Learning to Listen

'Listening costs nothing and may often be the cure - or part of it - for one of the greatest ills of our time.'

The great spiritual traditions prize silence and listening. Yet we live in a world where attentive listening is so rare and so few people feel heard. Instead of actually listening to someone, we are rushing from one thing to the next - often thinking about what we want to say next, or interrupting the person speaking to us. But the act of truly listening to someone to can be profoundly healing in and of itself.

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg has spent much of his life trying to listen. From his experience in pastoral care, he has listened to those on the threshold of death, in the bewilderment and devastation of grief, and those struggling to forgive. He has learned that while we listen in order to know and understand, in a more profound sense we listen in order to offer companionship in those most painful of circumstances for which there are no answers: it is simply being present.

In this book, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg explores what listening is, its different forms, and his reflections on the failure to listen to others. Learning to Listen offers profound and inspiring wisdom to enrich our lives and relationships for the better.