight.
The Jewish slave is deprived of a lot of mitzvoth.
Here it is his option, his choice to continue in his servitude therefore forfeiting his Jewishness,
his spirituality. Of all the organs of the body, the ears represent the spiritual aspect of a Jew. Therefore he is punished with that organ.
We have to internalize the words HASHEM ELOKANU HASHEM ECHAD-G-d is our G-d, G-d is one, and we accomplish this task with the most spiritual part of our body, through hearing. Because we know that hearing is the medium in which belief and trust is internalized. It will penetrate the heart.