Subject: Jewish Prayer: The Shema (Part 6)
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World Zionist Organization
Student and Academics Department
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
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Course: THE PRAYER BOOK: A WINDOW ON JEWISH THEOLOGY
Lecture: 6/12
Lecturer: Barbara Sutnick and Rabbi Reuven Sutnick
SH'MA YISRAEL: PRAYER OR DECLARATION?
It is 1946 or '47 or '48. Youth Aliya(1) workers circulate
among sorrowful refugees in displaced persons camps in
Europe. They come upon young orphaned children who have
no conscious memory of their pre-war lives. "Sh'ma
Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" the workers say to
each of these children in turn. Then a flicker of
recognition appears on a young face! They have found
another Jewish child to bring home to the Land of Israel.
The Sh'ma is the single most well-known, oft-recited phrase of
Jewish liturgy. It appears in many sections of the siddur, and is
recited as part of various of prayer services. It is at the same
time the last words spoken on the death bed; and also the first
prayer that Jewish infants hear whispered into little ears, often
from the first day of their lives.
It will be the aim of this Lecture to discover what these
words are all about and why they have become so central to Jewish
thought and practice. We will then look briefly at the full Sh'ma,
which consists of five parts (the first two lines plus the three
paragraphs). Finally, we will turn to the fact that the Sh'ma
appears in the siddur surrounded by a ring of blessings. Before
doing all this, however, we will take a detour into the question of
how the Sh'ma came to the Jewish people in its present form, and
what we can learn from Jewish traditions about its transmission.
* * * * *
The first line of Sh'ma, the most famous, is spoken out loud:
Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad
(Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.)
(Deuteronomy 6:4)
The second line is whispered under one's breath:
Baruch shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va'ed
(Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for all
eternity.)
The question of why line #1 is declared aloud and why line #2 is
whispered takes us on a mystical journey to the realm of the
angels. (Hold onto your hats!) At journey's end, we will turn to
the task of analyzing at least the first part of the prayer itself.
We begin by considering the following midrash (see bibliography):
When Moses went up on high (to receive the Torah), he
overheard the attending angels saying to God: "Blessed is the
Name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity",and he brought
this prayer down to the Jewish people. Why do we not then say
it publicly? R. Asi said:
"That which was stolen from the palace of the King, we do not
adorn ourselves with it in public; but rather (wear it) in the
house. But on Yom Kippur, when we are as pure as the
attending angels, we say out loud, "Blessed is the Name of His
Glorious Kingdom for all eternity."
(Midrash Devarim Rabba 2:36)
Last time we discussed the midrash which asserted that the
Penitential Service ("Selichot") was revealed to Moses in response
to his request that God show Moses His essence. According to that
midrash, God's gift to the People of Israel was to model to them
the way to access Divine mercy -- which is through prayer. In the
midrash above, Moses acquires for Israel still another remarkable
Hebrew prayer -- but this time, Moses has to steal it!(2) What is
more, this prayer is so precious, that Israel dare not recite it
aloud; it is therefore hidden between the lines of the Sh'ma, where
for 364 days of the year it is whispered.
The entertaining midrash above incorporates a number of
elements which we need to understand in order to discuss our
primary focus in this lecture: Sh'ma and its surrounding Blessings.
Let us begin by delving more deeply into it. The first element of
background is that when Moses received the Torah (the first five
books of the Hebrew Bible), he went up onto Mount Sinai for forty
days and nights. The Bible records that for forty days (a number
of mystical completeness), Moses lived in closer proximity to God
than anyone in recorded religious history. His time on the
mountain was a special time for special things to happen. He saw
things no other person would ever see, and was able to gain special
insight into the Divine intellect.
Among the amazing sights and sounds that Moses witnessed,
according to the midrash, was the six-word chorus of God's
attending angels praising Him ("Blessed is..."). In the brevity
that characterizes ideal prayer, the angels convey their acceptance
of the kingdom of God, and praise God at the same time. By
contrast, THE PRAY-ER'S acceptance of the kingdom of God is
reiterated each day by saying the OTHER set of six words: "Hear,
Israel..." But, the Sh'ma is a direct quote from the Bible (Deut.
6) -- if ever there were a prayer which needs no embellishment, it
is the Sh'ma! Its six words comprise the concise doxology by which
Jews affirm daily their acceptance of Heaven. In other words,
according to this midrash, Moses took something for the children of
Israel which they already had. Isn't this like taking coals to
Newcastle?
On a text level, the midrash addresses something perplexing:
the phrase, "Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom for all
eternity" appears nowhere in the Bible. Yet, it is inserted into
the series of biblical paragraphs quoted directly which constitute
Sh'ma. On the level of ritual practice, the midrash addresses
another matter of interest: the inserted phrase is nearly always
read silently. Its underlying question is if we are going to go
through all the trouble of bringing a non-biblical text to a
uniformly biblical recitation, why say it silently. Sh'ma is a
declaration of principles. It is the Jew's pledge of allegiance.
These are words we proclaim loudly, to such an extent that Jewish
law prescribes the exaggerated pronunciation of E-CH-a-a-a-Ddd --
(the Lord is One) Wu-uh- uh-uh-un!! On the theological level, the
midrash considers the remarkable possibility that humanity's praise
of God, our acceptance of the yoke of Heaven and our witness to
God's Unity and Uniqueness are only part of the story.
So Moses "steals" the prayer for Israel, and in doing so
renders it slightly unsuitable for public use. Text-wise, we
whisper a non-biblical prayer in between Sh'ma and its first
paragraph, which comes to us directly from the Bible (see Deut. 6).
Ritually, the secondary proclamation, even if we see it as the
words of angels, does not belong to man in the same way that Sh'ma
does -- so we whisper. And, as our whispering signifies a lack
of ownership, we tacitly acknowledge that beyond ourselves the
entire "NETWORK" of creation, each with its own measure of
eloquence, accepts the yoke of heaven.
Still and all, this is one strange midrash! I am taken by the
utter incongruity of Moses, the man who asks and God delivers,
being forced to resort to theft. God willingly provided Moses with
the Order of Penitential Prayer; why should He refuse now? One
possible explanation, which I offer unsupported by commentary, is
that we have before us a stylized reference to a legend from
another culture. Remember, the Romans (influenced profoundly by
the Greeks) dominated the region in the Talmudic period. In a
well-known myth, Prometheus "stole" fire from the gods and
gave it to humans. That myth betrays an antagonism between heaven
and earth, in which great benefit to humanity is withheld -- fire
had to be stolen. The midrashim formed an important part of the
way Bible was taught and preached in the ancient synagogue. In
other words, our midrash may be taking a contemporary motif and
rendering it. It is as if to say, Moses was close enough to the
source of all heavenly secrets that he was unlimited in what he
could learn. He could override the limitations of God-defined
revelation; he could "steal" anything he wanted. Prometheus
used such closeness as an opportunity to bring us fire, as the
legend goes.
Moses found the ultimate "steal-able" in the angel's prayer.
Ironically, the content of the prayer, the acceptance of the yoke
of heaven, was already contained in the Sh'ma. The angel's prayer
is actually lesser than the prayer God already gave us. So we
whisper the lesser proclamation; thereby identifying with the
angels in some measure. But we recite Sh'ma out loud.
- Sh'ma: Hear O Israel -
At this point, please find and read the Sh'ma prayer in your
siddur. (If you need a review of our system of locating prayers in
the siddur, the Appendix "Order Your Siddur" appears again at the
end of this Lecture.) *SIDDUR SEARCH* The Sh'ma with and without
its accompanying blessings, appears in several places in the
siddur. The easiest place to find it is in the evening service
(mA'aRiV or ARVit in Hebrew). If you begin at the beginning of the
evening service, you should come upon Sh'ma on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th
page. *EUREKA*
My real intention in bringing such a long introduction is to
describe Sh'ma in terms of what it is and in terms of what it is
not. Sh'ma IS a proclamation which we are commanded to say twice
daily, upon going to sleep and upon awakening. It IS a six-word
doxology (ritualized statement of faith) which manages to capture
the essence of Jewish monotheism, national chosenness and the
relationship between God and Israel. It IS pure biblical prayer
which asks for nothing. It IS a proclamation which addresses
Israel; but does not address God! It IS apparently uttered by
the people for the sake of the people, as opposed to prayer which
praises God and replaces sacrifice. It IS also a very noticeable
part of our daily ritual which is set apart in its presentation in
the Prayer Book and in its performance in the Synagogue service.
So much for what Sh'ma IS.
Now for what it isn't: Sh'ma IS NOT said silently, because it
proclaims something for HUMANS to hear; the angels' prayer praises
God directly. The Sh'ma is not and never was the property of
angels. It is the unique trust of human beings. Thus we have by
negative definition: if "Blessed is the Name ..." belongs to the
angels; then Sh'ma Yisrael belongs to people.
So, what we have here is a profoundly meaningful prayer. Yet
at first glance, it is an unlikely candidate for conveying anything
of real depth! First, Sh'ma consists of six Hebrew words only.
(cf. the blessing formula, in which six words are merely the
OPENING of the statement.) That makes it an extremely concise
mouthful. Indeed in less than the time it takes to pronounce
"Fundamental principle of ethical monotheism combined with
elements of history and nationalism" -- Sh'ma is already over!
Secondly, Sh'ma does not address God. Thirdly, it doesn't ask for
anything. Fourthly, it doesn't really praise God. So what makes it
so profoundly deep? First, it is short. Second, it addresses the
people Israel, which reveals much about the focus of Hebrew prayer.
Third, it doesn't ask -- it teaches. Fourth, it doesn't praise God
-- it praises Israel!
Thus Sh'ma is characteristic of biblical prayer in its
brevity. In spite of the length of our synagogue services, Hebrew
prayer is ideally economical; every word, prefix and suffix counts.
(Of course, the ideal of brevity does not necessarily apply to the
study of prayer!!!) Next, Sh'ma addresses Israel. If we think
back to a point made in the first Lecture, the Hebrew word for
prayer, l'hitpalel, is reflexive, implying some internal process.
Here too, the addressee of the prayer is the same as the pray-er --
in other words, Israel's accomplishment in reciting the Sh'ma is
to heighten its own realization of God's One-ness. The activity is
reflexive. Thirdly, Sh'ma teaches Israel about its special
national character in relating to Heaven. God is identified by
Name and then by a second Name with the plural genitive ending: Our
God. God is One, absolutely transcendent -- but He is also the
national treasure of Israel.
Finally, the special relationship with God serves to praise Israel:
The Rabbis taught: Israel is even more dear to God than the
attending angels, in that Israel (when we pray) mentions the
Name of God after two words: "Hear Israel God is One", whereas
the angels mention the Name of God only after three, "Holy,
Holy, Holy - God, the Lord of Hosts...(quoted from the
"kedusha," which we will come to in Lecture 7)".
(Talmud, Chullin 91b)
The Rabbis understood that our forebears' recognition of God's
One-ness, especially against the backdrop of widespread idolatry,
was very much to their credit. Hence one could suggest that the
Sh'ma reflects a sense of God's "appreciation," as it were. Hence
the intimacy of Sh'ma, its revealed compactness and its theme of
nationalism, praise the people of Israel as much as they do God --
if such a thing were conceivable. Yet, at the same time, the
unquestionable supremacy of God is not overlooked. In fact the
opposite is true: in Talmud Berachot 13b we read that of all the
concepts implied in Sh'ma, the one that requires directed attention
(kavanah) during recitation is the fact of God's sovereignty.
Up to this point, we have discussed in detail Part I of the
Sh'ma ("line #1" or Deut. 6:4) and Part II (the line "stolen" by
Moses from the angels.) We will now turn to Part III of the Sh'ma,
Deut. 6:5-9, often called "v'AHaVta." For the remainder of this
lecture, we will try to understand all of the above by looking at
Sh'ma in three ways:
(a) as a profoundly meaningful prayer (we can
accomplish this by studying it in its context in the Bible);
(b) as the commandment to perform a ritual act; and
(c) as a central feature of the Jewish worship service -- a key part of the
siddur that is framed by blessings.
Let us begin by examining the
relationship between two critical verses:
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One
(Deut. 6:4)
You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them; when
you sit in your house, when you walk along the way, when you
lie down and when you rise up.
(ibid., 6:7)
Verse 6:7 shifts the focus to the commandment to recite Sh'ma
and to teach it to one's children. The Sefer Ha-Hinukh points out
that "them" refers to the words of Sh'ma, "Hear O Israel...".
Hence, when the Bible prescribes the recitation of certain passages
evening and morning, when lying down and when rising up, it is
referring minimally to Deuteronomy 6:4 (Sh'ma). The truth is the
details of reciting Sh'ma are so important that they constitute the
first (very lengthy) discussion in the first chapter of the first
tractate of the Talmud. However, within the constraints of this
lecture, we need only one detail: Deuteronomy 6:7 (the commandment
to recite "these words" twice daily) is an unmistakable, internal
reference to the Sh'ma (vs. 6:4) as a verbal ritual event. Sh'ma,
is to be recited upon lying down and upon rising up, coming and
going. In our prayer ritual, this takes shape as the appearance of
Sh'ma as a fixed part of both the morning and evening services
(N.B. there is NO Sh'ma in the afternoon service). With this
realization in hand, it is possible to see a direct link between
biblical ritual and synagogue ritual today. To seize a contrasting
example from the history of Jewish ritual, Sh'ma in the synagogue
IS NOT like the Additional Service of the Sabbath and holidays.
The Additional Service (MuSaF) was an animal sacrifice in the days
of the Temple. Sh'ma is now and always was a prayer.
Before we leave the first paragraph (Part III) of Sh'ma, some
of its other important elements should be mentioned. The paragraph
opens with the commandment to love God. As you can imagine, much
has been written about what it can possibly mean to be "commanded"
to "love" -- particularly when the love object is so abstract a
Being as the Lord. One notion is that a person should maintain a
Jewish lifestyle out of "love;" and not out of fear. That is to
say, to relate positively to one's Jewish life, rather than to keep
traditions going for fear of the consequences. In the Rambam's
(Maimonides') interpretation, he calls upon people to devote
themselves to the spiritual and philosophical quest of increasing
their knowledge of God and His ways. Indeed, for Rambam, to know
God (deeply) is to love Him! This idea fits in well with the
commandment of "teaching these words to your children." If love of
God comes through knowledge, this must begin with education.
The first paragraph of Sh'ma also contains the commands to
"bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be for frontlets
between your eyes. And write them upon the doorposts of your house
and upon your gates." These charges have been traditionally
interpreted as referring to the tefillin (phylacteries) that are
worn during morning prayers, and the mezuzza that is affixed to
Jewish doorposts. Our paragraph is in fact the source of these
commandments. Both ritual objects contain "these words"
hand-written upon them on parchment, and both serve as constant
reminders of the peoples' connectedness to God and the
commandments. The Sh'ma contains two additional paragraphs, Deut.
11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41, the study of which is beyond the
scope of this course.
It is time to locate Sh'ma in the context of the synagogue
service itself. If you glance at the headings at the tops of the
pages of your Siddur, you can find a number of clues indicating
Sh'ma's centrality. Look through the morning service. This service
actually consists of three large sections: (1) Preliminary verses
(Lecture 5); (2) Sh'ma and its blessings; and (3) the Standing
Prayer (AMiDah - Lectures 7-8).
In the prayer book, each unit of fixed liturgy is set off by
surrounding blessings. Sh'ma is no exception. In the morning
service there are two blessings before Sh'ma and one after. (In
the evening, there are two blessings before Sh'ma and two after.)
Thus, the section is referred to as "The Reading of Sh'ma and its
Blessings". Each of these full paragraph blessings relates to a
different aspect of the relationship between God and the people of
Israel. A study of each is not possible here, but I do recommend
that you read them to yourself in English to discern the differing
themes of each one.
In the synagogue, Sh'ma has its own discernible ritual. In
some synagogues it is sung with a special melody; in others, the
congregation rises. While this a departure from standard Jewish law
(according to the Rambam, we are not supposed to change our posture
when reading Sh'ma -- see Rambam, Laws of Sh'ma 2:2), it does
indicate an attempt to make Sh'ma special. In Orthodox practice,
one covers the eyes and recites slowly.
This is to enable the pray-er to achieve the most possible KaVaNah
(see Lecture 1 for a review of this concept). The prayer leader of
the synagogue is generally the last to finish, timing the
recitation to allow all present to read comfortably. The
congregation therefore waits until all members are ready before
continuing with the service. Why all the effort to make Sh'ma
special to the discernment of all present? Why take an individual
prayer which does not require a minyan (prayer quorum) and
transform it into a formal ritual? This is because Sh'ma is as
close as we come to a biblically prescribed prayer service -- that
is, PRAYER SERVICE as opposed to the sacrificial rites. While
scholars argue about the original format of the biblical Sh'ma
event, they agree fundamentally that such an event was part of
biblical ritual practice. So, the effort to set Sh'ma off
liturgically with its blessings, graphically in the Siddur and
ritually in the Synagogue is a clear reflection of Sh'ma's ancient
biblical origin.
NOTES:
(1) Youth Aliya. A organized Zionist effort which brought many
children and young people -- many of them refugees -- to Israel,
both before and after the foundation of the State.
(2) see Lieberman ed., p.68: "he STOLE it from the angels and
taught it to Israel."
* * * * *
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