{"id":104530,"date":"2021-07-29T12:20:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T16:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=104530"},"modified":"2021-07-29T18:29:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T22:29:41","slug":"rabbi-jonathan-sacks-to-lead-is-to-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=104530","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Jonathan Sacks–To Lead is to Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf only you would listen to these laws\u2026\u201d (Deut. 7:12<\/a><\/span>). These words with which our parsha begins contain a verb that is a fundamental motif of the book of Devarim. The verb is sh-m-a<\/em>. It occurred in last week\u2019s parsha in the most famous line of the whole of Judaism, Shema Yisrael<\/em>. It occurs later in this week\u2019s parsha in the second paragraph of the Shema, \u201cIt shall be if you surely listen [shamoa tishme\u2019u<\/em>]\u201d (Deut. 11:13<\/a><\/span>). In fact, this verb appears no less than 92 times in Devarim as a whole.<\/p>\n

We often miss the significance of this word because of what I call the fallacy of translatability<\/em>: the assumption that one language is fully translatable into another. We hear a word translated from one language to another and assume that it means the same in both. But often it doesn\u2019t. Languages are only partially translatable into one another.[1]<\/a> The key terms of one civilisation are often not fully reproducible in another. The Greek word megalopsychos<\/em>, for example, Aristotle\u2019s \u201cgreat-souled man\u201d who is great and knows he is, and carries himself with aristocratic pride, is untranslatable into a moral system like Judaism in which humility is a virtue. The English word \u201ctact\u201d has no precise equivalent in Hebrew. And so on.<\/p>\n

This is particularly so in the case of the Hebrew verb sh-m-a<\/em>. Listen, for example, to the various ways the opening words of this week\u2019s parsha have been translated into English:<\/p>\n

If you hearken<\/em> to these precepts\u2026<\/p>\n

If you completely obey<\/em> these laws\u2026<\/p>\n

If you pay attention to<\/em> these laws\u2026<\/p>\n

If you heed<\/em> these ordinances\u2026<\/p>\n

Because ye hear<\/em> these judgments\u2026<\/p>\n

There is no single English word that means to hear, to listen, to heed, to pay attention to, and to obey….<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Sacks transformed the notion of covenant for us. https:\/\/t.co\/JxUZNWFUzi<\/a><\/p>\n

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n