In honour of International Cochlear Implant Day, I am sharing a short piece that I wrote when our son underwent his first implant in 2009. Thank G-d the implant was successful beyond our wildest expectations, so we decided to give him another one in 2013, and we have never looked back.
Today we gave our son, a gift. A gift that will, please G-d, change his life forever and enhance his life beyond belief.
If he had been born thirty years ago, this would have been impossible but the Healer of all flesh decides who will be born and when and what their unique challenges will be. These challenges form an integral part of their unique role in the world, a task that without which the world would be forever lacking.
We chose to call him Yedidya after he had been in hospital for the first two months of his life. Yedidya, beloved of G-d. Every time we say his name we are reminding ourselves how each human is created in the image of G-d and how much G-d loves each and every one of his children. A love that knows no bounds, a love that showers us with blessings, of gifts that we do not deserve, every moment of our lives.
And sometimes we can only fully appreciate those blessings when we don't have them.
Imagine a world without sound, no speech, no song. Imagine how limiting that can be. One who cannot hear and cannot speak effectively lives in a world of his own, unable to interact and understand others. Unable to be a part of society, locked away, apart from society, unable to process the subtleties that make up the mosaic of life.
The Torah emphasises the centrality of hearing to our lives. Shema Yisrael: Not just to hear but to listen, to hear the message and take it to heart. The message of the shema, of listening and subsequently internalising, is the central tenet of all that we live for. Recite the message day and night, bind it on your arm, next to your heart, have it at the forefront of your consciousness and sanctify your homes with it. The shema is the most basic yet so deep message that accompanies the Jew from the cradle to the grave, begging him, imploring him ... to listen.
Listen Jewish people, listen and understand, Hashem our G-d is One and Only. He is all that there is, the definition of reality itself. All else is but an expression of His Divine Will. He who creates many beings, with their deficiencies. He creates us all with lacks, with needs, so that we can rely on each other and ultimately on Him.
Today we gave Yedidya the ability to hear, to listen, to learn and to integrate the beautiful sounds around him into his inner world. To open him up, to communicate with him, to transmit that message of the shema, “and you shall teach them thoroughly to your children and speak about them”.
Today with thanks to the One who grants life and sustains all that exists, Yedidya enters into a world that we all take for granted. A world of wisdom and understanding.
This is a day that we will celebrate, a day when his inner world, his true self was unlocked, a day when the pathways opened.
May we and he use this gift of hearing to hear good things, to listen to constructive speech, to listen to each other with the respect that we deserve and to listen, as a Jew should, to the call of Shema Yisrael.
