Tefillah 042

Today is Yom ha-Zikaron, Remembrance, Day in Israel.
Today's shiur is dedicated to the memory of the
22,305 warriors who, since 1860, have given their lives
that Jews might live independently in the Land of Israel.
May the society we create in the State of Israel justify their sacrifice.

68:
Having completed our study of the two benedictions that precede the recitation of the Shema we may now proceed to the Shema itself. When we pray as individuals, without benefit of a minyan, we preface the Shema with three Hebrew words: El melekh ne’eman, which may be construed in English as "God, faithful king". This is a peculiarly Ashkenazi custom, one which I have not come across in any of the other traditions of our people. Two explanations may be offered for this custom. According to the Shulĥan Arukh [Oraĥ Ĥayyim 61:3] the custom was introduced (probably for Kabbalistic reasons) in order to ensure that the recitation of the Shema should contain 248 words. The total number of Hebrew words in the three paragraphs of the Shema is 245; since the sages held that the human male body consists of 248 'limbs' it was mystically necessary to add three more words. When there is a minyan present the cantor completes the 248 words by repeating out loud the last three words. However, when praying privately one would still be three words short: hence the addition of the three Hebrew words at the beginning of the Shema.

69:
However, from the point of view of modern scholarship this Kabbalistic explanation is not the historically correct one. According to the ancient customs of Eretz-Israel (many of which were perpetuated in some form or other in the Ashkenazi prayer ritual) worshippers would complete the benediction which precedes the Shema with the word Amen. However, this custom was frowned upon by many of the sages. The Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Berakhot 40b] reflects this divergence of opinion:

Clearly, the ancient custom of Eretz-Israel saw the conclusion of the second benediction before the Shema as the end of a series (of two); but gradually the other view took hold. But even though the other view prevailed the ancient custom did not die out without leaving a vestige. In the Gemara [Shabbat 119b] we find the following 'explanation' of the word Amen:

Thus it appears that these three words were set before the reading of the Shema (in private worship) as a relic of the ancient custom of saying 'Amen' just before beginning the recitation of the Shema.

70:
The Shema [Siddur Sim Shalom page 112, Siddur Va'ani Tefillati page 339], in its basic essentials, is an anthology of three passages from the Torah that are to be recited twice daily, morning and evening. The three passages are: Deuteronomy 4:6-9, 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41. The purpose of the recitation is, presumably, to inculcate daily into the consciousness of the worshipper certain basic elements of Jewish belief and practice. A very broad description would state that the first passage – the passages are termed parashah in Hebrew – is concerned with Kabbalat Ol Malkhut Shamayaim – our acceptance of Divine Sovereignty; that the second parashah is concerned with skhar mitzvot – the consequences of observance and non-observance; and that the third parashah is concerned with the mitzvah of Tzitzit [Fringes, Tallit] or, possibly, the duty to be ever mindful of the Exodus from Egypt.

71:
The fact that these three passages are not recited in the order that they appear in the Torah, has suggested to modern scholarship that they only gradually formed a complete unit of the liturgy, and that their present liturgical order reflects the chronological order of their acceptance into the liturgy. Traditional scholarship, of course, put forward other reasons for the sequence of the passages, based upon the philosophical and logical connections between the contents of the passages.

72:
The first parashah of the Shema starts with what is probably the most famous sentence in the whole of Jewish experience: Shema Yisra'el Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Eĥad. According to tradition this first sentence should be the very first item in an infant's religious experience: the moment children can formulate a coherent sentence they should be taught to recite this line. Furthermore, according to tradition, if a person is conscious when their death is fast approaching, they should be encouraged to recite this first sentence of the Shema. And during all the hopefully long years between these two events the recitation of the Shema should be the most meaningful element in the worshipper's daily communion with God and express the concepts of the faithful concerning God.

Having mentioned the fact that the first verse of the Shema is spoken by those about to die it is most appropriate that on this day of all days, the first Memorial Day in Israel since the Second Lebanese War, we give a shining and inspirational example of this. Major Ro'i Klein z"l, deputy commander of the Golani Brigade's Battalion 51, was killed during that war last summer and has been posthumously awarded the highest medal of the Israel defence Forces, the Medal of Valor. Klein, a husband and father of two from Eli, was killed during a battle in Bint Jbail, southern Lebanon, with Hizbullah fighters. During fierce clashes, a grenade was thrown at the force that he commanded. According to soldiers who witnessed the incident, Klein threw his body over the grenade and absorbed the blast, saving his soldiers' lives. He mustered the strength to shout "Shema Yisra'el," traditionally recited by Jewish martyrs. Klein was buried in Eli the next day, on what would have been his 31st birthday.

73:
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 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.

To be continued.