The Shema: Instructions for a Romance with YHWH

In Jewish liturgy, this term is used to describe all three paragraphs of the prayer, Deut 6:4–9, 11:13–21, and Num 15:37–41. Here I am discussing only the first paragraph. For a discussion of the second paragraph, see Reuven Kimelman, “The Shema’s Second Paragraph: Concern Over Israel’s Affluence,” TheTorah (2018).

This is concentrated in verse 5 (six times) and 7 (eleven times).

Moberly writes:

[The] waw consecutive with the second person perfect expresses a linkage of thought that draws out an implication for what Israel must understand and do from what has just been said.

See R. W. L. Moberly, “Toward an Interpretation of the Shema,” in Theological Exegesis: Essays in Honor of Brevard S. Childs, ed. Christopher R. Seitz and Kathryn Greene-McCreight (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 1999), 124–144, esp. 126, n. 4, with Deuteronomy 7:9, 11; 8:5, 6; 10:19.

This role fits their appearance in Deuteronomy. The first two terms alone appear five other times, in Deuteronomy 4:29; 11:13; 30:2, 6, 10. The only other biblical use of all three is 2 Kings 23:25. The key is to understand them as a three-pronged cumulative, exhaustive program, not just as three terms that occur together.

“These words,” maximally, could revert to the previous Decalogue, as they are referred to in Deuteronomy 5:19 and Exodus 34:27, or, minimally, just the last four words of the Shema verse along with possibly the next verse (Deut 6:5). They likely refer to the whole section of Deuteronomy 6:4–9 lest confusion erupt.

The phrase is used this way in Deuteronomy 5:19 and Exodus 34:27.

See basic discussion in Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11, Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 340.

לב and לבב are probably interchangeable though Deuteronomy prefers the latter to the former forty-five to four.

See also Numbers 15:39; Deuteronomy 8:2; 15:9f.; 29:3; 2 Kings 5:26; Jeremiah 3:15, 12:11.

See also, Genesis 6:6; Exodus 4:14; Deuteronomy 28:65; 1 Samuel 4:13; Isaiah 61:1, 65:14; Psalm 147:3.

For a parallel linguistic phenomenon of the dual use of a term, compare the use of תמים in Deuteronomy 18:13 with Joshua 24:14.

For the choice of a term because of its double nuance, see William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity (New York: New Directions, 1966), 102.

Its semantic field includes one’s inner self, inclination, intention, attention, and mind. The Rabbinic identification of לב with יצר is already found in Ben Sira 23:2.

For some basic discussion of nefesh, see Richard Steiner, Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East, with an Appendix on the Katemuwa Inscription (Ancient Near East Monographs 11; Atlanta: SBL, 2015); Joel Yehudah Rutman, “In Search of the Soul: Between Torah and Science,” TheTorah (2016).

Other examples are Genesis 12:5; Numbers 5:2; 6:11; 9:6, 7, 10; Deuteronomy 19:6, 11, 21; Ezekiel 17:17; Sifrei Deut. 32, p. 55, l. 9, with parallels in n. 6; and T. Ber. 6:7, p. 35, l. 38f., with its citation of Psalm 35:10, which indicates “all parts of the body” (Midrash Psalms 18, 2, ed. Buber, p. 136).

See also Genesis 23:8; Deuteronomy 14:26, 23:25; Psalms 27:12, 107:9; Proverbs 27:7; Job 23:13; Song of Songs 1:7, 3:1–4 with Ibn Ezra. For this use of nefesh, see Numbers 21:4; 1 Samuel 22:2, 30:6.

See Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, Anchor Bible 3 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 1054; and Baruch Levine: “The mere fact that the Hebrew language uses the same word to connote both physical and nonphysical entities is significant. It suggests the unity of body and soul, of the physical and spiritual” (Numbers 1–20, Anchor Bible 4 [New York: Doubleday, 1993], 322).

Its semantic field includes personality, life, and soul.

For the near-identification of Isaac as Abraham’s nefesh, see Sifrei Deut. 313, p. 354, ll. 3–5, with Shalom Spiegel, “Me-Agadot Ha-Aqeidah,” in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, Hebrew Volume, ed. S. Lieberman (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1950), 452, last line. For the identification of נפשי with זרעי, see Tosafot, Berakhot. 17a, s. v., ונפשי. Greek and Jewish authors both deemed children as the closest extension of who we are; see the Stoic philosopher, Hierocles (Stobaeus, Anthology 4.503.18–24) with Max Lee, Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2020), 397–398; and Jacob Anatoli, Malmad Ha-Talmidim (Lyck: Im Selbstverlage des Vereins Mʾkize Nirdamim, 1866), 163.

Translations of Deuteronomy 6:7 tend to follow Abraham Ibn Ezra in limiting “when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up” to the immediately preceding verb, “talk about them,” but it could apply also to וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם (“inculcate”). Following ibn Ezra, the pausal disjunctive accent (etnaḥtah) applies to .לבניך וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם draws our attention because it is a rare word in section I of the liturgical Shema. It stands in sharp contrast to the straightforward alternative term of section II of the liturgical Shema, וְלִמַּדְתֶּם אתָם (Deut 11:19). The verb שִׁנַּנְתָּם denotes inculcation and repetition. It is applied to the teaching of the laws lest they be forgotten. The need for a didactic verb that connotes repetition is due to the need for mentioning it at least in four situations, when at home and away while lying and rising. The verse should thus be understood as: “You shall inculcate/repeat them for your children by speaking about them when you are at home, when you are away, when you are lying down, and when you are getting up.” According to Sifrei Deut. 34, ed. Finkelstein, p. 60, l. 8f, the subject of the verb is the teacher, not the student, namely before “you teach” make sure that you are well-versed in the material, ready to answer any question on the spot.

As M. Berakhot 9:5 explains הוי מודה לו בכל מאד במאד, according to MS Kaufman and Parma.

The Septuagint: δυναμεως (“strength”). חיל can also refer to both means (e. g., Ps 49:7) and strength (e. g., 1 Sam 2:4). The use of בכל מאד in 2 Kings 23:25, Ben Sira 6:26, 7:30; and Tob. 14:9 (see 13:6) cannot determine its meaning here as they stem from our verse.

This follows the Aramaic versions, the Midrash, and the Peshitta.

Scholars debate whether this referred to tefillin in its original context or was only later understood that way. For one reconstruction, see Yehudah Cohn, “The Origins of Tefillin,” TheTorah (2016). The medieval sages Rashbam and ibn Ezra also debated the peshat meaning of the verse. See discussion in Zev Farber, “Can the Torah Contradict Halacha,” TheTorah (2021 [orig. 2013]).

See also Exodus 13:16.

For full documentation, see my, The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy: A Historical and Literary Commentary to the Daily Prayerbook, Littman Press (forthcoming).

The romantic reading of the Shema dominates the interpretation of Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Book of Knowledge, “Laws of Repentance,” 10:3.

The romantic image for the human-Divine relationship conforms to Deuteronomy’s usage of דבק (“cleave”) for the human-Divine bond (Deut 4:4, 10:20, 11:22, 13:5, 30:20), based on its usage for the male-female bond; see Genesis 2:24, 34:3; 1 Kings 11:2b.