Message From The Rabbi

Rabbi Spike Anderson

This past Shabbat we read the Torah portion of Vaetchanan from the book of Deuteronomy, in which we encounter the famous words of the prayer that we know as the Shema.

“Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad/ Hear, O Israel: Adonai is our God, Adonai is One.”

Of the 4,875 verses of the Torah, this line is the closest thing that we Jews have to a mantra.

It is the first blessing that a Jewish child learns, and the last blessing a Jew traditionally hears before they die.  Many say the Shema twice each day, as they are included in the bedtime prayers we say with our children as they fall asleep at night.   How beautifully comforting!

Some Jews say the Shema to gird themselves before a big moment of performance like a job interview, or swinging the baseball bat in the bottom of the 9^th inning.  Midrash has King David saying it before slinging a stone at Goliath.  Another midrash has Joseph’s sons, Ephraim & Menashah, chanting the Shema to connect to their grandfather, Jacob, on his deathbed. 

The Shema is a known commodity in the spiritual life of Jewish people.

Although it is clear what the words of the Shema say, our sages are divided about what those words mean. 

Rabbi Pinchas ben Hana (3^rd century) understands the Shema as the affirmation of the Jewish people’s partnership with God.

The 10th-century French sage, Rashi, sees the Shema as a prayer that hints at a future vision of the world, where everyone is united in the pursuit of Justice and peace.  

In the 11^th century, the Sephardi sage, Maimonides, understood the Shema to be our collective affirmation that everything in existence is caused by, and held by the Divine One.

Although I like and can relate to, these different understandings of Shema, I most appreciate the rabbinic idea that this prayer means that every Jew is part of the collective.  Our collective extends into many lands, and it spans from the depths of our long history into the future of our shared destiny.

When we say the Shema, we affirm that we are a part of something much bigger than our individual selves.  With our mantra, we remind ourselves, and one another, that we are woven into the tapestry of Jewish time, carried by a movement towards a better world through our intentions, our actions… and our simple prayers.