THE SHEMA AND ITS BLESSINGS The Pesukei DeZimra are a prelude to prayer. We now move to congregational prayer, the heart of which is the Shema and the Amida (the “standing” prayer). Saying the Shema twice daily (morning and evening, “when you lie down and when you rise up”) is a biblical institution, and was part of the order of service in Temple times. The transition to congregational prayer is marked by a call – “Bless the LORD” – to those present to join in prayer as a community.

אֵל בָּרוּךְ The blessed God: An alphabetical acrostic of twenty-two words. Although the first blessing is about creation as a whole, the morning prayer emphasizes the element of which we are most conscious at the start of the day: the creation of light. Of this, there are two forms: the physical light of the sun, moon and stars, made on the fourth day of creation, and the spiritual light created on the first day (“Let there be light”). The prayer modulates from the first to the second: from the universe as we see it, to the mystical vision of God enthroned in glory, surrounded by angels. The three blessings and the three paragraphs of the Shema form six passages, leading up to the seventh, the Amida. In Judaism, seven is the number of the holy. For the main commentary on this section of the prayers, see page 455. The theme of this section of the service is revelation: God as He has disclosed Himself in the words of the Torah. So at its heart are three passages from the Torah, known collectively by their first word, Shema. Around it are three blessings, two before and one after the Shema. Like the morning service as a whole, their themes are creation, revelation and redemption. The first (continuing the theme of the Pesukei DeZimra) is about creation, renewed daily. The second אַהֲבָה רַבָּה (“You have loved us”) is about revelation: the Torah, given in love. The third אֱמֶת וְיַצִּיב (“True and firm”) is about redemption.

THE SHEMA The Shema is the oldest and greatest of our prayers, part of the liturgy since Temple times, recited evening and morning, “when you lie down and when you rise.” Its opening line is among the first words taught to a Jewish child, and among the last words spoken by those who went to their deaths because they were Jews. It is the supreme declaration of faith. The Shema contains no human requests, no praise, no plea. It is a set of biblical readings. It is less a prayer than a prelude to prayer. In prayer, we speak to God. In the Shema, God, through the Torah, speaks to us. The word Shema itself means “listen,” and the recital of the Shema is a supreme act of faith-as-listening: to the voice that brought the universe into being, created us in love and guides us through our lives. The first paragraph representskabbalat ol malkhut shamayim, “acceptance of the yoke of the kingship of heaven.” We pledge allegiance to the One God, Sovereign of the universe, to whose authority all earthly powers are answerable. We do so not in fear but in love and with the totality of our being: all our heart, our soul, our might. That love suffuses all we do, from our relationships with our children to the homes we make. The second paragraph represents kabbalat ol mitzvot, “acceptance of the commandments.” Whereas the first paragraph speaks to us as individuals, the second speaks to us as a people, defined by our covenant with God and its 613 commandments. “Our nation is only a nation in virtue of its Torah,” said Rabbi Sa’adia Gaon, and our collective fate depends on our collective faith. The third paragraph speaks of tzitzit, a perennial reminder of God’s commandments. It then leads into the theme of the exodus from Egypt, which we are commanded to remember “all the days of our lives.”

וְיַצִּיב And firm: This section of prayer, joining the Shema to the Amida, goes back to Temple times. The sages emphasized that there must be no separation between the last words of the Shema, “I am the LORD your God,” and the first word of the prayer, “True and firm,” or between its last words, “who redeemed Israel,” and the beginning of the Amida (Berakhot14b, 9b). The connection between the two is redemption, the theme of this section. The Shema ends by speaking about redemption in the past. In the Amida we pray for redemption in the future. Connecting past and future is “truth” – our faith in God and in His covenant with us.