The verse says “Listen and your souls will live!”. Chazal said about this that one should come and see that the way that Hashem acts is not the same as the way a man of mere flesh and blood acts, as the way that flesh and blood acts is that if a person falls off a roof and his entire body is filled with wounds, the doctor will go in to see him and fill his entire body with bandages, but Hashem is not like this as if a person is full of sins Hashem will say to him put a bandage on the ear and the entire body will be healed, as it says “Listen and your souls will live!”.

Chazal said further that one who listens lovingly to the words of the wise man when he sits and preaches, and one who responds “Amen yehei shemeih Rabbah” which is said after learning words of Aggadah will have even a sentence of seventy years torn up and they will forgive all of his sins.

The reason that listening is so important is that listening brings to actions as listening to a good preacher who has a learned tongue and preaches with all of the artifices of a good public speaker will have more effect than learning books of ethics by oneself. However, since the evil inclination sees the great effect of listening to words of Mussar (ethics) and Aggadah the evil inclination puts a lot of effort to persuade him to hate being rebuked and be disgusted by them in which case he will not go to listen to the wise men and because of this the way of a foolish man is straight in his own eyes.