Judaism (340-20300 & 344-20300) Spring 2006

Know that the Exalted Name (the Lord) is the subject (of this sentence): why then say it a second time (after "the Lord is our God")? The answer is that . . . he alone is the Lord (and none other — so that the translation should be: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone).

Hear O Israel: Consider and understand this. The Lord: he who makes existent and creates. Our God, he is the chosen one for us among the separated things, and from him we hope to obtain our desires without an intermediary. Because he is highest in his creative power, he is the only one deserving of worship, and because upon him is our hope (to gain our desires) without an intermediary, he alone is deserving of our prayer and worship. The Lord is One: because (it is his nature) to make existence from complete nothingness, it is clear that there is nothing else that exists in the same way that he exists, and that he is different in kind from the existence of the world of separated things, and from the existence of the world of angels, in such a way that he is unique in his fourth world. This is hinted at in the fact that the dalet of the word echad (one) is large. The fact that the letter ayin of the word shema is large hints that one should "open the eyes" and increase one’s meditation (iyun) upon this. About this the rabbis said: "One should extend (the pronunciation) of the dalet of echad," so that one intends this (that God is unique in all the four worlds).

Talmud, Berakhot 13b

Our rabbis taught: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone: (when reciting the statement), to this point requires the concentration of the heart (i.e., concentration upon the words while saying them); this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. . . .

Symmachos says, "Everyone who extends (the pronunciation) of echad, his days and his years are extended." Rav Aha the son of Jacob said: "the dalet." Rav Ashi said "only that he should not shorten the het". Rabbi Jeremiah would sit before Rabbi Hiyya the son of Aba; he saw that he extended (the pronunication of echad) for a long time. He said to him: "Because I acknowledged his sovereignty above and below and to the four directions of heaven."

Hear O Israel. Hear and understand this matter: The Lord who was without beginning is the Lord today, and he is the Lord who will live and exist forever without end. In this way he is one: he has such a unity that no other thing in the world has.

Another interpretation: If the text said the Lord our God is one, the nations of the world could say that the God of Israel is one among the gods (and thus not alone and unique).

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

With all your heart: with both of your inclinations, with the good inclination and the bad inclination. Another explanation: with all the heart that is in you, that your heart should not be divided about God. With all your soul: even if he takes your soul. . . . Shimon ben Azzai says: with all your soul: love him until the squeezing out of the soul.

Rabbi Eliezer says if it says with all your soul, then why does it say with all your might, and if it says with all your might, why does it say with all your soul? (I.e., these two things might be thought of as synonymous). Because there are people who love their bodies more than their money, and for them it says with all your soul, and there are people who love their money more than their bodies, and for them it says, with all your might (thus interpreting "might" to mean "money" or "riches").

Rabbi Akiva says: if it says with all your soul, so much the more so it should say with all your might. Why does the text say with all your might (me’odecha)? With every measure (midah) that he gives to you, whether a good measure or a measure of punishment. . . . As Job says: "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, may the Name of the Lord be blessed" (Job 1:21): for the good measure, and so much the more so for the measure of punishment. What did his wife say to him? "Why do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). What did he say to her? "You speak like one of the foolish — should we accept good from God and not accept the evil?" (Job 2:10). . . . A person should rejoice in sufferings more than from good things, for if a person has good fortune all his life, he is not forgiven for his sin, and he is forgiven through suffering. . . .

Rabbi Meir says, it says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, love him with all your heart as did Abraham your father, as it says, "And you Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I chose, the seed of Abraham who loved me" (Isaiah 41:8). And with all your soul, like Isaac who bound himself on the altar, as it says, "(Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood) And Abraham sent out his hand and he took the knife (to slay his son)" (Gen. 22:9-10). And with all your might (me’odecha): thank (modeh) him like Jacob your father, who said, "I am unworthy of all the kindness that you have so steadfastly shown your servant: with my staff alone I crossed the Jordan, and now I have become two camps."

And you shall love, because we have no other god, only the Lord alone, you are required to love him, because we have no other god. With all your heart and with all your soul. The heart is knowledge, and it is a name for the intelligent soul, for it is the first constituent. Your soul, this is the spirit that is in the body, which desires, and its power is shown in the liver. Your might: very much. When you love him as much as you can, there will be complete love in the heart.

Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides)

With all your heart. According to the midrash, the heart that is mentioned here is the power of desire. If so, then with all your soul means the knowing soul.

Last revised January 12, 2006