How Can One Simple Word—'Shema'—Ask to Transform Your Whole Being?
Why does the central declaration of Jewish faith begin with a command to listen?
The source focuses on the word Shema and presents listening as more than hearing sound. To listen is to make room for a truth that does not begin with one's own assumptions, and therefore requires humility, attention and inner quiet. The unit turns the first word of the Shema into a life question: can a person stop explaining everything long enough to truly receive what is being asked of him?