Shema Israel

Shema Israel

Adonai Eloheinu

Adonai Echad

V’ahhav’ Ta Eit Adonai Elohekha

I wonder what age I was when I began to talk. I ask this because I find learning languages fairly impossible. I am not gifted in this, at all! Yet, here I am trying to teach myself the Shema Prayer in Hebrew. And this is as far as I have gotten in 5 days. Am I embarrassed to admit this? Absolutely. But I’m not giving up. 

The Shema Prayer is found in Deuteronomy 6.

Hear O Israel! 

The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, 

with all your soul and with all your strength. 

Following these verses, Moses instructs the Israelites to repeat these words again and again. To your children, when you are home and when you are on the road, when going to bed and when getting up.

As a Christian I grew up saying the Lord’s Prayer in church. And as I look back, I love that we did it together. It unified us, brought our distracted minds together for this one moment. But I don’t say it anymore. And even though I’ve heard stories of people reciting this prayer when in dire need, the Lord’s Prayer, for me, has always just been associated with a church service. Not something that I focused on in my personal life. And certainly not a prayer that I said or say in my everyday life.

Whereas the Shema Prayer has been prayed by practicing Jews since ancient times. It’s said every morning and every evening. And I find that I’m drawn to that. And, as I have thought about it this week, I think it’s because I have this overwhelming need to have hope, to find connection. Because my world feels fragile and broken and lost. I feel pressure coming from all sides. Pressure to believe and speak and think and act according to each person’s opinion. I feel fractured in trying to maintain myself while connecting with others. 

The 10 Commandments, found in the Torah, is my moral compass. The Shema teaches me how to live out the 10 commandments through my love for God. With the added commandment from Jesus - which currently is needed exponentially. To love my neighbor as myself. 

So the Shema is the prayer that I’m praying. To keep me grounded, centered, and focused. And not just in the privacy of my home but joining with voices throughout the world as we recite and cling to these words. Words of truth that acknowledge the one true God and committing, each day and each night, to love Him and our neighbors with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength.

Shema Israel

Adonai Eloheinu

Adonai Echad

V’ahhav’ Ta Eit Adonai Elohekha

Uk’khol L’vav’kha

Un’khol Naf’sh’kha

Uh’khol M’odekha

V’ahav’ta Re Acha Comocha