Torah: Ve’Ethanan:
Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell explains his new podcast, “You think with your eyes; your feel with your ears. Complex ideas are conveyed in writing; tears may flow from what you hear.”
In this week’s Torah, we read: “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The core concept of Judaism is that there is only one God, a God that cares about how we treat each other. The sole verb of our statement of faith is to hear. It is not enough to know in an intellectual way that there is a source of unity in creation and in our inner lives. To hear is to experience, feel, encounter, engage. Let us listen.
Last week’s sermon (click here) – Devarim: Character Corrections: A Bitter-Sweet Process. Moses begins his farewell by recounting the ways that they erred during their journey. Why replay painful memories? How does only focusing on joy lead to trivialization? How has owing the pain of Tisha B’Av led to the rebirth of our national home?