CENTRALITY OF THE SHEMA

Jews say two especially important prayers every day: the Shema and the Amidah. We fulfill the biblical commandment (mitzvah) to say the Shema every morning and evening when we say its first verse, "Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." The rabbis, however, required us to add three additional paragraphs, drawn from the books of Deuteronomy and Numbers. Besides our reciting the Shema daily, we also say it before going to sleep, over a baby boy the night before his ritual circumcision (brit milah), and before we die.

The commandments to which the Shema refers - tefillin (leather boxes containing parchments that are put on a man's head and arm), mezuzah (a parchment with Torah verses that we put on our doorposts), Tzitzit (fringes that are put on a four-cornered garment), and remembering the Exodus from Egypt - are also part of our daily lives.

Thus, the Shema literally accompanies us from cradle to grave. The Minchat Chinuch explains why the Shema and its mitzvot (commandments) "surround" us: People tend to be drawn to materialism and give in to their lusts by following foolish, worldly pleasures. We need constant reminders that we are part of God's Cabinet and have responsibilities to Him. Without these reminders, we can't keep focused on what God put us here to do. His lovingkindness determined that we should say the Shema twice a day to help us stay on track spiritually.

The general purpose of any mitzvah is to preserve and heighten our spiritual wholesomeness and to attach us to God. Saying the Shema reminds us that our thoughts, speech, and actions affect the entire universe. That, in turn, encourages us to live with ongoing devotion and fervor in our service to the Almighty.

The Shema also refocuses us at least twice a day so that we are not derailed by constant exposure to forces that negate our spirituality. The Shema can help us regain our spiritual bearings and infuse us with tremendous spiritual energy only if we appreciate and concentrate on what we are saying.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIES

During World War Two, countless Jewish parents gave their precious children to Christian neighbors and orphanages in the hope that the latter would provide safe havens for them. The parents expected that they, or their relatives, would take these children back if they survived the war. The few parents who did not perish in the Holocaust, and were able to reclaim their children, often faced another horror. While the parents had summoned the strength to survive the slave labor and death camps, or had hidden out for years, those who took their children were busy teaching them the ways of other religions.

[Additionally,] many Jewish children who were taken in by orphanages, convents and the like, had no parents or close relatives left after the Holocaust. When rabbis or distant relatives finally tracked down many of these children, the priests and nuns who had been their caretakers insisted that no children from Jewish homes were in their institutions. Thus, countless Jewish children were not only stripped of their entire families, they were also stripped of their souls.

In May, 1945, Rabbi Eliezer Silver from the United States and Dayan Grunfeld from England were sent as chaplains to liberate some of the death camps. While there, they were told that many Jewish children had been placed in a monastery in Alsace-Lorraine. The rabbis went there to reclaim them.

When they approached the priest in charge, they asked that the Jewish children be released into the rabbis' care. "I'm sorry," the priest responded, "but there is no way of knowing which children here came from Jewish families. You must have documentation if you wish me to do what you ask."

Of course, the kind of documentation that the priest wanted was unobtainable at the end of the war. The rabbis asked to see the list of names of children who were in the monastery. As the rabbis read the list, they pointed to those that belonged to Jewish children. "I'm sorry," the priest insisted, "but the names that you pointed to could be either Jewish or Gentile. Miller is a German name, and Markovich is a Russian name, and Swersky is a Polish name. You can't prove that these are Jewish children. If you can't prove which children are Jewish, and do it very quickly, you will have to leave."

One of the rabbis had a brilliant idea. "We'd like to come back again this evening when you are putting the children to sleep."

The priest reluctantly agreed.

That evening the rabbis came to the dormitory, where row upon row of little beds were arranged. The children, many of whom had been in the monastery since the war started in 1939, were going to sleep. The rabbis walked through the aisles of beds, calling out, "Shema Yisrael - Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!" One by one, children burst into tears and shrieked, "Mommy!" "Maman!" "Momma!" "Mamushka!" in each of their native tongues.

The priest had succeeded in teaching these precious Jewish souls about the Trinity, the New Testament, and the Christian savior. Each child knew how to say Mass. But the priest did not succeed in erasing these children's memories of their Jewish mothers — now murdered - putting them to bed every night with the Shema on their lips. (thanks to Miriam Swerdlov for the story)

STAYING FOCUSED

It is natural to find "too much" religiosity oppressive if we do mitzvot mechanically, or see them merely as "brownie points" to be accumulated. The true purpose of life is to develop our relationship with the Almighty such that we experience the exquisite spiritual pleasure of closeness to Him. That surpasses all other pleasures, and we create receptivity to it every time that we do a mitzvah with the right frame of mind.

By appreciating how everything we do can draw us closer to our Creator, by continually relating to Him in every part of our lives, and by doing His commandments, we can enjoy His love and nearness. Whenever we draw Him out of hiding in our daily lives, we make Him more apparent to ourselves and to others.

We need to say the Shema twice a day because it serves a critical spiritual function. It affirms our belief in one God who cares about, and is always involved in, the details of our personal lives. It also shows that we accept religious responsibilities. Yet there is also more to the Shema than this. We will plumb its depths by first exploring the basic philosophical concepts that underlie it.