This Shavuos sugya focuses on Birkas Hatorah – specifically, one’s obligation to recite Birkas Hatorah when hearing words of Torah spoken by someone else. According to the Shulchan Aruch, one is not required to make a Bracha before thinking in learning.  But under which category does “listening” to Torah fall? Is “listening” a form of thinking, or is it considered actual learning.

This leads us to a fundamental discussion of how Chazal perceive the act of listening.  We discuss the well-known principle of Shomeh K’oneh – i.e. Mitzvos that require speech can be fulfilled by listening to the speech of others.  Can we therefore determine that even when one only hears words of Torah, it is considered as if he had said them?

Among the subjects discussed: Was Ma’amad Har Sinai a form of “dibur” or listening?

Some real-life scenarios discussed:

·         Listening to a recorded shiur vs a live shiur

·         Stopping one’s Shemone Esrei to listen to Kedushah – is that a hefsek?

·         Krias Hatorah 

·         Writing Divrei Torah vs thinking Divrei Torah

·         And many more