Eikev
Reflection on parashat Eikev by Avigail Beeri Harel, Or HaLev Teacher
A school teacher once brought a singing bowl to her students. "Let's try an experiment," she said. "When I strike the gong, don't do anything. Just close your eyes, and follow the sound. See where it goes, where it disappears, and where it fades into the silence. If you listen with curiosity, you might get closer to God." The children closed their eyes and listened. Later, one of them returned home and told his mother: "Mom, the teacher said that if we listened to the sound, we would get closer to God. But when I listened all the way to the end, I didn't get closer to God. I was God."
The command to listen stands at the heart of the Kriat Shema (the recitation of the Shema). In Parashat Eikev, we encounter a duplication of the verb shama (listen/hear): "And it shall come to pass, if you shall diligently listen (shamo'a tishme'u) to My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Divine, your One...". The Talmud (Sukkah 46b) notices this duplication: "If you listen (shamo'a), you will listen (tishme'u), and if not – you will not listen." That is to say, one must incline an ear and train oneself in listening in order to merit truly listening. Rashi interprets the word "this day" (hayom): "That they should be new in your eyes, as though you heard them on that very day."
The Torah teaches that listening is not a one-time act, but rather a daily practice, asking us to renew ourselves and be present with this very day.
Yet, listening is no simple task. When someone speaks to us, we often do not truly hear them. The urge to prove that we are right, to fix and manage the situation, or to gain approval interferes with genuine listening. When a conversation causes us discomfort, we may also close off or switch to a defensive stance. True listening requires us to step back for a moment from our position, and perhaps even to change. Perhaps something in our worldview will suddenly be shaken, and our heart will soften. The poet Mark Nepo writes: "To listen is to lean softly forward, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear."
The Torah's invitation for our daily life is to reside within this open space during our encounters with others. Such listening can dissolve internal and interpersonal blockages. When we do not listen, the creative and spiritual source within us dries up and becomes blocked, and we begin to live and speak from defensiveness and stress. But when we practice listening - inwardly to the body and experience, and outwardly toward the other - we release the inner fountain, allowing life force to flow and spring forth within us anew. It is no coincidence that the reward promised in the Torah for practicing listening is a flow and natural abundance of blessing: "I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain..." (Deuteronomy 11:14).
Imagine a person you would like to listen to today. Picture yourself sitting across from them, gently leaning toward them, and setting aside your need to prove something or fix them. From this new space, be curious: what will emerge?
Perhaps something new - within you, and within them as well.
Wishing you a Shabbat of deep listening and peace.