A Hebrew version of this essay appeared in the Carmei Zion Shabbat newsletter for Parshat Ekev.

While driving across northern Israel during my last stint of reserve duty, I saw two ultra-Orthodox men trying to hitch a ride at the roadside. I had stopped for soldiers. I had stopped for kids. I did not stop for them.

How do you love a brother you are furious at? One who won’t share the burden you and your family carry? I’ve come to think the answer is hidden in a single Hebrew word that runs through Parshat Ekev.

Parshat Ekev is a parsha of listening. “And it shall be, because you listen” (v’haya ekev tishme’un); “And it shall be, if you truly listen” (v’haya im shamo’a tishme’u); and further, “Hear, O Israel, you are crossing the Jordan today to come and possess.” Again and again, our future in the Land of Israel is made conditional upon listening. Listening is the condition for dwelling in the Land: we hold onto the Land by listening.

But what kind of listening? Rabbi Jacob Leiner, author of the Beit Yaakov, taught in his essay on Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av that hearing runs deeper than seeing. With a glance we take in the surface; only when we make ourselves small in order to listen do we uncover the inwardness.

So there are two kinds of listening: and truly, one. The listening of Ekev is between a person and God: listening to God and obeying the commandments (bein adam la’Makom). The Beit Yaakov indeed spoke of this listening. But it seems to me that the very same principle holds also between a person and his fellow (bein adam l’chavero): to shrink or even contract our innerselves (and our egos) to make room to hear the........

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