Shema
Texts: Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Matthew 22:34-40
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
August 20, 2023
(Play clip of Shema Ysrael music)
What you just heard is the singing of the Shema. Shema is the biblical Hebrew word for “Hear” or “listen.” There are various songs to which the Shema is sung in Jewish prayer services. This is just one.
The Shema is Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It is called the Shema because the first word is the word “hear” or Shema. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone,” or “the LORD is one.”
The Shema is the most well-known Scripture for people of Jewish faith. It is to be said upon waking up in the morning, and upon going to sleep at the end of the day. The Shema can be said or it can be sung. It is commonly sung in Jewish prayer services, often times at the beginning.
The Shema has been called “the quintessential expression of the most fundamental belief and commitment of Judaism.”[1] It is the very core of Jewish faith. People will almost always put their hands over their eyes when they say it. The purpose of this is to allow them to focus more on the Lord as they sing or pray these words.
The Shema is the second of three prayers said when someone converts to Judaism. A ritual bath is taken to signify cleansing and a new life and then the Shema is said.
The Shema is the first prayer that children are taught. When a baby is born a parent will read the words of the Shema right there in the delivery room so that it is the first words heard by the child. It is hoped that the words of the Shema will be the last words on someone’s lips when they die. It is common for families to gather around loved ones who are dying and say the Shema, much like Christians might say The Lord’s Prayer or the 23rd Psalm.
Apparently, there is a debate within Judaism about whether or not to stand for the Shema. Some congregations do and some don’t. There is a joke about a person who visits a Jewish congregation that is not his home congregation. He sees some people standing and some sitting. Those sitting are pulling on the arms of those standing to have them sit during the Shema. Those standing are motioning for those sitting to stand. The person asks the Rabbi what is the tradition of the congregation. And the Rabbi says, “Our tradition is to argue about it.”[2]
That the Lord is our God alone and that he is one is at the very core of Judaism.
The Shema actually has three parts. The first part is Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The second part is in Deuteronomy 11:13-21. The third part is found Numbers 15:37-41. All of these passages tell Israel to love the Lord and to remember his commands.
Deuteronomy 11 tells the people to bind the commands of the Lord on their hands and their foreheads. This is why Jews attach small boxes on their foreheads and on their arms when they pray. These are called “tefillin.” These small boxes contain the words of the Shema written on small pieces of paper. Literally, Jews bind these words about loving God to themselves when they pray.
Numbers 15 tells people to have tassels with blue cords on their garments to help them remember the commands of the Lord. These tassels are called “tallit.” They are attached to the prayer shawls which Jewish people wrap around their shoulders or head when they pray.
But the root of the Shema is “Hear O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Sometimes Jewish parents will sing this to their children every night as they go to sleep. Moses tells Israel to teach these words to their children. A friend of mine who is a rabbi told me she remembers her mother doing this for her every night when she was young. I think that is a rather beautiful tradition and a wonderful way to bless children and let them go into the night. The Shema is to effect both the person and the home, day in and day out. Moses told Israel to impress these words on their children. One of the sermons in this series will focus on how we teach our children.
But the Shema is not only Jewish. It is Christian as well. Jesus lived by the Shema. Afterall, he was a Jew. He knew it and probably prayed it. The Gospels tell us of two different occasions that Jesus quoted the Shema.
One of those times was when a lawyer, meaning a man schooled and practiced in the Jewish law of the Bible, asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest. Jesus doesn’t quote one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus quotes the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And then Jesus says, “This is the greatest and first commandment.”
“You shall love the Lord your God…” is the first and the greatest commandment, says our Lord.
And then, Jesus says there is a second like it, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus did not make that up. It is part of Jewish law. It is Leviticus 19:18. Jesus amends the Shema, and says we need to go even further. He says you can’t love God without loving your neighbor.
Jesus puts these two commands together: Love God and love your neighbor. And he says all the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. The law and the prophets was shorthand for saying the entire Bible. Remember the Bible that Jesus read and followed was the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. So if a person keeps these two commands – love God and love neighbor – they are, in essence, fulfilling and living by the entire Bible. I might want to pay attention.
Scott McKnight, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Illinois, in his book called “The Jesus Creed” said, “The first principle of spiritual formation is this: A spiritually formed person loves God and others.” Pretty basic and pretty simple. For those who find faith to be a little complex and sometimes filled with too many things to think about, well, love God and love others and you will be doing just fine. To actually do this is a lifetime of work, and it is something that we have to focus on daily. Which is probably why many Jews say this prayer every day.
We are going to breakdown the Shema over the next few weeks for this very reason. It can form our lives and spirituality. It is at the heart of living for God. The definition of holiness in Judaism is loving God with our entire lives. It is no different for Christians. The Shema is the definition of holiness.[3]
The first word, and the word by which this passage gets its name, is “hear.” We are to hear what God has said.
If you read the book of Deuteronomy, you will find that right before Moses gives the Shema to Israel he has given the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy is Moses telling Israel its story of God making them into a people, and the laws that they are to live by as the Lord’s people. Israel is to “hear,” “listen.” They are to “get it.”
Jewish tradition has something called “Midrash.” Midrash is ancient commentary of Jewish Rabbis over the centuries on the meaning of various parts of the Bible. Sometimes midrash is rather imaginative. For example, there is a midrash that Jacob said the Shema on his death bed as he is blessing the offspring of Israel. You won’t find this in the Bible. It is something Jewish rabbis thought up. But in this midrash Jacob’s sons reply, “Blessed is God and his sovereignty.” In other words, Jacob is saying, “Did you get this about loving God?” and they respond, “Yes, we heard it and got it.”
How is our listening to God? How are we doing hearing the Lord? Biblical spirituality is not “just follow your heart.” In fact, in the Bible whenever the people just followed their own heart they ended up going far away from the Lord. No, biblical spirituality is “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is your God. Love him.” Your heart may say one thing, but hear what God says. Our hearts are to belong to the Lord. They are to be grounded in him.
Certainly, Scripture is a primary way of hearing God’s voice. We don’t need to listen for some voice from the clouds. God has spoken in his word. He has spoken through the living word Jesus. How can we recognize the ways of God if we have never heard them? How do we know his heart for our lives and world if we don’t read and listen?
Sister Joan Chittister said, “Our entire generation has gone deaf. Scripture and wisdom and relationships and personal experience are all being ignored.” We have not heard God. Consequently, there have been multiple and major wars in our lifetimes. We have tremendous poverty in the midst of great wealth. There is great loneliness in the midst of highly populated communities. We see “serious personal breakdowns and community deterioration in the face of unparalleled social growth.” There is huge spiritual dissatisfaction in the midst of our great claims of being a God-fearing country.[4]
Our political, economic, and social problems are related to spiritual problems more than many would like to think.
The Shema says “Hear!” And what we are to hear is that we are to love God.
The command to love God appears ten times in the book of Deuteronomy. It appears nowhere else in the first five books of the Bible which is also called the Pentateuch, or the Law or the Torah. The law tells us what to do, but love gives us the power to do it.[5]
The Shema is for all Israel. “Hear, O Israel.” It is to a people, the people of God. Biblical faith is always lived out in a people. You are part of Israel. You are part of the church. There is no faith lived alone and individually in the Bible. It is communal. We live this relationship with God with others, whether we like them or not.
The first thing the people of God are to hear is that the Lord is our God. We are in relationship with him. And to say the Lord is our God is to say he is Sovereign in my life. The Shema doesn’t say he is the Lord my friend, the Lord my consultant, the Lord my spiritual confidant. No, the Lord is God. He is number one. He is the boss. He is ultimate. He is the one we honor and worship over anything and anyone else.
This is a great challenge to our current climate which is human-centered and people make their feelings, experiences and own thoughts sovereign.
The next phrase of the Shema can be read two different ways. It can be translated “the LORD alone” or “the LORD is one.” It can mean the Lord is the only God and certainly the only one we will love and serve. This emphasizes the relational aspect with the Lord. There is no other power, no other path, no other value than God. We don’t look elsewhere.
Or it can be about God’s nature, what God is like. The Lord is one, a unity. He is not divided or multiple gods. The various peoples who surrounded ancient Israel had a whole shelf-full of gods.
In this way the Shema focuses on how God unites our often scattered and divided lives. We have all these different responsibilities, relationships, loyalties and concerns. We go in so many different directions. But the Shema says that God is one, and loving the God who is one, with all that we are, in some way unifies us. If we connect all of the competing parts of our life to God we will be more whole.
However this is interpreted and read, the first thing to hear is who God is: that he is the only God and he is one.
The second thing to hear after understanding who God is is our response to the Lord our God. And that response is love. The proper relationship to God is not merely intellectual belief that God exists. Not respect. Not acknowledgement. But love. Love assumes a personal, intimate and trusting relationship.
We love God because God first loved us. God sought Israel’s love because he brought them out of Egypt to make them his own special people. He saved us by giving his only Son, Jesus Christ, for us.
And we are to love him with all we are; our entire heart, our entire soul, and our entire strength. Nothing halfway. Nothing partial. The Lord wants all of us.
“The Shema was the touchstone for Israel’s faith and life, the plumb line by which their relationship to the Lord of history was constantly being measured.” Which is why the Shema grew into something that was to be recited by every Jew each morning and evening. Those who say these words do it to understand that to live under the rule of the Lord of Israel is to set their lives and shape their daily conduct and their inner lives by these most important words.[6] It is to say, “This is the creed I will live by.” What creed do you live by?
The Shema is for followers of Jesus, too.
In Latin, the word for “hear” is related to the word for “obey.” If Jamie in our office asks me to do something, and I don’t do it, did I really hear her? Did I listen to her? We have truly heard whatever word is spoken if we do it. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
To whom and what are you listening to guide and give coherence to your life? Let’s really try to hear God. And in hearing the Lord, let’s respond in love. What if I really loved God and was intentional about this every day. How might my life change? How might my awareness of the LORD grow? How might our hearts be more open to the Lord if we prayed the Shema at the beginning of our day, and at the end? What would happen if I put loving God before my eyes?
What do you say we try? Working the Shema into our lives might be a life-giving spiritual practice. Find it in your Bible and write it down on a card and place it somewhere you can see it.
Say it each day. Let’s try this at least during the duration of this sermon series. Know that others are doing it with you. As you say these words every morning and every night, see how it affects you.
I would like to end this first sermon by having us stand and say the Shema together.
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
[1][1] Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, To Pray as Jew: A Guide to the Prayer Book and the Synagogue Service, quoted in “The Jesus Creed”, Scott McKnight, p.7
[2] I was told this by Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman
[3] Rabbi Ilana
[4] Wisdom Distilled From The Daily, p.23
[5] John Maxwell, The Communicator’s Commentary, p.125
[6] Patrick Miller, Interpretation Commentary on Deuteronomy, pp.97-98Texts: Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Matthew 22:34-40
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
August 20, 2023