Shema Yisrael

It started as a quotation

The prayer before this one stops in the middle of a sentence: we "say twice, with love." Say what? This verse. In the Rambam's text of the prayer (the Rambam is Maimonides, who died in 1204), the sentence ends "and say: Shema Yisrael," and the prayer moves on. There is no Baruch Shem. So the verse began as a report of what Jews say. Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) explains what Baruch Shem adds. With it you are no longer quoting. You are declaring it yourself, now.

Insurance against a long service

The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) reports that Rabbi Yehudah HeChasid, a teacher in Germany who died in 1217, used to add Baruch Shem here and mean this as his Shema for the day. His reason: on days when long poems were added to the service, the congregation got to Shema after its time had passed. About 350 years later the Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow) made it advice for everyone: "It is good to say" it every morning. Why it is whispered is a story told at the Reishit Chochmah prayer.

A deadline set by princes

Look at the paragraph on this page: speak these words "when you lie down and when you get up." So the morning Shema belongs to the hours when people get up. How late is that? In the Mishnah (the core text of the Oral Torah, edited about 1,800 years ago) Rabbi Yehoshua answers: until three hours into the day, "because princes get up at three hours." The latest sleepers set the limit. The Shulchan Aruch rules this way and counts it as a quarter of the day.

One verse was a whole Shema

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, who put the Mishnah together, started teaching his students before the time for Shema. A younger sage, Rav, said he never saw him stop to accept God's kingship. Rabbi Chiya answered: when he passes his hands over his face, that is when he does it. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) calls that single verse "the Shema of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi." The Tur gives it as Rabbi Yehudah HeChasid's proof that one verse can count.

The rabbi who wanted this line left out

Rabbi Yoel Sirkis (called the Bach, Poland, died 1640) reports that once the Rema's advice was in print, siddurim added Baruch Shem here and everyone said it daily. He objected. He wrote that this was "not right." The practice, he said, was never meant to be written in a book for all. It was for leading scholars who could judge that today the congregation would be late. On an ordinary day, he ruled, say the verse without Baruch Shem and do not mean it as your Shema. The line stayed in the siddur anyway.

For the Arizal, the morning needs both

The Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the teacher of Kabbalah in Tzfat who died in 1572) did not treat this Shema as a spare. His student Rabbi Chaim Vital writes that the morning's work cannot be done all at once: this Shema does a first part, and the later one, which he calls the main one, does the rest. Then he reports what he saw. Even when his teacher said Shema before sunrise, far ahead of any deadline, he still said it twice. Kaf HaChaim (a law commentary from Jerusalem, early 1900s) sets this against the Bach.

Two Shemas in one morning, long ago

The Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel, more than 1,600 years old) tells of a public fast day. The crowd came and said Shema after three hours, past its time. Rabbi Acha wanted to object. Rabbi Yose said: they already read it on time. They are reading it now only to go into the Amidah from words of Torah. Rabbi Acha answered: simple people will think this is its time. As Rabbi Yosef Karo reads the story, a whole community said Shema on time and again later with its blessings.

Two ways of knowing

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) comments on these two lines right here, at the early Shema. He hears two ways of knowing God. Shema is the inner one: what the Jewish people know from God showing Himself to our souls, and from the Torah. No logic reaches that kind of oneness, he writes. Baruch Shem is the second: what creation shows, everything the senses take in and a clear mind works out. The inner light lifts the second kind up with it, he says. So we say both.

אנו מעלים ג"כ את כל התכן המדעי, את כל היסוד של ההכרה האלהית הבאה מצד כל מעשי בראשית, המוכרים בחושים ומתודעים בבינת הלב ושכלו הבהיר של האדם

Why say it every single day?

The Tanya (the main book of Chabad Chassidut, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who died in 1812) asks: Moshe told the generation entering the Land to say Shema twice a day, accepting God as king even at the cost of their lives. But he also promised them that everyone would fear them. So why did they need it? The Tanya answers that keeping the Torah depends on always remembering that readiness. Someone who would die rather than be cut off from God can win the smaller fights of every hour. Now read the first line again with the Akedah in mind.

שֶׁקִּיּוּם הַתּוֹרָה וּמִצְוֹתֶיהָ, תָּלוּי בָּזֶה שֶׁיִּזְכּוֹר תָּמִיד עִנְיַן מְסִירַת נַפְשׁוֹ לַה׳ עַל יִחוּדוֹ... כִּי, בָּזֶה יוּכַל לַעֲמוֹד נֶגֶד יִצְרוֹ לְנַצְּחוֹ תָּמִיד בְּכָל עֵת וּבְכָל שָׁעָה

A foundation nobody can wreck

Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the main student of the Chassidic master Rebbe Nachman) writes that what holds most people back is sadness, even over their own wrongs, because it turns into giving up. He quotes the Sages: every day the urge to do wrong comes back to finish a person off. His answer is the line just before this Shema: we are proud to say how fortunate we are, who come morning and evening and declare God one twice a day. That faith is the foundation. The Temple was destroyed twice, he adds, but only the building, never the foundation.

וְאָנוּ חֲזָקִים בֶּאֱמוּנָתֵנוּ הַקְּדוֹשָׁה וּמִתְפָּאֲרִים בָּזֶה וְאוֹמְרִים אַשְׁרֵינוּ מַה טּוֹב חֶלְקֵנוּ וְכוּ' שֶׁאָנוּ מַשְׁכִּימִים וּמַעֲרִיבִים וּמְיַחֲדִים שְׁמוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ פַּעֲמַיִם בְּכָל יוֹם

Why love comes right after "one"

The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) asks how loving God is even possible. Love, he says, is between those who are alike. The Torah, he notes, commands awe for a parent and a teacher but never love, because they are not your equals. And God is nothing like us. His first answer: a thing loves what completes it, and God is what completes a person. His second comes from the Torah's order. God is one, so nothing in the world is separate from Him. That is why "you shall love" is the verse right after "Hashem is one."

כי מצד שהוא ית' אחד אין לשום נמצא בעולם הנפרד מאתו, כי הכל תלוים ודבקים בו יתברך כי הוא ית' עיקר הכל, ומפני כך שייך אהבה אל השם ית'

A love with a root

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) describes a person who loves God because life is going well. He has money, long life, children around him, and things work out for him. If the wheel turns and life gets harsh, he will hate God and not love Him at all. The Zohar says a love like that has no root. The love it calls complete holds on both sides, in harsh times and in good ones. It ties this to what the Sages taught on "with all your soul": even if He takes your soul.

וּבְגִין כָּךְ רְחִימוּ דָא לָאו אִיהוּ אַהֲבָה דְּאִית לֵיהּ עִקָּרָא. רְחִימוּ דְּאִקְרֵי שְׁלִים הַהוּא דְּהֲוֵי בִּתְרֵין סִטְרִין בֵּין בְּדִינָא בֵּין בְּטִיבוּ.

I say Shema again in a few minutes. Does this one count?

Only if it has to. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) says why Baruch Shem is added here: a congregation sometimes reaches the main Shema after its deadline, and then this one counts. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on Jewish law, around 1900) rules: have in mind that it should not count, unless you fear they will be late. If they are on time, better to fulfill the mitzvah with them, with all three paragraphs and the blessings.

When is the deadline?

The end of the third hour, a quarter of the day, says the Shulchan Aruch. Not clock hours: the Mishnah Berurah splits every day into twelve. The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) counts from dawn. The Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, 1700s) counts from sunrise, so his deadline is over half an hour later. Peninei Halakhah (a modern law guide by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed): most authorities lean to the later count, but Shema is a Torah obligation, so it is right to keep the earlier one.

I can't tell if we will make it. What do I have in mind?

Make it a condition. Rabbi Akiva Eiger (a leading rabbi in Posen, died 1837) writes: have in mind that if the congregation misses the deadline, this Shema counts, and if not, it does not. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, around 1900) says the same. If they will make the later deadline but may miss the earlier one, the Biur Halacha (the Mishnah Berurah's longer notes) says to mean this Shema to count. Peninei Halakhah notes that some doubt a condition works for a Torah mitzvah, but most advise it in practice.

Do I need the whole paragraph, or just the first line?

It depends on whether this Shema has to count. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe) explains: some hold that only the first verse is a Torah obligation, others that the whole first paragraph is. So if you fear the congregation will be late, read it all. The Mishnah Berurah: better still, all three paragraphs. Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s): when they are not late, only the verse and Baruch Shem are said. This siddur prints the full paragraph.

My tefillin are not on yet. Can this Shema count?

The Mishnah Berurah quotes the Dagul Mervavah (notes by Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of Prague, 1700s) and Rabbi Akiva Eiger: on a weekday, do not mean this Shema to count unless your tefillin are already on. The Gemara says reading Shema without tefillin is like false testimony about yourself. The Mishnah Berurah adds: if you cannot put tefillin on right now, do not give up the mitzvah of Shema over it. They are two mitzvot and neither holds up the other. That line was said only of leaving them off on purpose.

Our minyan always starts late. Is this Shema the fix?

For a late day, yes. As a routine, no. The Mishnah Berurah writes that on Shabbat and holidays it is common to miss the deadline, so a wise person gathers a minyan to pray earlier, or at least reads Shema on time before joining the congregation. The Aruch HaShulchan describes people who do that every day: tefillin on, all three paragraphs on time, the prayers after the deadline. He calls it wrong. The Sages set an order of blessings, Shema and Amidah, and this was allowed for when it happens, not as a habit.

Do girls have the same deadline?

Not as an obligation. The Shulchan Aruch rules that women are exempt from Shema, a mitzvah tied to a time of day, and adds that it is right to teach them to accept God's kingship. The Rema: at least the first verse. The Mishnah Berurah notes that the Bach (Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, 1600s) held that verse is a real obligation for women, and that many disagree. Peninei Halakhah: in the mitzvah of faith women are obligated like men, so it is fitting to say Shema Yisrael and Baruch Shem daily. Both lines are right here.