Re'eh (2a): Listening Brings Blessing

ראה אנוכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה. את הברכה אשר תשמעו אל מצות ה' אלוקיכם... והקללה אם לא תשמעו... וסרתם מן הדרך

See that I have placed before you a blessing and a curse. The blessing that you should listen to the commandments of Hashem your G-d. And the curse if you don't listen and you shall stray from the path.

Listen to the amazing words of R' Yaakov Moshe Charlap zt"l:

R' Yaakov Moshe, author of 15
volumes of Mei Marom and
several works of Nigleh as well.
A unknown giant.

One of the things that set people apart from animals is the ability to listen. A conversation is not dependent on the ability to make noise, it is the ability to cooperate in what the other side is saying and to internalize messages. Animals can hear, but only humans can listen.

We said at Mount Sinai, נעשה ונשמע, we shall do and we shall listen. The meaning of this is that we won't just do things, rather we shall listen to what we are doing. That itself gives us the ability to do the Mitzvos. Let's explain the meaning of this.

There is big difference between physicality and spirituality. Gashmiyus works even if you don't understand the mechanics of it. The car drives even if you don't understand what's going on under the hood. This is not true in spirituality. The more we learn, the more we understand, the more we listen to what the Mitzvah is all about the more powerful it becomes. When we understand Tefilah through the lens of the Tzadikim, our Tefilah becomes more potent, and so too it is with every Mitzvah. Lulav, Tzitzis, Shabbos... everything.

We are so thirsty for spiritual fulfillment. Mankind seeks to connect to something larger than life. All to often there are those who give up their Judaism because they find it stale and non-relevant. But the blessing of life, the richness of spirituality, that connection that we all seek is found in simply learning about מה יפה ירושתינו, how gorgeous is our heritage. Does a certain Mitzvah bore you? Learn a little about it.

This is the meaning of the Psukim mentioned before:

את הברכה אשר תשמעו אל מצות ה' אלוקיכם

The blessing is that you should listen!

When we listen to the internal world of the Mitzvos life becomes so rich!

הקללה אם לא תשמעו... וסרתם מן הדרך

But the curse is not listening.

Doing Mitzvos by wrote makes life so stale and sometimes it makes holy Neshamos lose the way.

This fundamental idea idea is so central to solving many of Am Yisraels obvious problems today. Hashem should help us listen to the Mitzvos and then we will lead lives truly full of blessing.

(מבוסס חלקי על ביאורו של  מו"ר הרה"ח ר' אלחנן אהרמאן שליט"א)

You can listen to the Shiur in full here.