The Siddur Project

Intro to the Shema (Part II)

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (4) | Posted on June 3, 2007

This is the second in a series of posts about the Shema. See this post to read the first part.

This series is actually a part of a larger study of the traditional Jewish prayers. When describing the other main sections in the prayer service, I described how they can be compared to sections of the Temple, as if the person who offers the prayers is making a pilgrimage to that reaches all the way to the inner sanctuary of the Holy Place.

In these terms, the recital of the Shema as part of the entire service represents one who as actually entered into the central building of the Temple and stands in the Sanctuary, in the midst of the Golden Altar of Incense, the table with the Bread of the Presence and the seven-branched Menorah.

In the previous post, I posed some questions about the Shema: why were those particular readings selected, and why were they placed in this particular order?

I began to answer these questions by drawing out a sequence of themes that can be seen in the Shema readings:

• God’s Oneness: “The LORD is our God, the LORD is One…”
• Love of God: “And you shall love the LORD, your God…”
• Knowledge of God: “Teach them repeatedly to your children…”
• Obedience: “If you dutifully hear my commandments…”
• Sanctification: “You will be holy for your God.”

While it may not be immediately apparent, I intend to show how these themes form a seamless and natural progression that is fundamental to biblical faith.

Recognition of God’s Oneness

I have already explained how God’s Oneness is best understood in terms of exclusivity. The LORD is exclusively deserving of worship, He is the sole Creator of all things, and He is independent and all-encompassing in His sovereignty.

Not only this, but God has identified Himself as the God of Israel. He has attached Himself in covenantal terms to a single people group out of all of the nations. Recognition of the fact that God is One (in the sense described above) should lead us to remain faithful and loyal to the covenant relationship. This fervent, active covenant loyalty and exclusive devotion is what is meant by “love.”

Love and Covenant

People often describe love of God in terms of obedience to commandments. While the two are closely interconnected, mechanical observance is not an exact equivalent to love. Instead, love represents fierce and unquenchable devotion to the covenant relationship, which naturally expresses itself in terms of obedience and observance. This underlying motivation for obedience is essential because it is entirely possible to remain within the legal boundaries of the Torah and simultaneously inwardly corrupt. (The commentator Ramban referred to this condition as naval birshut hatorah, “corrupt with the permission of the Torah.”)

Our text describes our expression of love for God in three ways: with all of our heart (levav), with all of our soul (nefesh) and with all of our might (me’od). These terms can be misleading if the English translation is taken at face value, so they merit some explanation.

With All Of Your Heart

In the English speaking world, one’s heart symbolically represents a person’s center of emotion, desire and affection. Biblically, this is not the case. Emotions are found in the kidneys (kelayot) or bowels (me’ah), which are often translated “innermost being” or “inward parts” to avoid sounding distractingly weird to English speakers.

Symbolically speaking, the heart has a more specific function of making decisions. It represents one’s will and thoughts. It is the place where one forms ideas, intentions and plans. Often, it could safely be translated “mind,” since it represents a similar general concept. The heart represents in the Hebrew Scriptures the location of what is spoken of by the Apostles as “flesh” vs. “spirit,” and what later Jewish thought terms the “evil inclination” (yetzer hara) and the “good inclination” (yetzer hatov).

This explains the meaning of idioms such as “written upon one’s heart,” which means that something is an intrinsic part of one’s thought process, decision making and will.

In these terms, to love God with all of one’s heart means to engage the core of one’s will and mind in loyalty to the covenant between God and Israel. One who does so will make decisions based on that covenant and seek to submit his or her will entirely to God. Not only will one be outwardly dedicated to service of God, but this service will be internally motivated. Such a person will not allow his or her flesh (i.e., evil inclination) to dominate, but will walk according to the spirit.

Without doubt, this type of love of God was exhibited without restraint by our Master Yeshua, who submitted His will to the Father’s will in every moment!

With All Of Your Soul

While the concept of “soul” is highly developed in later Judaism, in terms of the Torah it is quite simply one’s self, and specifically the part of a person that animates them or makes them alive. Rather than an otherworldly or abstract love that the English word “soul” might imply, the Hebrew text should be understand as loving God with one’s life; this means an active love that is manifest in the physical world.

A person who loves God with his or her soul will not be satisfied with merely holding good intentions or affectionate thoughts, but his or her covenant devotion will be expressed in every action, every breath and heartbeat. The most mundane acts of life will be considered an act of worship.

Rabbi Akiva (second century) interpreted “love the LORD…with all of your soul” to mean you should love God even if your soul—that is, your life—is taken from you. In his days, the oppressive Roman government outlawed the study and teaching of Torah. Rabbi Akiva did not comply; he brazenly continued to hold public Torah classes. Eventually, he was brutally tortured to death by the Romans and uttered the Shema as his own soul departed.

Becoming a martyr for the sake of Heaven is called in Hebrew Kiddush Hashem, sanctification of God’s name. By giving up one’s life for God’s sake, one brings holiness into the world and sanctifies God’s name.

We love God with our heart because we recognize God as our source of blessing. That type of love is the kind of love that one who receives shows to one who gives. God only gives; He does not receive anything because He does not lack anything. We receive His goodness, and this is a source of our love for Him.

But a greater level of love occurs between one giver and another giver. One who is a giver acts in imitation of God and therefore bears a greater level of closeness to Him. By imitating Him, we express a Father-child relationship with God. For example, Yeshua said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” They are called “sons of God” precisely because they are doing what God does. To imitate God is to participate in Father-child love.

When someone sanctifies God’s name and loves God with their soul by giving it up for His sake, they are no longer receivers but are givers, in that they give holiness to the world through their deed. And in being givers, they are emulating the works of their Father who is in heaven.

No surprise, then, that Yeshua, who is God’s unique Son, would become the giver to all mankind through His death (and in His resurrection). Our Master also “poured out his soul (nefesh) to death” (Isaiah 53:12), exhibiting love for God in ultimate terms.

When we declare that we must love the LORD with our soul, we must resolve that if circumstances arose that standing firm in our faith and devotion to God meant death at the hands of man (Heaven forbid), that we would be willing to offer our lives in that moment. According to Jewish Law, God reckons sincere good intention as an actual deed. And so when we resolve to stand for God to the death, God reckons it as if we had actually done so.

According to Rabbi Shimon Schwab, this is the meaning of the passage in Psalms 44:20-22:

If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or extended our hands to a strange god,
Would not God find this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
But for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Because of our resolve to love God with even our souls, it is as if “for Your sake we are killed all day long.”

This sentiment seems to echo the words of the Master when He said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” It also reflects the sentiments of Paul, “I die daily,” and “I have been crucified with Christ.” Paul even makes direct allusion to this passage when he says:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” (Romans 8:35-36 NASB)

With All Of Your Might

This is perhaps the most difficult phrase of the three to render in proper English. There are numerous Hebrew words that could easily be translated “might,” but me’od would not be on the top of the list! The word me’od is not normally even a noun; it is an adverb that is typically translated, “very, exceedingly, greatly.” For example, the phrase “very good” in Hebrew is literally tov me’od (in reverse order: “good very”).

If we were mechanically to translate me’od this way in the Shema, it would result in “You shall love the LORD…with all of your very.” This, of course, is unacceptable English and does not convey a clear meaning. But one’s me’od could be understood as that which makes a person great. Perhaps one way to think of it is “with all of your greatness.”

One might be tempted by our English translations to understand this in terms of muscles or physical effort. However, this word has been interpreted from ancient times to refer to one’s resources, monetary and otherwise. Targum Onkelos (an ancient translation) renders this word with the Aramaic term nichsach, which can mean “property, goods, flocks or wealth.”

This interpretation is different enough from standard Christian interpretation to raise suspicions, but in light of the teaching of the Gospels it makes perfect sense.

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. (Matthew 19:16-22 NASB)

This passage from Matthew raises an interesting question. Our Master is famous for summarizing the Torah using the combination “love God” and “love your neighbor.” However, in this instance He employs the second passage, but instead of saying “love God,” He lists a number of specific commandments. Why?

Yeshua, aware that the young man was wealthy, might have purposely avoided the commandment to “love God” so that the man could answer affirmatively to His first challenge without any dispute. But when presented with the challenge to devote his wealth to God, it became clear that he failed to “love God with all.”

An opposite situation occurs in the story of the poor widow:

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.” (Luke 21:1-3 NASB)

Clearly, the idea that we must love God by devoting all of our material resources to Him is in direct line with the Messiah’s teachings.

Sages have noted that these dimensions of love for God are in an increasing order of difficulty. The easiest thing is to love God with one’s heart. It is more difficult to love God even to the point of sacrificing one’s life. But what could be more difficult than that?

It is a trustworthy saying, “It is easier to die for God than to live for Him.” Thankfully, most people are never given the opportunity to test their faith at that extreme level. However, we are given a more difficult challenge: to remain alive, and yet submit ourselves on every level to God.

With God’s help, this series will continue by exploring the relationship between love of God and knowledge of Him.

Aaron Eby
Sivan 17, 5767

About the Author: Aaron Eby writes for messiah magazine and other FFOZ publications. He is also the author of the forthcoming siddur project, as well as the forthcoming Hebrew lesson DVD.

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