Rabbi’s Shabbat Message

Tomorrow we read the second Parasha in the last book of the Torah.
Within Parashat Ekev, we find the repetition of the 10 commandments as well as the only time Torah explicit commands “Shma Yisrael Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Echad.”

I sometimes wonder why the text even needs the words “Shma Yisrael…” Wouldn’t it just have been enough for Moses to have said “Adonai eloheynu adonai echad?” After all, monotheism in the Torah isn’t exactly a concept that waited until the book of Deuteronomy to appear. It starts with the first monotheist, Abraham, and becomes the defining characteristic of the Israelite people. The only other known attempt at monotheism failed when Akenaton’s reformation of Egyptian religion failed to sustain itself beyond the life of the iconoclastic Pharoah. I would suggest a thought for this “Shabbat of the Shema” that might even be a broader metaphor for life.

Shema literally means “Hear!” You knew that already regardless of your Hebrew achievements. Rabbinic sources never shied away from a debate, though, even if the answer seemed obvious. The dialectic just over this first word produces two meanings– physical hearing and understanding. One side says “Let your ears hear what your mouth says.” The other contends Shema means “in any linguistic form you understand.” Comprehension and perception, though are related. Note that I say perception because those who are hearing impaired and only read lips or ASL nonetheless “hear” in the sense of perceiving. The lessons of life are around us all the time. We perceive the warnings, adjurations, lessons and guidelines and sometimes comprehend, sometimes pretend to comprehend and sometimes complacently ignore. Think of it as your mother finally in frustration saying: “Now this time I mean it! You will…”

After the people’s reluctance to accept Moses, after their reluctance to follow through their redemption at the Red Sea, after all of their revolts in the wilderness, Moses finally needs to say: “This time, O Israel, Hear and Understand that Adonai is our God and Adonai is One.” At this point, it is already too late for the generation of the wilderness. Shema Yisrael is addressed to future generations, and we are that future.

The lesson really should be a simple one. Or, to change the metaphor, when someone cries wolf, let’s try to be exceedingly aware that the wolf might not necessarily be perceived physically while understanding the full implications of the wolf-cry. Or at least understanding that this time, he really means “wolf.”
Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Ned Soltz