At the banquet of the most recent Chabad Kinus HaShluchim, one presentation in particular made a deep impression on me. It was a speech by Rabbi Yehoshua Sudakoff of Ramat Gan, a rabbi who is deaf himself and is the Chabad shaliach to the world deaf community.
Rabbi Soudakoff’s indefatigable efforts to reach out to a community that is typically isolated and often lonely deserve to be highlighted on their own, but one of his opening sentences was extremely powerful. He described his deep connection to the Torah of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l, despite never having heard his voice. This is not surprising – many people connect to the Torah of our great commentators and leaders who lived decades or centuries earlier, whose voices they never heard. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe is one of the most closely documented leaders, certainly in recent memory. There are countless hours of footage of the Rebbe’s encounters during Sunday dollars, and of his teachings during farbrengens. Of course, Rabbi Soudakoff could read the closed captioning, but missed the Rebbe’s delivery, his inflections and the passion that animated his message.
The word Shema is often translated as “hear.” But a better translation might be “listen” or “internalize.” There are plenty of people who can hear, but don’t know how to listen. Rabbi Soudakoff’s example teaches us that it is possible to listen, even when you cannot hear.