"A Listening People"
In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims : "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."
This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this week's Parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the "Ten Commandments", albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of
Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.
We as Jews are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing door bells and handing out copies of "The Watchtower." We have a hint to this obligation in verse 6:4 in Deuteronomy. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will note that the letters Ayan in Shema (hear) and the Daled in Yechud (one) are in a larger font. The letters Ayan-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."
If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the "Ten
Commandments" has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all", would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse an employer to his face who provides us our needed pay check to sustain our lives . If we truly believed the words of the Shema , would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we with certainty believed in the Oneness of God, we would be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our
lives ,on at least this day, with spiritual pursuits and forgo the
mundane? We would have the faith that we would not "lose out" if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat.
We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we begin to steal another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings?
If God is truly One,, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be.
Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?
Of course the answer is "no" for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught that God Himself called "stiff necked", is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award.
We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta " (you shall love). Again, I invite you to open the Hebrew text. You will note that the Hebrew word for "heart" (lev), is spelled incorrectly with two beits without internal dots (v's).
The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double beit means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that
the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc.
The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our "base" drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to
fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.
What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that
there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever phase we are in life, whatever is happening to us or in the world,--good, bad or neutral--, we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the grave sites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."
In Talmud Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked, is when does one say the Shema. This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the concentrated intention of prayer).
They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in rushed manner. A Chasidic rebbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam
(Master of the Universe), without already thinking of the word Olam.
In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means that we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin.
In Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend
that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh.
His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers,"all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.
In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily
service with kavenah?
The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him."
If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts
the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the "Great Flood", burning bushes that speak, the ten plagues including the Angel of Death and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.
This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century CE. This question was asked is earnest 900 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text "Duties of the Heart" is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into "duties of the limbs",--such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing--, and "duties of the heart", which belong to "the hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life."
Some of these many duties are to love God, do not take revenge or bear grudges (Lev.18:18), do not hate your neighbor
(Lev 19:17), do not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and not to covet (Deut. 5:18).
He discovers that the duties of the limb, which liberal Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart,which we liberal Judaism still cling to, are many.
Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man."
Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone.
How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues,
and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.
As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal rabbis of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy one's kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as a the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise.
This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Liberal Jews, following rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?
If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows
disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as liberal Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him/her with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the
world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an
accomplishment.
I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differs in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to "safeguard"(shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Many liberal Jews threw off the yoke of "Shomar Shabbos", as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But the liberal movements never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did we
ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah.
As liberal Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach
our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a "listening people" for our religion to survive.
Shabbat Shalom,
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
If visiting SC's Low Country, contact us for a Shabbat meal, in our home by the sea, our beth yam.
Maker of Shalom (Oseh Shalom) help make us deserving of Shalom beyond all human comprehension!
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