#2: Iggeres HaRamban (10 Minutes of Meaning)

good morning welcome back to 10 minutes of meeting with a lot of gratitude to our sponsor sh it's in honor of their parents and children please help yourself to coffee and to cookies we gave the introduction to G ramban the ramban wrote this letter to his son and offered the promise once he moved to Israel was expelled from Spain his son remained there he offered the promise to his son and to anyone who would read this letter that they would have it be life would be filled with blessing Hashem would protect them it means not to Simply read the letter it means to live the message and the themes of the letter with that let's begin the ran begins this letter this short letter to his son but it's filled with inspiration motivation it really grounds and centers what matters most and he starts simply by quing a t listen to the mus of your father and do not abandon do not deviate from the Torah of your mother we'll have to come back in a moment to differentiating between what does it mean the mus of the father and the Torah of the mother but even before we do note note our wonderful beautiful magnificent tradition and religion that elevates and provides equalizes the mus of the father and the Torah of the mother that both of them play a role both of them have an influence both have something to say and that to be a child who's in a growth mode to be growth oriented means to be open to be eager to be listening to both of their distinct messages and to find the combination of the two which is of critical importance but began this from with the word and the raan is beginning his letter to a son and he says shma the most important thing to do this letter which will radically transform and change your day your week your month your life begins with the word listen listen shma there's nothing greater than listening I didn't find anything better nothing in better or Superior to listening that's why as they say we have two years in one math we're meant to listen twice as much as we speak a person grows and learns when they listen we live in a world that's so eager to share to post to speak to say to communicate but to Simply shut it down and listen absorb and integrate to listen commentary points out that in the paragraph of that we just said we ask right after what do we ask for before before I learn and teach and observe and do and fulfill all the words of your Torah hasem give me the capacity give me the strength give me the disciplin to be a listener let me live life as a listener let me listen to the people around me let me listen to Nature let me listen to the messages of the universe and most of all let me listen to Hashem let me listen to his Torah we're so busy with output and when we create when we have output and we're trying to have input at the same time what does that create static create static shut down and shut off the output and just be a listener create an input L even if chronologically came after the Torah was given the Torah nevertheless puts his arrival beforehand because yro teaches Moshe you can't listen to everyone you're one man you've got a delegate if you're going to be leaders who listen he teaches us the art of listening and is one of the 48 ways that Torah is acquired this is the time of and the is the time of the the tahen to be a listener you're never going to learn you're never going to grow you're never going to improve you're never going to achieve if you don't know how to listen there's a lot to say there's a lot to do but there's also a lot to listen to so the first word of is to who says to his son listen be a listener even before writes this in the third path that arouses that awakens writes when you become a listener then you're capable of learning and of growing but if you always have the answer if you always have so much to say if you always have a response then you're never going to be a grow to grow you have to be a listener so the first word is sh sh the first word of ran ran is telling his son be a listener what does it mean the word shma so we ordinarily translate the word shma Asma means here as in here oh Israel why oh I don't know what here Israel here oh Israel here Israel shma means to hear but always points out then the word shma does not mean to hear shma means to to understand if the sound waves enter but you don't comprehend if you don't understand what you're hearing then you're not really hearing you can't hear what you don't understand and this is true it's true practically we have a principle called if you hear someone else say something it's as if you said it if you listen to someone else recite something you're obligated to say it's as if you said it we r on for example KES everyone doesn't make Kish for themselves one person makes KES and fulfills the obligation for all so how do the passive listeners who are simply standing by how do they fulfill KES only works if you understand what you're listening to if you don't understand and you don't know what's being said you don't fulfill the Mitzvah writes if AI listens to an ashkanazi kidish doesn't understand this what in the world is this asazi saying shabas shabat what is shabab doesn't comprehend doesn't understand they're not the inverse is also true here some say says what Rel I don't understand the word he's saying say Kish doesn't mean to listen to hear shma means understand it's a different level of listening it's a listen of comprehension a listening of transformation a listening of understanding so that's what SCH and that's how the ran is beginning his letter learn to be that kind of a listener not just I'm doing 10 things and I have something playing in the background oh yeah I heard I heard maybe I'm describing somebody else but there are people who are capable of they're doing 10 things and the person who's talking to them says you don't hear anything I'm saying and then what do you do you repeat back verbatim so okay fine you could repeat the words but you're not really listening you're not really listening there are multitaskers who could do a lot and then say I heard exactly you said this and that and the other and camping the kid in tuition and the shabas meal where should we go I can repeat exactly what you said but that doesn't make the other party feel heard it doesn't make the other party feel listened to just because you could parrot you could repeat the words that were said that's not what shma means to be in growth oriented mode Rab's third path the of the 48 ways torah's acquired what yro taught us as the prerequisite toab Torah is not the ability to repeat words it's sh and that's what says and that's how raan is beginning his letter the ran is beginning his letter sh listen listen my son so we didn't get past the first word today there's a lot that's why you see people say why' you choose a gisan it' be done in like two weeks first of all they've obviously never learned with me before but we're gonna go word by word sh then we've got to get next week to B why when you make someone Ben biologically literally F figuratively are they more inclined to listen next week we'll talk about then so far nothing from the raan he's just quoting but slowly slowly we have a ways to go I'll challenge you to think about what's the difference between and T and why is the I would have thought the father gives Torah and the mother gives mus why is it a mus of the father and the Torah of the mother will pick up next time we should hear yesh