Parshat Vaetchanan

1998

Shema Yisrael...Say What?

The "Shema" as we call it, has become the cornerstorne of Jewish literacy. Sometimes it is the only stone that some of us have. We are given these words at a young age. Many of us commit these six words to memory and they become, at the very least, a basis for Jewish identification, if not faith. So, what do these six Hebrew words mean? In English, we translate "Hear Israel, YHWH, our God, YHWH is One."

Your Shema Navigator

1. Why "Hear" and not "See"? What's the difference?
2. Why is Israel alone addressed here?
3. Why is it our God, and not the God of the universe?
4. What does "YHWH is One" mean in this context?

Rashi Comments on the Words "...Yhwh Is One."

YHWH who is our God now, but not the God of the pagan nations, He will be one God in the future, as it is written "For then I will turn the peoples around to a clear language, that they may all call upon the name of YHWH..." Tzephaniah 3:9) and it is written, "On that designated day YHWH will be one and His Name one." (Zechariah 14:3)

Your Rashi Navigator

1. How does Rashi understand One God in this context?
2. How are the verses he quotes being used as prooftexts for his reading?
3. According to the verse in Zechariah, what makes God's Name one?
4. How does all the people calling on the same God, make God one?
5. According to Rashi, what is oneness?
6. Did you understand oneness the same way?

A Word

During World War II some Jewish parents were forced to hide their small children in Catholic orphanages in order to save them. Often, the parents were killed during the war and there would be no one to claim them after the war was over.

Rabbi Eliezer Silver took it upon himself to travel throughout Europe where he heard Jewish children had been hidden. In one of these places he was told by the people in charge that they had no record of the children's background, so that they had no way of telling which children came from Jewish families. Since the children were given over anonymously and had all been baptized, there was no reasonable way that Rabbi Silver could claim which of the children had come from Jewish homes.

Rabbi Silver made one request. Could he possibly come to see the children while they were being put to bed? The priest in charge said he could, but this would be as far as he was prepared to go.

As the children were being put to bed, Rabbi Silver said in a firm, but gentle voice, "Shema Yisrael, YHWH Elokeinu, YHWH Echad." Suddenly, the dormitory was filled with children's cries for their mother. Rabbi Silver looked at the Priest, and said, "These children are mine."

This first Jewish memory bestowed by loving mothers as they kissed their girls and boys good night gave these children a place among their people that they could claim. The power of rote declaration without comprehension has never been more clear.

The Oneness of God by definition is a mystical concept which no human can truly fathom. We do know, however, the unifying power this one sentence has had throughout the millenia. In the present, it brings many of us from different backgrounds together and the Prophets anticipate a time when the gift of Shema will be shared with all of humanity.