Listen Up!

Va'etchanan
Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11

Précis: Moses continues the recapitulation of travels through the wilderness and urges the people to follow God’s commandments. Moses pleads with God that he be allowed to enter the Promised Land, and is refused. In anger, Moses rebukes the people, telling them that it is their fault that he is being denied entry. He continues with a restatement of the Ten Commandments, and follows with an articulation of the basic element of Jewish theology: the Sh’ma. Moses then warns the people against the peril of forgetfulness, particularly of the Exodus, and cautions against idol worship of gods of the nations they will conquer.

Deut. 6:4 “Hear oh Israel! Adonai is our God, Adonai is one!”

Is there a Jew who is not at least somewhat familiar with the Sh'ma? In six short Hebrew words, we find the central proclamation of our liturgy and of our theology: our belief in monotheism.

Most read the last Hebrew word, “echad” as “one” and assume it is the most important word in the phrase. However, if we read this verse within the context of the parasha, we may come to a different conclusion.

One can conclude from the Book of D’varim that what Moses is trying to do throughout these concluding exhortations is simply to get the people to listen to him. Within this parasha, Moses repeatedly tells the people to listen, even to the extent that they should depend less on what they see (e.g., idols), and focus on what they hear. In other words, “listening” takes precedence over “seeing.”

If this interpretation of Moses' intent is correct, how do we adhere to the premise of “sh’ma" (Listen!) at a time when God no longer speaks to us as He did to our ancestors at Sinai?

Perhaps there is an analogy to be found in modern cosmology. In an article appearing in Astrophysical Journal, vol. 142 (July, 1965) A.A. Penzias and R.W. Wilson of Bell Labs wrote an article entitled “A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/S” which suggested that a previously unexplainable background hiss in radio astronomy was, in fact, the remains of the Big Bang which created the Universe. This finding is now a principle piece of evidence for the theory itself.

Just as cosmologists “listen” to the faintest echoes of Creation to understand something about the present makeup and structure of the universe, I ask each reader to think about how they can “listen” for the echo of Sinai and the echo of God’s Voice today. This is why “listen” is the most important word of the most important sentence in Jewish thought.