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Shema Yisrael ( Shema Israel or Sh'ma Yisrael; ) is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer. Its first verse encapsulates the Monotheism essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: Tetragrammaton our God, YHWH is one" (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃), found in .
The first part can be translated as either "The our God" or "The is our God", and the second part as either "the is one" or as "the one " (in the sense of "the alone"), since Biblical Hebrew does not normally use a copula in the present tense, so translators must decide by inference whether one is appropriate in English. The word used for "the " is the tetragrammaton YHWH.
Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah (religious commandment). Also, it is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night.
The term Shema is used by extension to refer to the whole part of the daily prayers that commences with Shema Yisrael and comprises Deuteronomy , , and Numbers . These sections of the Torah are read in the weekly Torah portions Va'etchanan, Eikev, and Shlach, respectively.
Additionally, the Talmud points out that subtle references to the Ten Commandments can be found in the three portions. As the Ten Commandments were removed from daily prayer in the Mishnaic period (70–200 CE), the Shema is seen as an opportunity to commemorate the Ten Commandments.
There are two larger-print letters in the first sentence ('ayin and daleth ) which, when combined, spell "". In Hebrew this means "witness". The idea thus conveyed is that through the recitation or proclamation of the Shema one is a living witness testifying to the truth of its message. Modern Kabbalah, namely that of the Isaac Luria, teach that when one recites the last letter of the word eḥad (), meaning "one", he is to intend that he is ready to "die into God".
Rabbinic Judaism teaches that the Tetragrammaton (י-ה-ו-ה), YHWH, is the ineffability and actual name of God, and as such is not read aloud in the Shema but is traditionally replaced with אדני, Adonai (""). For that reason, the Shema is recited aloud as Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad ("Hear, O Israel: the is our God, the is One.")
The literal word meanings are roughly as follows:
This first verse of the Shema relates to the monarch of God. The first verse, "Hear, O Israel: the our God is One ", has always been regarded as the confession of belief in the One God. Due to the ambiguity of the possible ways to translate the Hebrew passage, there are several possible renderings:
Many commentaries have been written about the subtle differences between the translations. There is an emphasis on the oneness of God and on the sole worship of God by Israel. There are other translations, though most retain one or the other emphases.
Then verse 7 goes on to remind the community to remember all the commandments and to "teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit down and when you walk, when you lie down and when you rise", to recite the words of God when retiring or rising; to bind those words "on thy arm and thy head" (classically Jewish oral tradition interprets as tefillin), and to "inscribe them on the door-posts of your house and on your gates" (referring to mezuzah).
The second line quoted, "Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever", was originally a congregational response to the declaration of the Oneness of God; it is therefore often printed in small font and recited in an undertone, as recognition that it is not, itself, a part of the cited biblical verses. The third section of the Shema ends with Numbers 15:41, but traditional Jews end the recitation of the Shema by reciting the first word of the following blessing, Emet, or "Truth" without interruption.
Conservative Judaism generally regards Jewish women as being obligated to recite the Shema at the same times as men.
Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism do not regard gender-related traditional Halakha as necessary in modern circumstances, including obligations for men, but not women, to pray specific prayers at specific times. Instead, both genders may fulfill all requirements.
According to the Talmud, the reading of the Shema morning and evening fulfills the commandment "You shall meditate therein day and night". As soon as a child begins to speak, his father is directed to teach him the verse "Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob",Deuteronomy 33:4 and teach him to read the Shema.Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 42a The reciting of the first verse of the Shema is called "the acceptance of the yoke of the kingship of God" ( kabalat ol malchut shamayim).Mishnah Berachot 2:5 Judah ha-Nasi, who spent all day involved with his studies and teaching, said just the first verse of the Shema in the morning "as he passed his hands over his eyes",Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 13b which appears to be the origin of the custom to cover the eyes with the right hand while reciting the first verse.
The first verse of the Shema is recited aloud, simultaneously by the hazzan and the congregation, which responds with the rabbinically instituted Baruch Shem ("Blessed be the Name") in silence before continuing the rest of Shema. Only on Yom Kippur is this response said aloud. The remainder of the Shema is read in silence. Many recite the whole of the Shema aloud, except the Baruch Shem, as well as the verse "And God will be angry at you" which many recite silently. Reform Judaism also recite the whole of the first paragraph of the Shema aloud.
During Maariv, there are two blessings before the Shema and two after. The two before are HaMaariv Aravim and Ahavat Olam. The two after are Emet V'Emunah and Hashkiveinu. Some communities add Baruch Hashem L'Olam on weekdays.
Overall, the three blessings in the morning and four in the evening which accompany the Shema sum to seven, in accordance with the verse in Psalms: "I praise You seven times each day for Your just rules."
Some also have the custom of reading all three paragraphs, along with a list of sections from the Psalms, Vidui, and others. Altogether, the liturgy is known as the K'riat Shema she-al ha-mitah (קריאת שמע על המטיה, ; Ashkenazi pronunciation: K'rias Shema al ha-mitah). According to Isaac Luria and the Tanya, reading the prayer with deep Kavanah also effectively cleans one from sin.
According to Rashi, one fulfills their biblical obligation of the saying Shema in this prayer and not by the Shema recited during Maariv, being that often pray Maariv before nightfall (i.e., before the time of the obligation). Barachos 2b, Rashi s.v. ad sof ha'ashmurah harishona.
As Jewish history progressed, additional psalms, biblical portions, and prayers were incorporated; customs regarding this practice may differ. Although adding Psalms is not mandatory, it is generally anticipated. Avraham Gombiner on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 239:2.
The Rishonim argue whether one is to say the portion of "Vehaya Im Shamoa" and those who say one should also recite the third portion of Shema.
According to various customs, which are founded on the Isaac Luria, the prayer also includes the Tachanun prayer to confess and clean the sins of the past day. Some customs include Psalm 91, 51, and 121. Additionally, some add the prayer of Ana b'Koach and Psalm 67.
Another common addition is "In the name of the LORD God of Israel, at my right be Michael, and at my left be Gabriel, and before me Uriel, and behind me Raphael, and on my head the Presence of the LORD". Although close variants are known from the Geonim period,וידר, נפתלי, "פרקים בתולדות התפילה והברכות", סיני, עז (תשל"ה), עמ' קלז a version of the prayer very similar to the one recited today appears in Machzor Vitry, before finding its way into the Zohar and modern prayerbooks.
According to the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva patiently endured while his flesh was being torn with iron combs, and died reciting the Shema. He pronounced the last word of the sentence, Eḥad ("one") with his last breath.Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 61b Since then, it has been traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words. In 2006 Roi Klein, a major in the Israel Defense Forces, said the Shema before jumping on a live grenade and dying to save his fellow soldiers.
In later Jewish scripture:
In Second Temple literature:
In the New Testament:
In episode 9 of season 3 of the television series The Man in the High Castle, the character Frank Frink recites the Shema just before he is executed.
In the Northern Exposure episode "Kaddish for Uncle Manny", Joel Fleischman doubts the sincerity of a burly itinerant lumberjack who arrives in response to Maurice Minnifield's offer of free food and lodging to participate in a minyan; he asks the man to recite the Shema, which he does. In the episode "The Body in Question", Joel Fleischman recites the first verse of the Shema while sick in bed after falling asleep in a freezer, where he had a dream he spoke with the Elijah at his great-grandfather's Passover Seder in Poland.
In episode 4 of season 2 of the television series Shtisel (2015), rebbetzin Erblich asks her friend Bube Malka to recite the Shema with her as she is preparing to die.
In episode 6 of season 1 of the television series The Sandman, Death comes for an old Jewish man, Harry who recites the Shema before dying.
In episode 10 of season 5 of the television series Snowfall, Avi Drexler sings the Shema after he has been shot in the stomach by a KGB officer, likely intended as his last words.
Medieval, rationalist Jewish philosophers (exponents of Hakirah–rational "investigation" from first principles in support of Judaism), such as Maimonides, describe Biblical monotheism to mean that there is only one God, and his essence is a unique, simple, infinite Unity. Jewish mysticism provides a philosophic paradox, by dividing God's Unity into God's essence and Emanationism.
In Kabbalah and especially Hasidism, God's Unity means that there is nothing independent of his essence. The new doctrine in Lurianic Kabbalah of God's tzimtzum ("withdrawal") received different interpretations after Isaac Luria, from the literal to the metaphorical. To Hasidism and Schneur Zalman, it is unthinkable for the "withdrawal" of God that "makes possible" Creation, to be taken literally. The paradox of Tzimtzum only relates to the Ohr ("Infinite Light"), not the Ein Sof (Divine essence) itself. God's infinity is revealed in both complementary infinitude (infinite light) and finitude (finite light). The "withdrawal" was only a concealment of the Infinite Light into the essence of God, to allow the latent potentially finite light to emerge after the God limiting tzimtzum. God himself remains unaffected ("For I, the Lord, I have not changed" Malachi 3:6). His essence was One, alone, before Creation, and still One, alone, after Creation, without any change. As the tzimtzum only limits God to a concealment, therefore God's Unity remains Omnipresent. In the Baal Shem Tov's interpretation, Divine providence affects every detail of Creation. The "movement of a leaf in the wind" is part of the unfolding Divine presence, and is a necessary part of the complete Tikkun olam (Rectification in Kabbalah). This awareness of the loving Divine purpose and significance of each individual and his free will, awakens mystical love and awe of God.
Schneur Zalman explains that God's divided Unity has two levels, an unlimited level and a limited one, that are both paradoxically true. The main text of medieval Kabbalah, the Zohar, describes the first verse of the Shema ("Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One") as the "Upper level Unity", and the second line ("Blessed be the Name of the Glory of His Kingdom forever") as the limited "Lower level Unity". Schneur Zalman gives the Chabad explanation of this. In his Kabbalah philosophy, all Creation is dependent on the limited, Divine immanence, potentially finite, "Ohr", that each Creation receives continually. All is bittul–nullified to the light, even though in our realm this complete dependence is hidden. From this perspective, of God knowing the Creation on its own terms, Creation exists, but the true essence of anything is only the Divine spark that continuously recreates it from nothing. God is One, as nothing has any independent existence without this continual flow of Divine Will to Create. This is the pantheistic Lower Level Unity.
In relation to God's essence, Creation affects no change or withdrawal. All Creation takes place "within" God. "There is nothing but God". The ability to create can only come from the infinite Divine essence, represented by the Tetragrammaton name of God. However, "It is not the essence of the Divine, to create Worlds and sustain them", as this ability is only external to the Infinite essence "outside" God. Creation only derives from God's revelatory anthropomorphic "speech" (as in Genesis 1), and even this is unlike the external speech of Man, as it too remains "within" God. From this upper perspective of God knowing himself on his own terms, the created existence of Creation does not exist, as it is as nothing in relation to Zalman's philosophically constructed concept of God's essence. This monistic acosmism is the "Upper Level Unity", as from this perspective, only God exists. English translation and commentary on the second section of Tanya: Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah-Gate of Unity and Faith from Chabad.org. Retrieved Oct. 2009
Theologians Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch noted that "the heart is mentioned first (in Deuteronomy 6:5), as the seat of the emotions generally and of love in particular; then follows the soul ( nephesh) as the centre of personality in man, to depict the love as pervading the entire self-consciousness; and to this is added, "with all the strength", i.e. of body and soul. Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Deuteronomy 6, accessed 6 November 2015
The Shema has also been incorporated into Christian liturgy, and is discussed in terms of the Trinity.See Brian J. Wright, "Deuteronomy 6:4 and the Trinity: How Can Jews and Christians Both Embrace the 'Echad' of the Shema?"
The Anglican (and Orthodox Celtic) Church officially utilizes the Shema in the Daily Services. Namely with the decalogue.
/ref> In the Latin Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, the Shema is read during the Night Prayer or Compline every Saturday, thereby concluding the day's prayers. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer in use in Canada since 1962 has included the Shema in its Summary of the Law. Since 2012, when the Anglican Use version of the BCP, the Book of Divine Worship, was adapted for use in Canada, it has been recited by Roman Catholics as well. It has been incorporated into , transposed as the "Summary of the Law" in Mt 22:37-40 and is recited either by the Priest or the Deacon.
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Categories: Book Of Deuteronomy, God In Judaism, Hebrew Words And Phrases In Jewish Prayers And Blessings, Hebrew Words And Phrases In The Hebrew Bible, Jewish Belief And Doctrine, Jewish Prayer And Ritual Texts, Jewish Theology, Maariv, Monotheism, Shacharit, Siddurim Of Orthodox Judaism, Religious Formulas
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