The Shema: Instructions for a Romance with YHWH

The threefold demand to love YHWH with all of one’s heart לְבָבְךָ, soul נַפְשְׁךָ, and “very-ness” מְאֹדֶךָ (Deuteronomy 6:5) is spelled out with specific instructions in the verses that follow.

Prof. Rabbi

Reuven Kimelman

Prof. Rabbi

Reuven Kimelman

Categories:

Va’etchanan

The Shema: Instructions for a Romance with YHWH

The Shema^[1] is taken from the book of Deuteronomy, and named after the first word of the passage:

^{דברים ו:ד} שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְ־הוָה אֶחָד.

^{Deut 6:4} Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH alone.

Following this introductory verse, the text continues with a paragraph (Deut 6:5–9), whose unity is clear in grammatical structuring, with all five verses ending with a second person singular suffix:

V. 5: מְאֹדֶךָ (meʾodecha), “your might”

V. 6: לְבָבֶךָ (levavecha), “your heart”

V. 7: וּבְקוּמֶךָ (u-vequmecha), “when you get up”

V. 8: עֵינֶיךָ (ʿenecha), “your eyes”

V. 9: וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ (u-vishʿarecha), “your gates”

In addition, multiple ך endings (16 out of 42 words) and the pervasive sound of the letter ב (twenty-four times),^[2] give the section a rhythmic quality and phonological cohesion. These are all external, formal signs of unity.

The Threefold Demand

The passage also has an internal, conceptual unity. Verse 5 presents a threefold demand to love God:

^{דברים ו:ה} וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל מְאֹדֶךָ.

^{Deut 6:5} You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart (leivav) and with all your soul (nefesh) and with all your might (meʾod).

The opening verb form, ve-ahavta, rather than the imperative ehov, allows the prefixed vav to be taken as purposive. Walter Moberly, Professor of Theology at Durham University, argues that the form may be translated “so you shall love,”^[3] in other words, the love reflects a consequence rather than a commandment. The text is saying that by adhering to the program described in the following verses, you shall come to love God. The striving for love can awaken the capacity to love.

The rest of the verse serves as a topic sentence^[4] for a corresponding threefold explication in the following verses—drawn from the key terms heart (לֵבָב, leivav), soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh), and might (מְאֹד, meʾod)—that spells out the implementation of the command.

Heart (לֵבָב)

The first demand, “love... with all your leivav,” corresponds to the next verse:

^{דברים ו:ו} וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם עַל לְבָבֶךָ.

^{Deut 6:6} And these words that I command you this day shall be on your leivav.^[5]

The phrase, “these words,” could refer to the Decalogue quoted in the previous chapter,^[6] or just to the Shema passage (Deut 6:4–9).^[7] Beyond just the literal meaning of “heart,” leivav (or leiv)^[8] bears a range of meanings. The term can refer to a mental state, such as in the expression (Deut 8:5), וְיָדַעְתָּ עִם לְבָבֶךָ “bear in mind,”^[9] and would thus express being totally mindful (of YHWHʾs teachings). The word can also refer to a feeling, such as in the expression (Deut 28:47), בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְטוּב לֵבָב “in joy and gladness,”^[10] and would then express loving God wholeheartedly or unreservedly.

By using a single term for thought and feeling,^[11] both mind and emotion are enlisted in an all-consuming love.^[12] “With all your leivav” can thus also imply that one is to love God with every meaning of leivav.^[13]

Soul (נֶפֶשׁ)

The biblical nefesh, literally “soul,” also has more than one connotation.^[14] It can refer to a living person, i.e., a body, such as when the king of Sodom asks Abram to return his people (Gen 14:21), תֶּן לִי הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְהָרְכֻשׁ קַח לָךְ “give me the persons and take the possessions for yourself.”^[15] Indeed, in the context of the larger prayer, rather than treating the first two commands in verse 4—to love with your “heart and soul”—as expressing an emotional intensity, they should be understood as referring to “mind and body” to reflect the total person.

The word can also refer to desires, such as in the phrase (Deut 12:15), בְּכָל אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ “whenever you desire.”^[16] Encompassing both connotations, nefesh can be understood as the self or one’s life-force.^[17] “With all your nefesh” thus implies with every meaning of nefesh.^[18]

The Shema passage stretches this meaning further by having “all your nefesh” correspond to the command to pass on the love of God to one’s children (v. 7),^[19] one’s own flesh and blood:

^{דברים ו:ז} וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ.

^{Deut 6:7} Inculcate your children with them by talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.^[20]

Then, the text commands marking this love on one’s own body, which also builds on the concept of nefesh:

^{דברים ו:ח} וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל יָדֶךָ וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ.

^{Deut 6:8} Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as frontlets on your forehead (lit. between your eyes).

Thus, the second demand in verse 4, “Love... with all your nefesh,” corresponds to both verses 7 (progeny) and 8 (body). If it just said “with your nefesh” it would indicate yourself; “all your nefesh” indicates your nefesh and more, namely, your children which are derivative of your body and soul and more.

Very-ness (מְאֹד)

Meʾod, “very,” is almost always used adverbially to denote exceedingly and, since it comes third here, superlatively.^[21] Thus, the threefold commandment to love God climaxes with the demand that the love of God be maximized with “all your very-ness,” namely, to your utmost. Meʾod is usually translated as “might”^[22] or “means,”^[23] i.e., “with your all” or “with all that you have” respectively. Each translation of this word connects with a different verse of the Shema unit.

Meʾod as “might” carries a sense of “with all your physical resources.” It connects to the tefillin of verse 8 (quoted above),^[24] since the hand tefillin epitomizes the harnessing of one’s strength in the love of God, following the model in which the tefillin constitutes a memento of God’s mighty hand at the Exodus:

‏^{שׁמות יג:ט} וְהָיָה לְךָ לְאוֹת עַל יָדְךָ וּלְזִכָּרוֹן בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת יְ־הוָה בְּפִיךָ כִּי בְּיָד חֲזָקָה הוֹצִאֲךָ יְ־הוָֹה מִמִּצְרָיִם.

^{Exod 13:9} And this shall serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead—in order that the Teaching of YHWH may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand YHWH freed you from Egypt.^[25]

Meʾod as “means” reflects the idea of “with all your financial resources,” and thus connects to verse 9, with its demand that the home, one’s quintessential possession and financial investment, be dedicated to the love of God.

^{דברים ו:ט} וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל מְזוּזֹת בֵּיתֶךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ.

^{Deut 6:9} Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Thus, the demand, “Love... with all your meʾod,” corresponds to verses 8–9, and implies with every meaning of meʾod.

Overlapping Meanings to Express Interconnectedness and Totality

The use of polysemic terms—words with multiple, related meanings—for the threefold love of God, ties the verses together by creating overlap. The correlations of Deuteronomy 6:5 with verses 6–9 can be charted as follows:

Verse 6 focuses on thought (“shall be on your leivav”), 7 on speech (“you shall talk about them”), and 8 and 9 on deed (“you shall bind them... and write them”). Taken together, verses 6–9 spell out what is entailed in the total love of God: heart and mind, body and soul, progeny, as well as physical and financial resources are all included. integration.^[26]

The self is totally mobilized for the love of God, a love that is unreserved, all-demanding, at all times, in all places, and in all circumstance or positions. Nothing is excluded; thoughts are to be focused, words are to be spoken, and deeds are to be done.

A Romance with God

Precisely because the love of God demands one’s all, the master image can be a romantic one. Romantic love is exhaustive. It peaks in giving more than it has. Seeking constant engagement, it is marked by incessant and ubiquitous give and take. Its mementos and ornaments literally adorn both body and house.^[27] The love described in the Songs of Songs says it best:

‏^{שיר השירים ח:ו} שִׂימֵנִי כַחוֹתָם עַל לִבֶּךָ כַּחוֹתָם עַל זְרוֹעֶךָ כִּי עַזָּה כַמָּוֶת אַהֲבָה קָשָׁה כִשְׁאוֹל קִנְאָה...

^{Song 8:6} Set me as seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave...^[28]

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Published

August 11, 2022

Last Updated

March 28, 2024

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Footnotes

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Published

August 11, 2022

Last Updated

March 28, 2024

[1] 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).

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

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] “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.

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

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

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

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

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

[11] 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.

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

[13] 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.

[14] 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).

[15] 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).

[16] 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.

[17] 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).

[18] Its semantic field includes personality, life, and soul.

[19] 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.

[20] 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.

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

[22] 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.

[23] This follows the Aramaic versions, the Midrash, and the Peshitta.

[24] 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]).

[25] See also Exodus 13:16.

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

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

[28] 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.