Ears-אוזנים "We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak"

חזון שעיה
The Chafetz Chayim, commenting on the pasuk in Ki Savo (26:7): "Va'nitzak el Hashem Elokei avoteinu, va'yismah Hashem et kolenu..."- "Then we cried to Hashem, the G-d of our forefathers, and Hashem heard our voices...", observes that the pasuk does NOT say: "va'yishmah Hashem et TEFILATENU" - our prayers - but rather "KOLENU" - our voices. From here, the Chofetz Chaim learns that someone praying should raise his or her voice to maximize the likelihood of being answered by Hashem. So we see the term "kol" signifies a raised voice.
Elsewhere in Devarim, it is repeatedly stated that Hashem will punish the Jewish people for not listening to His "kol" (28:15), and rewarded for hearkening to his "kol." (28:1).
What is exactly meant by the "kol" of Hashem - the raised voice of Hashem? What is it that we are supposed to "hear" that might prevent the onset of punishment and bring us reward?
I think the answer, suggested in the Al Chet vidui of Yom Kippur, is that Hashem's "kol" is represented by the signals and messages He sends us (e.g., difficult life circumstances), which, if we "listen" carefully, can become a powerful force for positive change. However, if we remain obstinate - "al chet sh'chatanu lefanecha b'kashyut oref" ("For the sin that we have sinned before You with obstinacy") - and ignore the signs and messages of Hashem, we are culpable.
As such, the "kol" shofar at the end of Neilah serves as a dramatic reminder that it's not enough to hear the shofar on Rosh Hashana, and beat our chests on Yom Kippur, and then after the fast ends, return to our normal routines. No! Having reached great spiritual heights during Neilah, we must continue to "listen" carefully throughout the year to the signs and messages that Hashem will send us (the "kol" Hashem) to keep us on the right track (and not, c"v, ignore them).
One fascinating story of a public individual who clearly heard the "kol" Hashem and responded with positive change that can serve as an example for the rest of us is Guma Aguiar - a born Jew raised as an evangelical Christian who returned to observant Judaism following a conversation with Rabbi Tuvia Singer. Soon after his encounter with Singer, Aguiar - an oil and gas executive - discovered the largest deposit of natural gas in Texas in the past 10 years, which Aguiar's company later sold for over $2 billion, netting him around $200 million. But rather than use his newfound wealth to live a life of luxury and prestige in the United States, Aguiar saw his good fortune as a sign from Hashem that he needed to make aliyah and begin generously supporting organizations such as Nefesh B'Nefesh and March of the Living. In his own words:
"How is it possible that I could have pinpointed this one massive discovery that nobody else had ever seen, two hours away from Houston? I had to be honest with myself. I quickly grasped that my shocking success was not due to a stroke of good luck. Only G-d could have blessed me with this remarkable discovery, and so now, I have to turn around and say - what can I do to bless G-d? What can I do to be His servant, His vessel, and repay Him for His manifold blessing and guidance? In terms of my career, I said "that's enough." I knew that G-d had given me what I needed to accomplish, and I was now in a unique position to make a meaningful difference, and that was the time that I left, and I didn't come back [to America]….I decided to come [to Israel] and just be a servant of G-d and do whatever possible for my nation. I came to the conclusion – G-d has really put me in a position like Esther was in . . I could do two things: I could either take my money that G-d has given me, and concluded that 'I'm so smart – my striking success was all because of me, I'm so great, I'm so brilliant'… or I could ultimately recognize this whole thing from start to finish was the result of G-d's blessings. I recognized the truth. I understood that I was bestowed with this success in order to serve the Almighty. G-d has protected and guided me all along the way, and He'll continue, because I have only one agenda, and that's to be His servant." (hear Aguiar share his fascinating story on YouTube).
These are stirring words. How many of us react so spiritually to the circumstances of our lives? While the vast majority of us are not in a position to suddenly strike it as rich as Aguiar, we are all regularly confronted with signs and messages that we can choose to "hear" or ignore.
The paradigm of ignoring the "kol Hashem" is Adam in parshat Bereishit where the pasuk says that Adam and Chavah, after eating from the etz ha'da'at, heard "kol Hashem Elokim mithalech bagan - the voice of Hashem in the garden." (3:8). Their reaction was to hide (as Adam concedes later to Hashem in 3:10 - "I heard your voice ("kol"). . .and hid myself.").
But if we "listen" carefully to the "kol" Hashem when it speaks to us through "natural" occurrences (instead of "hiding"), then difficult circumstances and challenges can motivate us to improve ourselves, while good fortune can be interpreted as an opportunity from Hashem to increase our contributions to the Jewish nation and society in general.

One of the 48 ways to acquire the Torah is “Mikra”. Simply, this means that we need to learn Chumash, as we know that our Sages say that one should split up his learning into three subjects: Chumash, Mishnayos and Gemara.
But the deeper definition of Mikra means “to call”, as we find “Vayikra Hashem el Moshe” (“And Hashem called to Moshe”). In other words, Hashem calls to us so that we can heed His word.
When a person is learning Torah, he is reading about what Hashem is calling him to do. It’s like when you read a letter; you are reading what a person is trying to tell you through the letter.
When we learn Torah, do we have this perspective? Are we simply learning about the commandments of Hashem that we have to fulfill – or do we look at it as what Hashem is calling to us to do?
The Torah is not about history of the past. It is the guide that helps us live now, in the present moment. Every possuk in the Torah is calling to us and telling us what Hashem wants. The Hebrew word “possuk” is also known as “mikra” – it is a message and calling from Hashem to us. But not everyone who learns Torah hears Hashem calling to him through the Torah.
For example, a person is reading in the Torah the word “Beraishis”, that in the beginning, Hashem created the world. Does he hear Hashem calling to him something through the word Beraishis? Or does he just view it as something that happened once in history….
f a person learns Torah but he isn’t aware that Hashem speaks to him through the Torah, then he’s learning Torah with himself. A person has to feel as he is learning, “Hashem is speaking to me as I am learning. When we stood at Har Sinai, Hashem didn’t speak to us in the general sense. He wasn’t addressing an audience. Rather, He was speaking to each of us individually.We must realize that Hashem speaks to all of us individually. He speaks to you through the Torah, not just to the Jewish people as a whole.
If we don’t hear what Hashem is telling us, than Hashem won’t hear what we are asking of Him when we daven. Hashem acts with us in the same way we act towards Him; He reflects how we feel about Him.
משנה אבות ו׳:ו׳
(ו) גדולה תורה יותר מן הכהונה ומן המלכות, שהמלכות נקנית בשלשים מעלות, והכהנה בעשרים וארבע, והתורה נקנית בארבעים ושמונה דברים.ואלו הן, בתלמוד, בשמיעת האזן,
Tough Questions Jews Ask Pg.49
"To find G-d,we need not look up to the heaven or out into the universe. The closest place to find G-d is within each of us.When I hear the voice of G-d,its not like the booming voice of a loudspeaker coming from above,but the voice of the deepest part of me,pleading for me to live a more Godly life"
Truly Listening to Others

Ruth Messinger
We say shame 3 times a day,demonstrating its importance.Our sages are explicit that when we recite the Sh’ma, we must do so with focus, with clarity, and with unity of heart and mind.2
The essence of the Sh’ma—the imperative to really listen, to pay attention to injustice, and to mend the brokenness in our world—grounds my life with purpose. The difference between hearing and listening is paying attention, finding and living that elusive element of real connection to the “stranger”—or the other.
How good a listener are you?
1) Since you think about four times faster than a person usually talks, do you use this time to think about other things while you're keeping track of the conversation?
2) Do you listen primarily for facts rather than ideas when someone is speaking?
3) Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand?
4) Can you tell from a person's appearance and delivery that there won't be anything worthwhile said?
5) When someone is talking to you do you appear to be paying attention when you're not?
6) Do certain words and phrases prejudice you so you cannot listen objectively?
7) When listening are you distracted by outside sights and sounds?

שמע ישראל ה אלקינו ה אחד
Hearing is not listening. Hearing is automatic. Listening is understanding the words of the speaker.
To Listen and to Love by Rami Shapiro
Hearing is the first sense to develop in the womb and the last to fade at death. Hearing is our most fundamental sense and our primal way of knowing. If we are to know God fundamentally, if we are to be aware of God as the primal ground of all being and becoming, it stands to reason that we will do so through the process of hearing. To listen that intently, we have to still the mind and body so as to not be distracted. Our hearing is to be so focused, so intense, so deep that we no longer are aware of ourselves as a spearate person doing the listening. To listen and to love. This is the kind of listening that the Shema requires.

A friend of the author’s was going to a party where he would be meeting his wife’s coworkers from her new job for the first time. He felt anxious as the time for the party grew near, and wondered whether they would like him or not. He rehearsed various scenarios in his mind in which he tried in different ways to impress them. He grew more and more tense.
But on the way to the party, the man came up with a radically different approach, one which caused all of his anxiety to melt completely away. Find out what he decided to do, and how it all turned out, in this true story that could serve as inspiration for us all.
He decided that, instead of trying to impress anyone, he would spend the evening simply listening to them and summarizing what they had just said. At the party, he spent the evening listening carefully to everyone, responding with phrases like, “I understand what you’re saying, you feel strongly that. . .” and “Let me see if I understand what you mean. . .” He also avoided voicing his own opinions, even though at times it meant biting his tongue to keep from doing so.
To his amazement, he discovered that no one noticed or remarked on the fact that he was just listening. Each person he talked to during the evening seemed content to be listened to without interruption. On the way home, his wife (whom he had not told about the experiment) told him that a number of people had made a point of telling her what a remarkable person he was. The word “charismatic” was used by one person to describe him, while another said he was one of the most “articulate” people she had ever met.
Could it be that charisma and brilliance have as much to do with how we listen as what we say? Imagine a world where people actually listen to one another, rather than just waiting for the other people to stop talking so they can give their opinion.


Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/power-of-listening-true-story.html#ixzz45oxTJZwC

http://www.berotbatayin.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/AvMessages.pdf
The Month of Av:
Listening to Hashem’s Messages in our Lives
By Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum
Decoding Hashem’s Messages: “A Turn for A Turn”
This morning, when I went out to water my garden, I was met with a cold shower from a humongous hole in our new garden hose, which my husband had just bought and hooked up yesterday. When I complained that I had requested a green gardening hose, he explained that this yellow one had a 15 year guarantee! Last week and the week before I had found holes in the old garden hose – the exact same ugly yellow kind which we had for less than 15 years. After my husband had fixed it repeatedly, he decided it was time to buy a new one, and voila the next day this one too has a huge hole. So I’m thinking, this is really not normal. We do not have any dogs that could be chewing the holes and our chickens are safely in the coop. Could the occasional stray cats that drift through our plot be the culprit? Even if so, or if it is some other wild animal that only emerges at night when we are unaware of its presence, it’s still quite bizarre that specifically our garden hose had been selected for repeated onslaughts! What is going on??? I’ve just planted new flowers before shmitah (the Sabbatical year for the land), how will they survive if I can’t water them? Although I prefer this kind of suffering to any kind of health issue, G-d forbid, this reoccurring problem is more annoying than a trifle nuisance. The Talmud teaches, “There are no tribulations without sin” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 55a), perhaps Hashem is sending me a message here about something I need to fix in my life!? But what could it be? What are some of the clues to learn to interpret Hashem’s messages in our lives? One of the main codes to decipher Hashem’s messages is based on the principle of, “A turn for a turn.” Hashem operates in this world by means of מדה כנגד מדה/measure for measure (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 90a). I like Rabbi Lazer Brody’s translation “a turn for a turn,” it sounds less judgmental and punishing and more like giving us a turn – an opportunity to benefit us.
Becoming a Pure Channel for Greatest Reception
Knowing and believing that Hashem loves us, and that He only gives us the minimum discomfort we need to make the necessary changes in our lives, I’m determined to find out what I need to work on. So looking into the message of the leaking garden hose, it seems to me that the hose is a channel for water, but when filled with holes it is no longer the channel it was supposed to be, hmmm.... This reminds me of the other reoccurring problem I have been experiencing regarding my internet connection when giving online EmunaHealing courses. Last week, after three hours of trying to get my internet provider on the phone, and having about 8 different technical support people working on figuring out why my internet keeps going on and off, it turns out that my cable is loose. Again, the channel for reception is not working properly. The word ‘cable’ itself derives from the Hebrew word לקבל/l’kabel which means to receive or to accept. Likewise, the word Kabbalah derives from the same root and means reception, as no one can make Kabbalah up on their own, it has to be received from a teacher who received it from his teacher all the way back to
Moshe at Sinai. To learn Kabbalah we have to be a pure channel to listen and receive from our teacher. In general, one of the main ways to receive is to listen up. This fits in with the sense of the month of Av, which is ‘hearing’ (Sefer Yetzirah 5:8). Av is the month to develop sensitivities to hear the messages for growth that Hashem is sending us through the difficulties we come up against in our lives. “A Whisper suffices for the wise, but a fool needs flagellation” (Midrash Mishlei 22). The more eloquently we decode Hashem’s messages for our lives the less we will need uncomfortable reminders.
Removing Negative Expectations which Block us from Hearing
The moth of Av is the month of the destructions of our Temples because of senseless hatred between us (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b). Whenever people have a hard time getting along it’s usually due to communication problems and misunderstandings. The story which originally lead to the destruction of the second Temple was based on a misunderstanding and mix up between the names of Kamtza and bar Kamtza (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 55-56). When we feel animosity towards someone, it’s because we are not making the effort to really hear where that person is coming from. Bottom-line, most of the problems between people are due to our difficulty with truly listen to one another. We often have preconceived notions about what we expect the other person to say, which block us from really listening to them. Instead, what we are hearing is our own voice, which we read into theirs. For example if we experienced a lot of criticism in our childhood, then we may read criticism into everyone’s words. If we have trust issues we may believe that people are saying things to take advantage of us and trick us, even if this may not be the case at all. When we keep showing suspicion, rather than openness to listen and receive what others have to offer, by way of the law of attraction, others may actually begin to harbor resentment. So, the month of Av is about fixing our relationships by removing negative expectations and really opening our hearts to hear what the people in our lives are telling us.
Listening with our Hearts
When we learn the skill of listening with our hearts, we may even develop a flair for detecting unspoken words, hearing what others are not telling us, but what they meant to say. Their facial expressions and body language may give it away. We can then be preemptive in our communication, saying words of comfort for unexpressed pains. A good practice for the month of Av is to listen intently to others and note the deeper truth behind their words. This takes time, patience and slowing down our fast-paced, multi-tasking, accelerated routine. Our children really need us to listen to both their spoken and unspoken words. This attention from those who love them is like fertilizer for the trees, and help them develop confidence and a positive self-image. When my children were young I learned one really phenomenal book on childrearing, and repeated it when raising each of my two sons. It is called, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will talk written by Adele Faber. I highly recommend this book, also named the ultimate “parenting bible.” I still keep the summary of this classic book in my bedroom drawer, perhaps I get to use it with my grandchildren, or I may pass it on to their parents.
Frontal Communication
As in any relationship, front-to-front communication is vital in a marriage. The messages we hear when we are busy taking care of things in the home don’t always sink in. If something is important, come close (definitely don’t yell something from a different rom), make eye-contact, and then check that your partner is ready to listen before speaking your truth. Usually, the month of Av is the month of vacation for the family to spend quality time together. It’s the time to leave our daily routine behind and put our relationships before the things that need to get done. This is, therefore, the prime time to show unconditional love by working on listening with our heart and full attention.
Strengthening Inner Hearing When Coming of Age
Perhaps one of the reasons that people loose hearing when they grow older could be according to the principle of “a turn for a turn.” When someone didn’t take proper advantage of the sense of hearing, then he may lose it. Moreover, being harder of hearing causes people to come closer to one another in order to be able to hear. When their external hearing is weakened it prompts them to strengthen their internal listening skills. This way Hashem helps people open their heart and grow closer as they gracefully age.
Listening to the Words of our Own Prayer
When we call out to Hashem in tefilah we expect Him to hear us, but do we hear our own prayer? Sometimes we may be rambling off the words of Grace after Meals, for example, while our mind is drifting to the preparations of tomorrow’s dinner or who knows what. In honor of the month of Av, and Hashem’s messages to me at this time, I decided to really listen my own prayers. This includes looking intently in the prayer-book and focusing on the words of the tefilah. So far it’s been quite an exhilarating experience, really tuning into what I’m asking of Hashem, rather than just getting the prayer ritual done. As I’m writing these words an email is flying in announcing how 1,000,000 Jews around the world will be reciting Shema Yisrael at the same time for the success and protection of our soldiers. The Shema Yisrael prayer has its source in last week’s parasha (Devarim 6:4), which not by chance is read during the zenith of the month of Av. As much as the Shema Yisrael – the centerpiece of Jewish Prayer, is about unifying Hashem in the world, it’s also about amplifying our sense of inner hearing. When we open ourselves to truly hear with our heart, we open ourselves to hear the inner voice of our own Neshama (soul). May we merit during the month of Av to really hear each other, Hashem and the words of our own prayers. May we thereby fix our relationships and become a pure channel for love and acceptance, and may we merit hearing the prayers of the Kohen Gadol in the Beit Hamikdash (Temple)!