Listening, Hearing, and Being Aware of Who Helped You Along the Way

Eikev 5778 / 4 August 2018

In Parshat Eikev, Moses continues to speak to the Israelites and tells that that if they fulfill the commandments, G-d will fulfill his promise to make them prosperous. But he also tells that, in Ch. 8 V 11, “Take heed not to forget G-d by not keeping G-d’s commandments, for when you may have all you need, your spirit may become haughty and you might forget G-d who brought you out from the land of Egypt…you may be tempted to say ‘it was my own power and the might of my own hand that has gotten me this wealth.’ Therefore, remember that is is G-d who gives you the power to get wealth in order to uphold the covenant.”

Moses is saying “remember, you did not do this alone, you needed others to help you get where you are.” While Moses is specifically talking about what G-d did for the Israelites, one could also read this as a metaphor for community.

My dad always says “You can’t be Jewish alone.” He means you need a community to truly enjoy the riches of Judaism. I didn’t always appreciate what he meant, but as I’ve aged, the more I am beginning to understand.

Judaism is all about community – you need 10 people to make a minyan, we often have Shabbat meals together, members of our community are stepping up to lead services and give the D’var Torah while our rabbis have some much needed vacation/family time.

As you might have noticed, last week’s parsha, along with this week’s, contained, among other things, parts of the Shema. But just like much in life, you need to keep a sharp eye to notice that it is there.

We recite the Shema twice daily, and to be honest, we sometimes do it remotely or robotically; we forget that these three paragraphs aren’t just sitting there in the Torah. We have to look, listen to Rabbi Masleach, and notice when they go by.

“Hear or Israel – Shema Yisrael” as Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks brings out in his beautiful d’var this week, doesn’t just mean the act of hearing, or even paying attention. Rather, he points out, that to truly observe the commandment, you need to actively listen.

Active listening is a technique often taught these days in many management classes. The statement “ensure that the person you are speaking with knows that you hear and understand what they are saying” can be read, in several different ways, in many texts.

Rabbi Sacks takes it one step farther. “What is more”, he writes, “it [the word Shema] is untranslatable. It means many things: to hear, to listen, to pay attention, to understand, to internalize, and to respond. It is the closest biblical Hebrew comes to a verb that means ‘to obey’.”

So how does this all tie together? You might be thinking “first she spoke about ‘you didn’t/can’t do it alone’ and then she jumped off to listening”.

The answer is, I would like to take Rabbi Sacks one step further.

I read Shema is not only to listen, to pay attention, to understand. Rather I see it as “be aware” – notice what is around you.

Notice the beauty of a tree, the formation of the clouds.

Notice that new building in your neighborhood or the cool shoes the person next to you is wearing.

“Be aware” and “notice” is another way of active listening and hearing and, as alluded to earlier, is another critical factor in acknowledging that “we don’t do it alone.”

This is OUR SHUL – but surely we don’t do it alone.

Our community is right here in the synagogue and just as you don’t necessarily see all of G-d’s work, you don’t necessarily see all the people who make the synagogue work.

On Shabbat mornings you see the Rabbis or other congregants leading services but you don’t always see the people who are here before everyone else to make sure the rooms are ready for Hebrew School and the Tot Shabbat kids have their snack, or to ensure Kiddush is set up on time (and I have my 10:30 “coffee time”) and who stay after everyone to clean up.

How often to we use the restrooms and not think about who replaced the toilet paper or paper towels?

How often to we come to shul on a snowy morning to cleared sidewalks and not think about who got here early to shovel the snow off?

It takes, not only the professional staff and the hard working volunteers, but also the dedicated folks in our maintenance staff, the ones you don’t always see who keep our shul, our little neighborhood, clean, orderly, and well fed. These are some of the people who help make us a community who we don’t always notice but they are so important in our lives, either directly or indirectly. People such as Brian or Phyllis or Joel or Alicia or Miss Debbie.

We should always be thankful for these people and for their help and assistance, because without them, honestly, what would we be?

Often visitors to our community remark about the inspiring beauty of our shul and the warmth by which they are greeted – and not just in the sanctuary but throughout the entire building.

That’s not any one person’s accomplishment. One person, alone, did not make our shul beautiful or warm, and, as this week’s parsha reminds us, we should “be aware” and notice then and all they do.

Now, if I might get entirely personal for just a moment, and since I have been in this shul my entire life and can think of very few other places where I feel so comfortable, I wish to talk about someone that I remember, someone I know, who without his help, we could not have done all we did and made this place as special as it is. Someone, who for many of us, for the longest time, was the friendly (though gruff looking) face in the neighborhood.

And, if you haven’t guessed by now, I’m speaking about Gregory Jackson.

To those of you visiting today, who might not know about whom I am speaking, let me just say that our most beloved “jack-of-all-trades” died suddenly this past winter leaving us all then, and to some extent even now, in a state of shock.

Gregory, or Mr. Gregory as the kids called him, or simply just Greg as I called him, welcomed every single person who walked into this building as if this was in fact their second home.

It didn’t matter if they’d been here for as long, if not longer, than he had, or if this was their first time here, Greg had a way of making everyone feel welcome and at home.

Under his rough, grumpy demeanor was a man with a heart of gold who always wanted to make sure everyone was happy.

It was not a complete Shabbat without Greg yelling at me multiple times to get out of the kitchen because I was keeping Alicia from doing her job. (I never was for the record.)

Every child, and even some adults, has come into the kitchen during kiddish asking for extra dessert or a treat for the walk home and Greg was always able to find something special for them.

He could come in at all hours of the day or night, even when it was not his scheduled time, to ensure that the heat was on, the sidewalks cleared, and our bellies full.

In the days following Greg’s death Facebook was full of past members, young and old, sharing their memories of Gregory.

College students would head directly down to the kitchen when home for the holidays to say “hi” to Greg and update him on how school was going.

He knew every child’s allergies or just picky food preferences and always made sure there was a snack they could eat.

He thought of each and every child in this synagogue as one of his own and celebrated their simchas with as much joy and honor and excitement as their own parents.

He attended their b’nai mitzvot, their graduations, weddings, any event he could be a part of you knew he’d be there in his sharp suits and fancy dancing shoes.

My personal memories of Greg extend beyond the walls of BZBI – to b’nai mitzvot, weddings, Shabbat dinners at my parents’ house, even out at restaurant week meals together.

I’ll never forget how happy he was dancing at Amanda Russell’s wedding one year ago this weekend. Or how excited he was when we talked about her having a baby just days before he died.

I have a picture of Greg from Sammi Jokelson’s bat mitzvah hanging on my office wall and I look at it and smile.

Gregory wasn’t just an employee or a maintenance man. To many he was a friend – to me he was family and I still miss him everyday.

So, now to tie this all back together. What do we have?

Twice daily in the Shema we are told to “be aware” and “you didn’t do it alone”.

Twice daily we are given the opportunity to think about and remember all that is around you now and all that came before to get us where we are today.

And, therefore, at least twice daily, turn to those who helped you get to where you are and just say “thank you.”

So…Thank You and Shabbat Shalom.