FFOZ Blogs : Intro to the Shema (Part III)

FFOZ Blogs

Keep in touch with what is happening
behind the scenes at First Fruits of Zion.

The Siddur Project

Intro to the Shema (Part III)

By Aaron Eby | Comments (1) | Posted on June 21, 2007

The Shema begins with an acknowledgment of God's oneness, followed by a commandment to love Him. I have showed how those two concepts are related and that acknowledgment of God's oneness leads us to love Him.

Our text continues by instructing that we must teach God's words repeatedly to our children, and speak of them when we are sitting in our homes, when we are walking on the road, when we are lying down, and when we are getting up. This means that learning and teaching the instructions of God is the next logical step after we have begun to love Him.

How does love lead us to education and knowledge of God?

I personally believe that the connection between love of God and knowledge of His commandments teaches us one of the most important and critical lessons about sharing Torah and Messiah with others. Have you noticed that when you try to tell people about all the new things you are learning, the response ranges from disinterest to outright anger?

When a person is enthralled with another, the object of their affection suddenly becomes fascinating. The infatuated young adult seeks to absorb every detail of information about their significant other, and cannot help sharing even the most mundane details of their research with their friends. The same is true of the proud parents of a toddler, whose colleagues are secretly bored to tears by their incessant delight over the child's latest stage of development or bodily function.

This can also be observed among those who direct their affection towards a hobby or intellectual pursuit. For some, it can become so all-encompassing that they rarely talk about anything else.

Although a person with such a one-track mind can be tedious, at certain times they can be motivating and inspiring. The best teachers in school are always the ones who have a bizarre excitement over their subject. The way they get so enthusiastic about factoring polynomials makes it seem weirdly fun for a brief moment.

This obsession and fanaticism is exactly what God expects from us. We should be so enthralled that we can't think about anything else. It should be our life's mission to find out everything we can about God and His revealed will and to share it with others.

Yet if we desire to be effective in this mission, it will not work to simply pass on the information we learn. Instead, we have to find ways to pass on the passion and love for God.

The most important thing I have learned about teaching Torah is never to answer a question that nobody is asking. The first thing a teacher must do is instill in the students curiosity about the subject so that they ask the question themselves. One great way to do that is by asking honest and provocative questions and then being genuinely interested in the answer—and yet resisting the temptation to chime in with your opinion, as difficult as that is. Perhaps in the course of time your friend will contract your contagious curiosity, and you will be asked, "What do you think?" Then the door is open.

Have you found effective ways to pass on the love of God? If so, I think we'd all be interested to hear them!

Aaron Eby
5 Tammuz 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.

Visitor Comments

The Shema is one of the core subjects in God's Holy Word. The Shema describes action, and teaching Shema is by living the Holy Word of God.

Actions are worth multitudes of words. A person can be "taught" something, but until it becomes a thing of using the five senses, which starts out with hearing, but until experiencing all the senses in something, it is just words. The Book of Ya'akov aptly tells us that we should show are faith by our actions !

Jim Moore

Posted by: James Moore | June 24, 2007 8:54 PM

FFOZ Blogs

The Siddur Project

Intro to the Shema (Part III)

Visitor Comments

Post your comments...

Name

Email Address

Comments

Search in blogs...

Feeds

Browse Entries

Select a Blog

Most Recent Entries

Select a Previous Month