Berakhot 030

1:
Our mishnah may conveniently be divided into three sections (which, traditionally, are referred to as reisha, emtza'ita and seifa, respectively). The reisha of our mishnah has already been anticipated in the discussion in Berakhot 028: indeed, in the Babylonian Talmud this mishnah and the previous mishnah are treated as one mishnah.

2:
The emtza'ita [middle section] of our mishnah is concerned with a dispute between Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehudah. (Tanna Kamma [the first Tanna, sage] is a technical term used when a sage – in our case Rabbi Yehudah bar-Ilai – disputes a halakhah previously stated anonymously in the mishnah.) Tanna Kamma had previously said,

Rabbi Yehudah now disputes this: "one should not pause between these last two paragraphs." The Gemara [Berakhot 14a-b] explains that the reason for the view of Rabbi Yehudah is that the the combination of the last two Hebrew words of the third paragraph of the Shema with the first word of the paragraph that comes after that, creates a phrase in itself: Adonai Eloheykhem emet – "God, your Deity is truth". This phrase itself, almost perfectly adumbrates a phrase from the prophet Jeremiah [10:10]. In this manner, just as the Shema itself begins with a statement of belief concerning God, so does it also end. As is well-known, accepted halakhah in this matter follows Rabbi Yehudah and not Tanna Kamma, and we do not create a pause in the place indicated [see Berakhot 028].

3:
The seifa [last section] of our mishnah brings the view of Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Korĥah concerning the order of the paragraphs of the Shema. Doubtless there were sages who were concerned that the three paragraphs were recited out of their natural order in the Torah: since Vayomer is a quotation from Numbers and the other two are from Deuteronomy, why is that not the order? At least two answers are possible, and it would have been very surprising if Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Korĥah had been aware of what we know: that the paragraphs of the Shema were a gradual historical agglomeration, and the chronology of their acceptance into the liturgy explains their order. Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Korĥah gives an explanation based on "relative importance" and textual content. The "Shema" paragraph comes first, he says, because of its natural centrality to Jewish thought – what Rambam was later to term most felicitously "the basic principle upon which everything else depends": first and foremost we must accept upon ourselves the "burden of Divine Sovereignty". The Hebrew word for 'burden' here is actually "yoke", the collar that is placed around the neck of a domesticated animal of burden to which is attached a bridle or reins, so that its actions are subjected to the will of the driver and it does not "do its own thing". Ideally, the only act of free-will that a committed Jew will ever make is the decision to 'assume the yoke', to willingly yield his or her autonomy in favour of Divine Sovereignty. Ideally. Somehow, in practice it doesn't work out that way, and the true "burden of Divine Sovereignty" expresses itself in the constant measuring of our own will against that which finds expression in halakhah. True Conservative Judaism adds a further load to the burden of Divine Sovereignty: the duty to constantly re-evalute halakhah in order to be quite sure that it does, indeed, still reflect what we may legitimately understand to be Divine Will.

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