On this Shabbat we read the Torah portion Vaethanan in the Book of Deuteronomy. At the beginning and the end of the reading Moses instructs the people on the rewards of faithfulness to God and the perils of faithlessness as they prepare to enter the land. In the middle Moses expresses some of the basic, eternal teachings of our tradition, including a repetition of the Ten Commandments and the basic theological commitments of Judaism contained in the Shema and the V’ahavta.
the Eternal is one.” (Deut.6:4)
This becomes the central teaching of our tradition. With these simple words we affirm that God is, that there is no one god for good and another god for evil, and that there is no pantheon of gods but only One. It is not a prayer but a proclamation which precedes prayer. It is, if you wish, the address to which Jewish prayer -individual or collective -will be addressed. To recite the Shema is to accept, God’s sovereignty and authority.
The Torah instructs us to recite the Shema twice a day - “when you lie down and when you rise up” [6:7]. Why isn’t once a day sufficient? In the teachings of Rav Kook we learn that the purpose of meditating on a particular concept is to deepen its impact on our lives. The day has two parts: the daytime hours, when we interact with the world at large, and the evening, when we rest in the quiet sanctuary of our homes. By reciting the Shema every morning and evening, we accept God’s sovereignty during both parts of the day. Thus the principle of Shema guides us in our public activities in the daytime, as well as our private lives at night.
Reciting the Shema at the start of the day helps prepare us for the daytime hours and reminds us that our social interaction and public activities should be according to the ethical teachings of the Torah, while the Shema of the evening drives us to understand that our private lives should be imbued with holiness and purity as well. There are some who appear as spiritually righteous in public while they fail in their private domain and others who are wonderful in their private lives but don’t quite manage to rise to spiritual heights in the street. The obligation to recite the Shema twice daily reminds us to be mindful of this but just in case this may not be enough we are commanded in the same Torah portion to “inscribe these words on the doorposts of our house and upon our gate...” The mezuzah is not just simply a tribal declaration that “Jews live in this house.” It is a visual reminder as we enter and as we leave the home that we have responsibilities both in the public as well as in the private domain.
“Hear, O Israel...” is not something Moses said to a people back then, neither is it something we ask of another. “Hear, O Israel...” is a call to ourselves, as long as we identify as Jews, it is the cornerstone of covenant and commitment.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz
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