Listening with our Eyes

    

       Many people who have known me over the years know that I do not enjoy talking on the phone.  They also have realized that I do not enjoy E-mailing, twittering, face-booking and all the other non-contact communicating media available today.   This is a primary factor in this little blog being such a challenge.  This behavior surprises even me.  When I was in the military, my primary function was communications.  Details are not necessary.  One of my duties was to communicate or enable communications with persons unseen.  Very exciting.  I could only imagine what the contact looked like.  When telling a plane to wave off, or screaming at a chopper he’s about to hit kingposts,  I could only imagine the reception I was receiving.   And I equated the one on the other end with me.  I could hear me and I could hear them.  But it was difficult to determine to whom I was talking.  Even more difficult to determine just who it was that was talking back to me. Without seeing the affect, watching the eyes, witnessing the smile or lack thereof, it was just another person.  Unless, by chance we arranged to meet some place to greet one another, the person on the other end was just a voice in the wilderness.  These events were surreal.

To truly hear someone, or even something, I believe we must be able to see what we are listening to. 

            [Note: when I read the previous sentence during proofing, I stopped and     researched how does a physically blind person really hear.  There is so much      involved but it all goes back to “seeing” what is being heard.  There are‘devices’ now available where a person without physical sight can listen to the sounds of the environment and learn to “see” that which is vital in the    hearing.  I have a lot to learn in this area, but I am convinced that the blind can “see” what they hear. The McGurk Effect    Click   or copy and paste in browser: http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/Phonetics%20II%20page%20seventeen.htm  for report

            In a report from Howard Hughes Medical Institute “Seeing, Hearing,             Smelling the World”,  c. 1995 Jeff Goldberg writes….in Quivering; the             bundles that hear:

            “There are only 16,000 hair cells in a human cochlea, compared to 100        million photoreceptors in the retina of the eye, and they are extremely           vulnerable. Life in a high-decibel society of pounding jackhammers,   screeching subway cars, and heavy metal rock music can take a devastating    toll on them. But whatever the cause—over exposure to loud noises,  disease, heredity, or aging—people tend to lose 40 percent of their hair cells by the age of 65. And once destroyed, these cells do not regenerate.”

     The above referenced data indicates that vision has a tremendous enhancement to our hearing.  A few years ago, I was involved in an exercise used for heightening effective listening capacity.  The protocol was to simply have the group just stop and listen.  The group was instructed to “inventory” all the sounds they heard.  After a few minutes, without notice, all lights were turned off.  The group was asked to continue taking inventory.  Then the AC was shut down, then the clocks, etc. The list grew in abundance.  When the noise making equipment was turned back on, the group was then asked what they heard.  Observation showed that as each person looked about the room, they began to hear more than the first two phases of the drill.  The result proposed that when we focus our hearing through vision, we fine tune our hearing to stimuli not noticed at first “glance”.  Human sensitivity tends to degrade over time and exposure. We do not use 100 percent of their senses. Which brings me to the point of this week’s blog: Listening with our eyes.   

Scripture tells us to listen with our eyes. 

In Deut 6:3 we are told “Hear (Strong’s H8085) therefore, O Israel and observe (H8104) to do (it) that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

The word Hear (u-shmoth ) is Strong’s H8085: shama’  shaw-mah’;  to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc; causatively, to tell, etc. ) 

The use of  ‘observe’  (u-shmrth)  is Strong’s H8104 shamar  shaw-mar’; properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), IE. Guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.

Please pay attention to the tightness (closeness) of hear and observe.

In Deut 6:4
 we read: Dta hvhy vnyhla hvhy larsy imw

Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil YHVH Eloheinu YHVH echad  

(Heb to Eng)   Hear (Strong’s 8085) you Israel Yahweh Elohim of us Yahweh one)

                                                           

Deut 11:13 says                     

                         ytvjm la vimwt imw ,a hyhv

                                                V'hayah im shamo'a tish'm'u el mitz'votai
                        (Heb to Eng)   and he becomes if to listen (Strong’s 8085) you shall listen to                                                           instructions of me

Store all that data and let’s read Numbers 15:37-40

rmal hwm la hvhy rmaYv

Vayo'mer YHVH el mosheh lei'mor
and he is saying Yahweh to Moshe to to say of   (Heb to Eng)

,hla trmav larsy ynB la rBD

Dabeir el b'nei Yis'ra'eil v'amar'ta aleihem
speak you to sons of Israel and you say to them (Heb to Eng)

ypnK li tjyj ,hl Vsiv

,trdl ,hydgb 

Tlkt lytP [nKh tjyj li Vntnv

v'asu lahem tzitzit al kan'fei vig'deihem l'dorotam
v'nat'nu al tzitzit hakanaf p'til t'kheilet
and they make for them tassel on hems of garments of them for generations of them and they give on tassel of the hem twine of amethyst  (Heb to Eng)

vTa ,tyarV tjyjl ,kl hyhv

hvhy tvjm lK ta ,trkzV
VrVtt alv ,ta ,tysiv 

,kynyi yrxav ,kbbl yrxa 

        ,hyrxa ,ynz ,ta rwa

V'hayah lakhem l'tzitzit ur'item oto uz'khar'tem et kol mitz'vot Adonai
va'asitem otam v'lo taturu acharei l'vav'khem v'acharei eineikhem
asher atem zonim achareihem

and he (Strong’s H1961: hayah  haw-yaw; to exist, ie. Be or become, come to pass [always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxillary]) becomes to you to tassel and you see him and you remember  (Strong’s H2142: zakar  zaw-kar’  properly, to mark [so as to be recognized], ie. To remember, by implication, to mention])  all of instructions of Yahweh and you do them and not explore you after heart of you and after eyes of you which you ones prostituting after them  (Heb to Eng)

 lK ta ,tysiv VrKzt ]iml

,kyhlal ,ywdq ,tyyv ytvjm 

L'ma'an tiz'k'ru va'asitem et kol mitz'votai viyitem k'doshim lei'loheikhem
so that you shall remember and you do all of instructions of me and you become holy ones to Elohim of you

     This all tells me that when we hear intelligently, when we combine that hearing with guarding and protecting, that when we see that which has been commanded, in this case, tzitziot, that we see Him and His Word.  This is about as close to His face we can get for the time being.  So. We must see to hear Him. 

Step outside and take a look.  He is everywhere.  See Him…Hear Him! 

That is what He asks of us. 

D’varim / Deuteronomy 4:1!!!

Shalom and shalom…

Pinchas a/k/a Frankly speaking all the time