At the start of each week at school we gather the entire community together for time we call "Hakhel." It is time to share the empowering nature of our community. The word "hakhel" echoes from the word that begins this week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel -- as it begins "vayakhel Moshe (lit. Moses assembled or called together)" the entire community of Israel. (Ex. 35:1)
"Hakhel” also becomes the penultimate mitzvah in Torah; a once-every-seven-years convening of the entire community for hearing and learning through a reading of the entire Torah. Everyone was to be at that reading. Torah calls out for gathering even strangers who live in the neighborhood and children (Deut. 31:10-15) The rabbis later interpret this calling together to include scholars steeped in Torah to listen with great concentration (Maimonides, Hilchot Chagigah 3:6) because even they could learn something new in the context of this communal listening.
In other words, “hakhel” is for listening and learning in community. There are even some who link the Hebrew root for assembling a community (קהל - kuph/hey/lamed) with the Hebrew root the human voice (קול - kuph/vav/lamed). We even hear hints of that link in English where "call" as in “calling a community together” is linked to the Hebrew word "kol" or voice.
So a story to demonstrate the link between the power of community to hear the voice of others.
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who thought he had grown so wise there was no need for him to listen to others anymore. He would wake early each day and go immediately to his library to continue reading and the learning
