Shhh.... Ma ! Listen !

Ain’t no Sh’Ma in Six Words

Nu? What do you think of when someone mentions the Shema? You think “Hear Oh Israel, the L*rd is our G-d, the L*rd is One.” Right? Or maybe... you think ‘that’ and “Blessed is the name of His Glorious Majesty forever and ever.”

Aye! Thar’s da rub! Ain’t so, ain’t so.

First of all; the “Shema” is not really a prayer as we come to understand the concept of prayer. What we are really saying is - an affirmation of our faith. We are declaring to HaShem and restating what has been for thousands of years a statement of what we believe.

BUT. There is (as always) a disputation. Rabbi Judah HaNassi (complier of the Mishnah) said that the Torah’s only obligation was to recite this verse [the first verse above] twice a day. Other Chazal maintained that the obligation(“And these words that I command you this day... speak of them...” etc.) encompasses so much more. And so we have come to the opinion of the majority that we are obligated to recite the Six Words And the following three paragraphs! That encompasses what we now call the Shema (with the emphasis on the second Hebrew letter: ShMA - definitely not SHHHma, as it is usually pronounced).

Jewish Law, which we discussed a few weeks ago, requires of us to involved ourself [l’asoak] in kavanah when we declare the first six words - and in order to do so we either close our eyes to external distractions or cover them with our hand and/or tallit. Doing so not only avoids distraction, it helps us to concentrate on those words that we are saying - the real meaning behind the words.

One other little note is that during the recitation of the (entire) Shema, we gather together the four tzitzit in the hand which is not bound in the tefillin (nominally the right hand) and to kiss these fringes at the mentioning of the tzitzit in the third paragraph. [some persons also touch the tefillin on the arm and on the head at the mention of those places in the first two paragraphs]

The first of the three paragraphs begins with the word V’ahavta meaning, “You shall love...”. In this paragraph we declare that we are accepting the “yoke” of Divine rule. In the paragraph we affirm His Unity, His Sovereignty, and our unconditional love of Him and His teachings.

In the second paragraph we learn (from the word: V’haya, or; “It shall be...”) of the more ‘practical‘ aspects of the commandments - the reasons that we need to undertake the completion of his commandments and what would befall us should we not do so!

Moving on we find the third paragraph beginning with Vayomer Ad*nai - “The L*rd spoke...” This is where we find the commandment to wear tzitzit. The paragraph clearly spells-out what the tzitzit are and how they should be worn. As a boost to our memory - a way for us to remember that for Israel to be holy we must keep all the commandments, the six hundred and thirteen mitzvot (never mind that we cannot do so at this time, in this place).

The last word that we say in our recitation of the Shema is: “Truth”! Emet!

Now I want to try something that may work for you. It does for me. It involves the “understanding” of the Hebrew words that we pray.

Last week* I gave each of you a morning prayer with the littoral English translation printed directly under the Hebrew. Admittedly is is a little awkward to read in that manner but here is the “trick” that I would like you to try: I have the V’ahavta paragraph here for you with the interlinear English translation. We all know this pretty much by rote when we sing/chant it so... if you look at the translation while we chant it you should be able to read the English text with little or no difficulty. Let’s try it and see what you think.

*This refers to our Study Session on Shabbos morning.

Okay? Got the idea? Sure it takes a little practice but it becomes easier as you go along and this - should - be a great asset to you in understanding what you are praying. The singing/chanting helps you to concentrate on the English translation and will help you to understand what you are praying. You will, of course, have to stop and read the English in some places to see why there are more or less English words than Hebrew words but some basic knowledge of Hebrew will help you to ‘figure-that-out’.

Mazel Tov - Good Luck.

Shabbat Shalom

Emet