From when may the Shema be recited in the evening? From the time that priests enter to eat their terumah. Until the end of the first watch is the opinion of Rabbi Eli'ezer; the rest of the sages say 'until midnight', while Rabban Gamli'el says 'until first light'.
An incident is recorded in which his sons returned from a celebration and told him that they had not yet recited the Shema. He told them that if first light had not yet broken they were required to recite it.
And not only here; but wherever the sages say 'until midnight' the mitzvah [duty] is actually in force until first light. In which case, why did the Sages say 'until midnight'? – in order to keep a person far from wrongdoing.
7:
We continue with our preface concerning the Shema.
The first sentence of the Shema is impossibly difficult to render into a language other than Hebrew, and a translation is almost inevitably doomed to become an interpretation – and therefore possibly misleading. So Instead of translating the sentence (in Hebrew: Shema Yisra'el Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Eĥad) let us describe its contents. When we recite this one simple line we are declaring our faith in God's existence, God's unity and God's absolute sovereignty in and over all creation, which, of course, includes our recognition of the truth that we ourselves are subject to God's commandments. Without this basis of pure monotheism Judaism has no meaning.
8:
But when we speak of God's unity what do we really mean? Rambam teaches that true belief in God's unity inevitably implies belief in a non-physical Deity – a Deity that does not exist as part of the physical universe, a Deity that Eyno demut ha-guf ve-eyno guf -"is not physical and has no physical appearance" [this is part of a line from the hymn Yigdal, which itself is a verse rendition of Rambam's Thirteen Principles first enunciated in his Mishnah Commentary]. One who conceives of God (other than metaphorically, of course) as being an old man or king with a long white beard, white robes, seated upon a high and lofty throne somewhere in the farthest reaches of heaven, surrounded by angels who play unceasingly on harps – one who believes in such a God is an idolater pure and simple! Such a person does not believe in the God of Israel.
9:
The One God exists, but because God is not a part of the physical universe, God's existence can only be comprehended intellectually and emotionally in the mind and heart of the believing Jew. It is this conceptualization of the divine essence that the Jew affirms when declaring, twice daily, Shema Yisra'el Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Eĥad: God is, God is God, and God is unitary.
10:
When we believe in such a Deity it is but logical that we willingly subject our behaviour to what is perceived as being the dictates of the Deity, and it is this element that is referred to as Kabbalat Ol Malkhut Shamayaim – acceptance of Divine Sovereignty. Divine sovereignty is referred to directly in the second line of the Shema (in Hebrew: Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le'olam va'ed), which may be rendered as "Blessed be His Majesty's glorious Name for ever". This doxology is not an original part of the parashah, but a later addition. During the ritual in the Bet Mikdash, whenever the High Priest would utter God's Proper Name (and not use a pious surrogate such as Adonai as we do today), all the people would respond "Blessed be His Majesty's glorious Name for ever". This congregational response has survived to this day as a response the the Proper Name being uttered twice in the first sentence. (The original pronunciation of that Proper Name has now been irretrievably lost, so we must always use a surrogate.) In order to emphasize that this doxology is not a part of the original text it is always recited very quietly, in an undertone, except on Yom Kippur.
11:
It is but fitting that this supreme declaration of belief be recited with appropriate concentration (this will be discussed in greater detail in a much later mishnah). A conscious effort should be made to think about what the words mean; this is all the more difficult when we recall that the Shema is recited so often that it becomes almost second nature to do so – and if it is sung the problem is further compounded. Thus a determined effort of concentration is required. The first parashah of the Shema contains truths and customs that are basic to Judaism, which is why it is singled out for especial concentration: belief in God's unity, love of God, Jewish education, recitation of the Shema every morning and every evening, tefillin, mezuzzah – we cannot imagine Judaism without these, and they are all there in that first short passage.
12:
The text of the first parashah reads (in part): beshokhbekha uvekumekha, which indicates that "these words … shall you utter … when you lie down and when you rise up". This, at last, brings us to the starting point of our mishnah. If the Shema is to be recited "when you lie down (and when you rise up)" – how is that time-frame to be determined? What time is indicated by the phrase "when you lie down"?
To be continued.
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