We Will Hear and We Will Do

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

Seeing the Sounds 

Nowadays, any popular speaker must show up with at least one or two videos. It’s best if the videos are powerful and moving and communicate the message. The absolute minimum is to have a PowerPoint® presentation to be shown alongside the speech. 

Why? Because even if the rabbi or the lecturer is a gifted speaker and is extremely talented in communicating messages, still, the video will do the job better. A video speaks to one’s feelings; it awakens the heart. Because hearing something is not like seeing something, and the Gemara has already stated that hearing shouldn’t be considered greater than seeing.¹ 

Please do not see this as a recommendation to watch movies, chalila – not even “educational”’ films. We don’t need a movie to become enlivened and excited. Our work as Torah learners is to bring to life what we read in the Torah — to such a level that it will be as if we are seeing it with our own eyes! 

And that is the perfect Torah learning: That the Torah will be alive, tangible. Take everything you learn, and draw yourself a picture of what it looks like. Imagine a broomstick swallowing another broomstick – like Aharon’s staff swallowing all the staffs of the Egyptian wise men… How would you feel if you had seen it with your own eyes? 

I Hear This and am Shaken to the Core 

That was the special quality of Yitro. Yitro didn’t see all the miracles and wonders of the Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea – he just heard about them. In the beginning, he heard and came, “Moshe’s father-in-law Yitro, Priest of Midyan, heard…”², and then “Yitro came to Moshe”³ – to hear a first-hand witness tell of these happenings, with all the details. 

And then he heard again, this time from Moshe Rabbeinu himself: “And Moshe told his father-in-law all that Hashem had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians…”⁴ 

And although there were no cameras or videos at the time, Yitro took this story very much to heart: “Yitro delighted in all the good…”⁵ He didn’t just enjoy the story; he didn’t just believe it; he didn’t just say, “Wow, how marvelous!” No – the story affected him, as if he himself had been there. On the one hand he was very happy, as if he himself had gone through all those travails and witnessed the great salvation, and on the other hand he was shaken, because he was an advisor in Pharaoh’s palace. He knew all those people and it was terrible to hear how all the people you knew died strange deaths and suffered so much. 

Yitro didn’t only hear – he created pictures in his head, pictures that caused him to see Hashem’s Hand tangibly and to be happy; in other words, to develop complete  emuna (faith) in Hashem and in His unlimited power. 

You Will Hear and Do  

Many people reach the point of believing that Hashem is omnipotent – and that’s where they stay. Okay, I understand that Hashem is Einsof (without end, infinite, transcendent), and omnipotent. But what does that have to do with my life? 

That is the reason why many people heard about the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and the Splitting of the Sea but did not come to convert. The entire world heard and did nothing. They just “heard” – with the information going in one ear and out the other.  

But Yitro “heard and came”.³ What he heard affected him and he was willing to change. He was willing to leave his entire life and social status. He was willing to accept the yoke of Heaven and the yoke of mitzvot; and the main thing is that he accepted upon himself complete emuna. 

And the truth is that Yitro not only heard, but he was well familiar with reality, as Rashi says⁶. He had been in Egypt and he knew that it was impossible for a slave to escape from Egypt. He knew the powers of sorcery and tum’a (spiritual impurity), Pharaoh’s power and his hatred of the Jews – and now he was seeing all of the Jewish People free. They were eating man and drinking from a well that followed them, providing an abundance of water for six hundred thousand men and their families. In addition, they had the Torah and mitzvot. This is something that shocked and amazed Yitro. 

But Yitro wasn’t only amazed – he acted! 

When he heard from afar about the miracles – he immediately left everything and came. And when he heard about them firsthand from his son-in-law, he got very excited and happy – vayichad – and  immediately blessed Hashem and brought korbanot (offerings)⁷; in other words, he wanted  to come closer to Hashem.  

Hearing That Is Doing 

The Torah commends Yitro, and he is awarded whole paragraphs in it, plus, the parasha in which Matan Torah (the giving of the Torah) is named after him. Why? Because the Torah wants us to adopt his very special way of reacting to things! The message coming from Yitro is piercing: Yitro hears and acts immediately! 

When you hear a lecture on emuna, what do you do? When you learn Torah and learn about the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt – what do you take from that to your life? How do you actually change? 

Do you say, “Amazing!” and go on with your life, or are you shaken, and immediately move ahead, translating all this to real acts? 

Yitro hears – and acts! If the Creator of the World has such power, if there is such a people, I am not staying the way I am! I am going to change! 

If you see the miracles of the Exodus and the Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea not as scenes in a movie, but rather as if you yourself are in this movie – all these things must change you, affect you. On the one hand they should shock you and on the other hand they should fill you with joy and faith! 

And this obligates you to get up and act. 

“His Hands in Faith…” 

“His hands held true (emuna)” – that is prayer.⁸ 

What action? Tefillah (prayer)! And another prayer and another and another! With all one’s might! A long prayer until the salvation comes! 

Hashem is omnipotent, so how is it that I live in peace with all that I lack in my life? With all the difficulties and problems and battles that I have in my life?! How is it that I don’t activate the limitless power that I hold in my hand, the power of tefillah?! How is it that I don’t turn to the Almighty, Who possesses all the power in the world ,and stand up and pray until my problems are solved?! 

Whoever reads from the Torah and closes the book, may call himself a believer, but this is a very weak belief indeed, a low-voltage belief. A small battery that is barely enough for a flashlight. 

But someone who truly understands what he has just read, and lives what he learns, and understands in his heart and soul the true power of emuna – cannot leave his emuna operating like a small battery. He understands that this emuna is a power station that can illuminate and heat a whole city! Emuna is a tremendous force! 

How does one use this force? One prays. Tefillah is a connection with Hashem, a connection to the power of emuna, the act of emuna. 

The result of learning the story of the Exodus and of all the miracles that happened to our forefathers throughout the generations should be a buttressing of our emuna, in other words, a strengthening of tefillah. A person who believes – prays. If you don’t pray, you don’t believe enough. A weak prayer means that you did not understand, nor did you internalize and live and feel what you just learned.  

Six Hours and Yeshuot (Salvations) 

And therefore, dear Jews, let’s get practical. 

Do you have a problem that is bothering you? You can waste many hours making efforts and worrying and talking about it while in the meantime you are just suffering. And sometimes all the advice and efforts only make things worse. 

But you believe in Hashem, so invest at least the same amount of time in the only thing that can help you, which is tefillah. Set aside six hours and go and spend them alone in some forest, open field, some place where you can disconnect from the world and just talk to Hashem. Pray at length and in great detail about the matter in which you need salvation.  

And you will see salvations! And if you did spend six hours like that, and the yeshua didn’t come yet, do it again and again. This is emuna: We get our yeshuot only from Hashem, only via prayer, only with emuna. And anyone who prays at length, his prayer does not return unanswered. This is a law that is stronger than the laws of nature. It is the law of faith. 

And if indeed we know that the Jewish people at the time of Matan Torah preceded na’aseh (we will do)  to nishmah (we will hear), and that is a great merit for them, but there is still a great merit attached to someone who hears and knows to do. “Make tefillot from the Torahs”⁹. And with faith one must translate everything one hears to deeds, in other words, prolong one’s prayers and one’s hours of hitbodedut, and it is only by doing that that one sees a real change in one’s life.  

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Rosh Hashanah 25b (לא תהא שמיעה גדולה מראייה  (“Hearing should not be greater than seeing”)) 

² Shemot (Exodus) 18:2 

³ Shemot 18:3 

⁴ Shemot 18:8 

⁵ Shemot 18:9 

⁶ Shemot 18:9, Rashi’s comment for the phrase “Yitro delighted in all the good…” 

⁷ Shemot 18:12, korbanot (קרבנות) comes from the word לקרב (to come close) 

⁸ Shemot 17:12, Rashi’s comment for the phrase “…so he [Moshe] was with his hands in faith…” 

⁹ Likutei Tefillot, Introduction; Sichot HaRan #145