548. Doing and Hearing

“Speech” is regarded as action, and “hearing” means I hear, meaning think, which is something that is acceptable to the heart. This is as it is written, “And you shall give to Your servant a heart that hears.” This is the meaning of “We will do and we will hear,” that it is impossible that hearing will be revealed before a person reveals the action, which is the choice.

In other words, when the hearing is revealed, there is no place for choice. For this reason, the hearing is concealed and when one must engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] only in action and not in hearing, there is labor because the heart does not understand if it is worthwhile to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, and all its actions are only by accepting the burden, as it is written in the prayer before wearing the Tefillin [phylacteries], which is next to the heart, to thereby enslave the lusts and thoughts of our hearts to His work. In the action, there can be enslavement, but in hearing, there is no place for enslavement.

This is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” It was interpreted in The Zohar that he is given a holy soul, which is regarded as hearing.

It therefore follows that the whole concealment of the hearing is only in order to have room for the revelation of the power of choice. This is the meaning of the words that hearing depends on the speech, meaning on the action. This is the meaning of “By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made.”

In other words, when a person engages in the word of the Creator, which is Torah, his intention should be toward acting, that he will be rewarded with acting for the sake of the Creator meaning that his actions will be for the sake of the Creator.

It is upon this that the hearing in the sense of acting is revealed, namely that all his actions that are for the sake of the Creator, in them the hearing is revealed. This is as The Zohar said, that the hearing depends on the speech.