פרשת ואתחנן תש"ג - שמע ישראל

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee—a land flowing with milk and honey.

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the hearing of the people; and they said: ‘All that the LORD hath spoken will we do, and obey.’

The Gemara relates that a heretic saw that Rava was immersed in studying halakha, and his fingers were beneath his leg and he was squeezing them, and his fingers were spurting blood. Rava did not notice that he was bleeding because he was engrossed in study. The heretic said to Rava: You impulsive nation, who accorded precedence to your mouths over your ears. You still bear your impulsiveness, as you act without thinking. You should listen first. Then, if you are capable of fulfilling the commands, accept them. And if not, do not accept them. He said to him: About us,

ושמעת ישראל, when you have attained this purpose which G’d had had in mind for you from the beginning in His great kindness. It is important that through performance and awareness you will appreciate the tremendous goodwill G’d has demonstrated by His legislating these commandments.

ושמרת לעשות אשר ייטב לך, and you will endeavour to carry out all these tasks out of a feeling of love for G’d, in order to be worthy of His goodwill, aware that He is interested in creating conditions which will make you merit a continued existence. Seeing that this is His purpose in legislating any and all of these commandments, you will also observe these commandments in order to multiply greatly on earth. This is a goal you will achieve if your performance of these commandments is not for the sake of the material reward but לשמה, for His honour, as acts of righteousness and justice in the pure sense. כאשר דבר ה' אלוקיך לך, ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, as He had said to you concerning this land that it “flows with milk and honey.” This land is inherently capable of providing those of its owners who take the lesson we just spelled out to heart, with an easy livelihood, a livelihood which leaves the person sufficient leisure time to pursue Torah studies and by means of this to penetrate more deeply into its meaning and also to be fruitful and to multiply.

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her: ‘What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for the interpreter was between them.

and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying: ‘I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart—that the watered be swept away with the dry’;

And this for Judah, and he said: Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, And bring him in unto his people; His hands shall contend for him, And Thou shalt be a help against his adversaries.

And Shemu᾽el said, How can I go? if Sha᾽ul hears it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.

that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

ה׳ אלהינו ה' אחד means, The Lord who is now our God and not the God of the other peoples of the world, He will at some future time be the One (sole) ה׳, as it is said, (Zephaniah 3:9) “For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord", and it is further said, (Zechariah 14:9) “In that day shall the Lord be One (אחד) and His name One" (cf. Sifrei Devarim 31:10).

ה' אלוקימו, Hashem alone is elokeynu, there is no other kind of divinity which is a partner to Him. We find a similar formulation in Chronicles II 3,10 ואנחנו ה' אלוקינו ולא עזבנוהו, meaning: “although you have golden calves, as far as we are concerned we believe only in Hashem who is our only G’d, and we have not abandoned Him as did Jerobam.” ה' אחד. He alone, and Him we will serve without resorting to any man-made intermediary such as charms, etc.” (see our commentary on 5,6)

Everything that our ancestors, of blessed memory, have transmitted concerning the reading of the Shma‘ is true and needs no justification. Know that the glorious Name is God’s proper name [comment on Exodus 3: 15]. If so, why is it immediately followed by another name of God? The answer is that the Name can serve both as a proper name, and elsewhere as a descriptive, but not a proper name (just as “man” [Hebrew: adam] is both a proper name [Genesis 3: 17], and a descriptive name derived from “Earth” [Hebrew: adama]). The evidence for this is that there are places where the Name appears in the construct case (as in “the Lord of Hosts” [I Samuel 1: 11]) and other places where it stands alone. The Name is then further repeated, to say: God, who is our Lord, is one God — in other words, He is absolutely unique. An uncountable number of things demonstrate God ’s uniqueness.

אלוקינו, He is the choicest of all the abstract forces assigned to supervise the conduct of human beings, and even inert creatures. From Him we yearn for assistance in helping us to achieve our purpose on earth. We do not turn to any intermediary. He alone is fit to have prayers addressed to.

ה' אחד; seeing that He created all phenomena in this universe, celestial or terrestrial out of a total void, it is logically impossible for there to be another phenomenon representing an existence independent of Him. It also makes him basically different, unique, for all things created by Him are by definition potentially terminal, transient existences. He is absolutely unique in the world based on four basic raw materials, water, fire, earth, air. This idea appears to be hinted at in the letter ד=4 in the word אחד which is written larger than usual and the letter ע in the word שמע which is also written in larger than normal script, suggesting that we should use our eyes to take note of these concepts, the “testimony, עד” that this is so. This is why our sages said that we must draw out the word אחד when reciting it so as to give us time to reflect on the full meaning of the verse.

ולעבדו בכל לבבכם AND TO SERVE HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART — i.e. to serve Him with a service that is in the heart: that is prayer, for prayer is termed service (עבודה), as it is said, (Daniel 6:17) “Thy God whom thou servest continually”. But was there service (i.e. sacrificial service, the technical term for which is עבודה) in Babylon? But the term is used because he offered prayer there, as it is said, (Daniel 6:11) “Now his windows were open [in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed]”. And so, too, it states in the case of David (Psalms 141:2): “Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee” (incense being part of the sacrificial service) (Sifrei Devarim 41:25-27).

these words The Dissenters [this term, which appears fifteen times in ibn Ezra’s commentary on Deuteronomy, is used by ibn Ezra to denote anyone who does not accept the Rabbinic tradition, in full or in part; in ibn Ezra’s time the dominant non-Rabbinic movement was the Karaites, but a “Dissenter” is anyone who questions the Rabbinic tradition: frequently, but not necessarily, a Karaite — Translator] have applied this phrase to the Ten Commandments (they also believe the Ten Commandments are meant below in “you shall write them on the doorposts of your houses” [: 9]); but the truth is that these words denotes all the commandments.

repeat them over from “a sharp arrow” [Proverbs 25: 18] — and it is well known that an arrow becomes sharp only after continuous, repeated sharpening. From this we see that the essence of Man is the service of God ; and that one serves God by recognizing His works. The Exegetes, upon whom we all rely, have transmitted to us the prescribed times for the reading of the Shma ‘:

frontlets [Hebrew: ṭoṭafot] Scripture contains no related words. Although the Dissenters have said the word comes from “preach” [Ezekiel 21: 2], this is unlikely, since the triliteral root of “preach” is n-ṭ-f, while this word is missing the nun and has two ṭet ’s.