Ear versus Eye

Perhaps the most profound difference between the two civilizations of antiquity that are most responsible for the culture of the Western world ancient Greece and ancient Israel Is their focus: the Greeks were the supreme masters of the visual arts: art, sculpture, architecture and the theatre. Jews, as a matter of profound religious principle, were not.

For Israel G-d, the sole object of worship is invisible. He transcends nature. He created the universe and is therefore beyond the universe. He cannot be seen. He reveals Himself only in speech. Therefore the supreme religious act in Judaism is to listen. Ancient Greece was a culture of the eye; ancient Israel a culture of the ear. The Greeks worshipped what they saw; Israel worshipped what they heard.

Chief Rabbi J. Sacks