(ז) וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃
(7) Then he took the scroll of the covenant and read it into the ears of the people. And they said, “All that YHVH has spoken, we will faithfully do (נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָֽע)!”
נעשה ונשמע, “we will carry out what God has said already, and we will listen (obey) to what God will command from here on in, and we will fulfill [those commandments].
אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר: בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהִקְדִּימוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל ״נַעֲשֶׂה״ לְ״נִשְׁמָע״ יָצְתָה בַּת קוֹל וְאָמְרָה לָהֶן: מִי גִּלָּה לְבָנַי רָז זֶה שֶׁמַּלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת מִשְׁתַּמְּשִׁין בּוֹ? דִּכְתִיב: ״בָּרְכוּ ה׳ מַלְאָכָיו גִּבֹּרֵי כֹחַ עֹשֵׂי דְבָרוֹ לִשְׁמֹעַ בְּקוֹל דְּבָרוֹ״ — בְּרֵישָׁא ״עֹשֵׂי״, וַהֲדַר ״לִשְׁמֹעַ״.
Rabbi Elazar said: When the Jewish people put “We will do” before “We will hear,” a Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Who revealed to my children this secret that the ministering angels use? As it is written: “Praise the Eternal, God's angels, you mighty in strength, that do God's word, listening to the voice of God's word” (Psalms 103:20). At first, the angels do God's word, and then they listen.
At first sight, the idea of doing before hearing implies a kind of rashness, a lack of circumspection. Rashi, in fact, directly addresses this, when he observes that the Israelite response is different from that "of other servants who first listen to the command, to find out whether they are able to accept it or not. "
This very rashness, however, is called by God "the secret of the angels." Implicit in this description is the idea of a modality generally inaccessible to the human. Rather archly, God chides the people for making use of an esoteric order of things: "Who revealed this to you?" is, of course, a covert compliment to the angelic virtue within an apparent irrationality.
In saying "We shall do and we shall hear!", the Talmud implies, the people assume some of the virtuosity of the angels, who are capable precisely of such a brilliant power of action.
For “We will do and we will hear” corresponds to [concepts] hidden and revealed. “We will do” is the revealed—i.e., the commandments are possible for everyone to fulfill according to their level. And “we will hear” is the hidden- that which is elevated and hidden from that one, so that one is incapable of serving [God] with this.
For example: Every commandment has that which accompanies it. Aside from the command recorded in the Torah to fulfill it, there are additional statements in the Torah, such as, “And God spoke to Moshe,” as well as the other statements of the Torah surrounding the commandment.
Now, the service [of God] which is contained in these Torah statements accompanying the commandment corresponds to “we will hear,” the hidden. For the commandment itself we can fulfill, [and is called “we will do”]. But the service contained in these statements, we have no knowledge of - corresponding to “we will hear,” the hidden.
These two dimensions of na'aseh and nishma are to be found at every level and in all worlds. Moving from one level to another, one's previous nishma, area of hiddenness, becomes one's new na'aseh, area of fulfillment: and one acquires a new area of nishma, of hiddenness.
In this difficult passage, R. Nahman maps the world as consisting of nuclei of commandments, of required acts, surrounded by aureoles of words that "tease us out of thought." These aureoles - the language is explicitly circular - pass one's understanding; yet clearly they are part of the field of consciousness. They form a kind of horizon, a sense of presence, of the not-yet-known.
Rabbi Phinchas said: On the eve of Sabbath Israel stood at Mount Sinai, arranged with the men apart and the women apart. The Holy Bountiful One said to Moses: "Go, speak to the daughters of Israel, (asking them) whether they wish to receive the Torah." Why were the women asked (first)? Because the way of men is to follow the opinion of women, as it is said, "Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob" (Ex. 19:3); these are the women. "And tell the children of Israel" (ibid.); these are the men.
They all replied (as) with one mouth, and they said: "All that the Eternal has spoken we will do, and we will listen" (Ex. 24:7). (The Scripture also says,) "They that sing as well as they that dance (shall say), "All my fountains are in thee" (Ps. 87:7).
There are so many wise men, scholars, and philosophers in the world all of them pondering, investigation and delving into the mystery of God. And why do they misuse their wisdom? They only misuse it because they are limited by their intellectual level and perceptual capacity. But the people of Israel are a holy people. They possess special instruments that elevate their perceptual capacity and enable them to transcend the level of their intellect and attain the level of ministering angels themselves. And these are the instruments: the performance of mitzvot. This is just what Israel said when they stood at Mount Sinai, "We will do and we will hear". Through the power of the mitzvot we perform, we are able to understand.
A person is acted upon according to their actions; and their heart and all their thoughts always follow after the actions that they do - whether good or bad. And even the one who in their heart is a complete sinner and all the desires of their heart are only for evil; if this one's spirit shall be enlightened and they will put their efforts and actions to persist in Torah and commandments - even if not for the sake of Heaven - they shall immediately incline towards the good. And from that which is not for its own sake comes that which is for its own sake [as opposed to being for personal gain]; for the hearts are drawn after the actions. And even if someone is perfectly righteous and their heart is straight and innocent, desiring of Torah and the commandments; if they shall constantly deal with improper things, you could compare it to someone who was forced by the king to work a wicked craft - if they constantly work in that wicked craft - eventually, from their righteousness, they shall have become completely evil. For it is known and true that every person is acted upon according to his actions.
My mind returns to Moses, as he writes out each letter by hand—stroke by tedious stroke. Why was this really necessary? Prior to writing down God’s words, Moses transmitted them to the people orally. He instructed them about all the laws and commandments that God had told to him directly, and the people respond “Na'aseh” (“we will do”). Based on this, the people fully expected that they would act in accordance with what God wanted on account of what they heard from Moses, so it seems somewhat extraneous to then go and write down these same words to give to the people again, as Moses does just a few verses later. Yet, when he does this, the people respond differently: “Na'aseh v’nishma” (typically translated as “we will do and we will listen/obey”).
I want to suggest that the act of writing down the Torah has a transformational affect on the people’s relationship to it.
See, “nishma” can also be understood not just at “we will listen/obey” but also as “we will pay attention,” and I like to believe that the painstaking attention Moses gave to writing each letter of the Torah modeled for the people their call—our call—to take it seriously in our lives, to pay attention to the Sacred that surrounds us in every moment, in every stoke of the quill. We’re not just expected to live out the commandments blindly—doing them exactly as we’ve been instructed—but rather we’re called to pay close attention to their role in our lives and the value of these ritual actions...
In an age when we could easily photocopy or print off the text of the Torah in minutes, instead we continue to rely on the handwritten work and careful attention of scribes—taking a year to a year and a half to complete a single scroll. We do this in part to remind us of our commitment not only to do (na'aseh), but also to pay attention (nishma), to every stroke of every letter of our lives.
May this tedious and focused work transform our experience, evoking for us new opportunities to connect with that which is Sacred. May the intentionality we bring to our actions elevate them to invite Divine encounter. And may we strive to appreciate even the smallest strokes of the quill that leaves a mark on our lives and the lives of those around us.
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
[N]a’aseh venishma means, “We will do and we will understand.” From this they derive the conclusion that we can only understand Judaism by doing it, by performing the commands and living a Jewish life. In the beginning is the deed. Only then comes the grasp, the insight, the comprehension. This is a signal and substantive point. The modern Western mind tends to put things in the opposite order. We seek to understand what we are committing ourselves to before making the commitment. That is fine when what is at stake is signing a contract, buying a new mobile phone, or purchasing a subscription, but not when making a deep existential commitment.
The only way to understand leadership is to lead. The only way to understand marriage is to get married. The only way to understand whether a certain career path is right for you is to actually try it for an extended period. Those who hover on the edge of a commitment, reluctant to make a decision until all the facts are in, will eventually find that life has passed them by. The only way to understand a way of life is to take the risk of living it. So: na’aseh venishma, “We will do and eventually, through extended practice and long exposure, we will understand.”....
There is a normative way of doing the holy deed, but there are many ways of hearing the holy voice, encountering the sacred presence, feeling at one and the same time how small we are yet how great the universe we inhabit, how insignificant we must seem when set against the vastness of space and the myriads of stars, yet how momentously significant we are, knowing that God has set [God's] image and likeness upon us and placed us here, in this place, at this time, with these gifts, in these circumstances, with a task to perform if we are able to discern it. We can find God on the heights and in the depths, in loneliness and togetherness, in love and fear, in gratitude and need, in dazzling light and in the midst of deep darkness. We can find God by seeking [God], but sometimes [God] finds us when we least expect it. That is the difference between na’aseh and nishma. We do the Godly deed “together”. We respond to [God's] commands “with one voice”. But we hear God’s presence in many ways, for though God is One, we are all different, and we encounter [God] each in our own way.