~
Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas
Vayikra
The
Art of Listening
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיִּקְרָא
אֶל
משֶׁה
וַיְדַבֵּר
ה'
אֵלָיו
מֵאֹהֶל
מוֹעֵד
לֵאמֹר:
דַּבֵּר
אֶל
בְּנֵי
יִשְׂרָאֵל
וְאָמַרְתָּ
אֲלֵהֶם
אָדָם
כִּי
יַקְרִיב
מִכֶּם
קָרְבָּן
לַה'
מִן
הַבְּהֵמָה
מִן
הַבָּקָר
וּמִן
הַצֹּאן
תַּקְרִיבוּ
אֶת
קָרְבַּנְכֶם
“He
[Hashem] called to Moshe and Hashem spoke to him from the Tent of
Meeting, saying: Speak to the B'nei Yisroel and say to them:
When a person from among you will bring an offering to Hashem: from
the animals – from the cattle and from the flocks you shall bring
your offering.”
-Vayikra
1:1-2
Rashi1
on this passuk (verse) comments that throughout the Torah
there are many breaks.2
The purpose of these breaks was to give Moshe time to digest and
understand what he had been taught by Hashem. Rashi then ends
by saying a kal v'chomer: If Moshe, who learned from
Hashem, needed breaks for contemplation, then certainly ordinary
people such as ourselves who learn from ordinary people must stop to
take breaks in order to properly understand what the other is
teaching.
The
Sifsei Chachomim3
explains that the kal v'chomer that Rashi is saying is
quite clear: If Moshe, an incredible student, was learning from
Hashem, Who is certainly the best teacher available, still required
breaks in order to try to understand what was being taught. How much
more so must we take many breaks to digest what is being taught to us
from ordinary people.
Let us
zoom out a little in order to appreciate what is being said here.
There are two main reasons why a person would need to take breaks
during a learning session. One is because it is hard for some people
to sit for long periods of time. It is therefore wise and healthy to
take breaks and recesses to clear one's mind to be able to be more
productive. The other reason a person may need a break is because one
might simply not understand the material being taught, and therefore
require extra time in order for him to think about what is being
said. It sounds from Rashi and the Sifsei Chachomim that
this latter type of break is what is being referred to. For some
reason, Moshe actually needed breaks in order to understand what
Hashem was teaching him.
The
Nachalas Yaakov4
is very bothered by this Rashi and asks the following two
questions. First of all, surely there is no better teacher than
Hashem. The Creator, with infinite wisdom and Who knows His creations
the best, certainly has the ability to convey any message or teaching
to man in the clearest of ways. If so, how could it be that Moshe
needed breaks in order to understand what was being taught to him?
Why did Moshe experience confusion if he had the best teacher
possible?
Second
of all, what is the kal v'chomer that Rashi is trying
to present? It would make sense if Moshe really was able to
understand it himself but Hashem gave him the breaks to teach him not
to rely on his sharpness, so then there would be a kal v'chomer to
us that certainly we should not rely on our own sharpness. However,
it seems from Rashi that Moshe really did need the breaks; but
if so, why is a kal v'chomer necessary? Even without a kal
v'chomer it should be obvious that we need breaks to understand
things when learning from ordinary people, simply because we would
not understand it otherwise. If we are dealing with someone who wants
to understand but is just having trouble understanding, why do we
need a kal v’chomeir to tell us to take a break and process
the material? It is obvious that one would have to pause and process
the information before continuing!
The
Nachalas Yaakov ends without an answer to his problems with
this Rashi. However, perhaps we could explain as follows. If
one stops to think about the process that everyone goes through when
communicating, one will realize how complicated simple-communication
really is. When two people are having a conversation, what is being
said is really going through a five step process. The idea trying to
be conveyed begins its journey in one person's head. The person
decides what he wants, or more precisely, what he means to
say. Then, he must choose the words he will use to express his idea.
This is followed by the time and space the words travel between the
ones having the conversation. Then, the listener hears what is being
said to him, followed by the last step in the process which is
digesting the information and interpreting what he heard.
This
last step in the process is the hardest of them all. It is easy to
hear what someone else has said and it is also generally easy to
interpret what one has heard, but that is not enough. In order to
fully understand and appreciate a message trying to be conveyed, one
must remove the built-in filter which shapes the way one hears things
and instead focus on what the communicator was trying to relate.
The
Mishna in Pirkei Avos5
says that Antignos from Socho used to teach, “Do not be like
servants who serve their master on the condition of receiving a
reward; instead be like servants who serve their master not on the
condition of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon
you.” Antignos was teaching that although the reward in Olam
Habbah (the World to Come) which awaits those who follow the ways
of Hashem is endless and greater than anything imaginable, when we
serve Hashem it should be out of complete love and fear of Him, and
not just because we will receive reward for doing the right thing.
The
Rashbam in Bava Basra6
brings from the Avos D'rebbe Nosson7
that Tzadok and Beisus were talmidim (students) of Antignos.
One time they were teaching this mantra of their rebbe,
Antignos, but their students confused what they said and took the
message of to not be like workers who work in order to get paid, to
mean that people who do mitzvos and “work for Hashem” do
not get rewarded.
The
students of Tzadok and Beisus did not take the time to listen to the
message that their rabbeim were trying to convey. They simply
allowed their default hearing skills to kick in. Tzadok and Beisus
knew what they themselves wanted to say, they said it, it reached the
ears of their talmidim, but the talmidim just did not
stop to think what their rabbeim meant, rather they merely
depended on what they thought they heard – or perhaps what they
wanted to hear.
With
this in mind, perhaps we could now answer the questions of the
Nachalas Yaakov and better understand the Rashi in this
week's parsha. Of course Hashem is the best teacher in the
world and could convey any message as clear as crystal. However, even
a talmid as great as Moshe rabbeinu needs time to
understand the underlying reasoning and message of what is trying to
be conveyed.
We say
in Shema, “Im shamoa tishm'u” - you shall surely
listen. The Gemara in Berachos8
makes a drasha from here: If you listen, then you will
listen. But if you will not listen, then you will not understand.
Only if one listens to what the Torah and the chochamim (sages)
are trying to tell us, will one gain a true understanding
of what was said.
Often
times, misunderstandings and arguments stem not from disagreement,
but rather from miscommunication. It is not easy to put our our own
thoughts and opinions on pause in order to realize the idea that
someone else is trying to convey. Unless we consciously decide to
listen the right way, we will not even notice that what we are
hearing is going through our own heads without taking account what
was meant to be said.
This
is exactly what Rashi is teaching us. Even Moshe Rabbeinu
needed to take breaks to put himself in Hashem's head – so to speak
– in order to comprehend what was being taught to him. So certainly
we, who are normal people learning from ordinary people, must take
breaks in order to be able to put ourselves in others' minds. This is
true not only during times when we are having trouble understanding
what is being taught or communicated but even at times when we feel
we fully understand. Pauses of one’s own biases and opinions are
absolutely necessary in order to fully appreciate what another is
trying to say. Only in this way could the communication process be
complete and allow for the possibility of im shamoa tishm'u.
This is the real art of listening.
1Vayikra
1:1
2These
breaks in the Torah could take one of two forms – either pesucha
(literally: open) or s'tumah (literally closed). Pesucha
is when the spaces go to the end of the line,
whereas s'tumah is
when the space is a break in a line but
the text continues further on in the same line.
3Vayikra
1:1
4Ibid.
5Avos
1:3
6Bava
Basra 115b
7Avos
D'rebbe Nosson 5:2
8Berachos
40a
No comments:
Post a Comment