Rabbi Zalman Shachter Shalomi interpretive translation follows:

How good it will be when you really listen and hear my directions which I give to you today for loving YaH who is your God, and to act godly with feeling and inspiration.

Your earthly needs will be met at the right time, appropriate to the season.

You will reap what you planted for your delight and health.

Also, your animals will have ample feed; all of you will eat and be content.

Be careful – watch out! Don’t let your cravings delude you.

Don’t become alienated. Don’t let your cravings become your gods.

Don’t debase yourself to them because the God sense within you will become distorted.

Heaven will be shut to you; grace will not descend.

Earth will not produce. Your rushing will destroy you!

And Earth will not be able to recover her good balance in which God’s gifts manifest.

May these values of Mine reside in your feelings and aspirations, marking what you produce, guiding what you perceive.

Teach them to your children so that they will be addressed by them in making their homes, how they deal with traffic, when you are depressed, when you are elated.

Mark your entrances and exits with them so you’ll be more aware.

Then you and your children will live out on earth that divine promise given to your ancestors to live heavenly days right here on this earth.

It is About Relationship Between the people and God

The first four Hebrew words are “Vehayah im shamoa tishmau”.  Vehayah im – the conditional phrase, “what if”, the very fundamental principle of Judaism: making a choice, the right one.

The next two words, Shamoa Tishmau, sound very similar.  Indeed, they both are forms of the Hebrew root shin, mem, ayin; shema – to hear.  This duplication seems to be redundant; and yet, it begs the question: why is the meaning in repeating it twice?

Throughout the Bible, repetition of words typically connotes emphasis.  But why is hearing emphasized here, in the second phrase of the Shema?  The prayer starts with the word Shema, said only once: Shema Yisrael.

Maybe the repetition of the root demonstrates our partnership with God. It illustrates that in our relationship with God, we hear God and we wish to be heard as well.

The first verse of Ekev may support this assumption.  We see there a repetition of the root Sh. M. R. – observe, guard, keep.  The first “observe” refers to the People of Israel observing the laws.  The second refers to God that observed and fulfills his commitment in the Covenant.  The two demonstrate a bi-directional relationship, as may the repetition of “listen, hear” allude to.  

That partnership is strengthened with ritual and with commitment.  We hear with our faith, and we are heard with our actions.  Rabbi Louis Finkelstein said that when he prayed, he talked to God and when he studied, God talked to him.  He was hearing the words of God withing the sacred texts and was heard in his prayers. 

On Sunday, the 9^th of October 1994 Naḥshon Wachsman was abducted by Hamas terrorist that impersonated to Yarmulke wearing Jews.  Many in the country prayed for his safety and release from captivity.  People gathered  at the Kotel (Wailing Wall in Jerusalem) and recited psalms, pleading  to HaShem for his wellbeing.  On that week’s Friday night, during an attempt to release him from captivity, he was murdered.  The commanding officer of the operation, Captain Nir Poraz, fell in the battle, and seven others were injured.

Yehuda, Naḥshon’s father, in an interview 10 years later, expressed his feelings about the unanswered prayers for his son’s rescue.  He repeated the concept within the eulogy that Naḥshon’s rabbi performed.  Yehuda said: “We all prayed, and the Holy One blessed be He, heard our prayers.  For some reason he said ‘No.’  I do not understand why,  and yet, we must continue praying and pleading, because it is a spiritual need and an enormous strength.”

He understood that not having the prayers and plea fulfilled does not mean that God did not hear the prayers.  Being heard is not judged on whether we receive the answers we are looking for.  Being heard is only one direction of the bidirectional relationship.  The second is listening to the answers, whatever they may be, and trying to understand and accept them, as difficult as they may be.

Before Making a Choice, Know the Consequences

As noted earlier, the paragraph starts with Im – If, giving us the freedom to choose one path or another. 

One option is to listen and harken, observe, guard to follow.  One can not follow orders, instructions, that one doesn’t know.  So, a prerequisite to observance is listening to the values and rules of engagement.  This is yet another way to present the teaching of Rabbi Finkelstein: listening is learning.  Then the text continues to elaborate what would be the consequences of making this choice (Deuteronomy 11:14–15):  “I will favor your land with rain at the proper season, in autumn and spring and you will have an ample harvest of grain and wine and oil.  I will provide grass in your fields for you livestock, so you can eat and be satiated.”

The other option also starts with a condition, lest (ibid, ibid, 16):  “Beware, if your heart will be tempted to move away and to worship other gods.”  If that will be your choice, than God’s wrath will be directed against you (ibid, ibid, 17):  “God will close the heavens and hold back the rain; the earth will not yield its produce.  You will soon perish from the good land that HaShem is assigning to you.”

Choice, as it is presented in the Shema, is the integral connection between human beings and the divine.  We are not simply dealt cards and told to play them, rather, we choose many of our cards.  It is how we choose to play them that make all the difference.  

The Maimonides teaches in his code (The Laws of Repentance, 5:1–3):

Free will is granted to every person. If a person desires to follow the path of good and be righteous, he/she is free to do so.  And if one desires to follow a path of evil and wickedness, likewise one is free to choose that path. This constitutes a fundamental principle and pillar of the Torah and its precepts.  The Creator does not force His will on any person, or preordain one to do good or evil.  Rather, the choice is theirs. Man can, on one’s own initiative, with one’s knowledge and thought, to know and discern between good and evil, and do what Man desires. There is no one who can prevent him from doing good or bad.

Divine messages will not necessarily be shouted at us every moment of every day.  But, if we listen (=learn), sometimes we can hear the whispers and then make our choices.  The directive of the Shema is to state loud and clear just what God is asking of us; to be God’s partner.  And  the choice is ours.