Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

/לב שומעתLev Shoma’at

A Hearing Heart 

This week’s parashah, VaEtchanan, is perhaps most well-known for containing the seminal Jewish prayer, the/שמע Shema. Significantly, the root word שמע/Shema appears repeatedly throughout this Torah reading.

שמע/Shema means ‘hear’ in the sense of ‘understand’. Indeed, the שמע/Shema prayer itself is not to be said in a language one does not understand. Similarly, one is not considered to hear the voice of the shofar (לשמוע קול שופר) if it is not accompanied by mindful intent (כוונת הלב). To hear/לשמוע, in Judaism, means to understand and to truly understand requires mindfulness. This is also the explanation for covering our eyes when reciting the שמע/Shema, true hearing entails full focus of being.

Accordingly, a life informed by ‘hearing’ requires an impassioned state of being. It is not coincidental, therefore, that our parashah couples hearing with fire: “Through fire have we heard the divine voice today?”; “Through fire do you hear the voice of God’s words?” and “Has a people heard the voice of God speaking through fire as you have heard?”. Moshe, who first hears the divine call through the ‘burning bush’, here reminds the people that one is summoned to a life of meaning and purpose only through a life ablaze with passion. True hearing/heeding requires one’s fully invested being.

It is instructive that the the שמע/Shema is to be the last words we say before our death and is the final prayer we recite on Yom Kippur, bringing to a close the challenge of authentic personal living and reflection. As Jews, we are to live a life of שמע/Shema – an impassioned response to the divine call to be present to the unique promise within ourselves and others. Thus King Shelomo, reputed to be the wisest of all humans, asked for, and was granted, the greatest blessing one can receive: ונתת לעבדך לב שומע – “Bestow upon your servant a hearing heart”.

As teachers we are challenged to discern and foster the individual voice of each of our students through a hearing heart. With the words of the Shema, Moshe Rabbeinu, our teacher, calls upon us to be present to the singularity of soul within each of us, honouring our diverse and unique expressions of the divine image. As the Rabbis note, the last letter of the first word of the Shema prayer, שמע and the last letter of the last word of the Shema prayer, אחד form the word ‘witness’/עד – reminding us that we give witness to the existence of God in being present to the promise within each of us.