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INTRODUCTION

      The Shema of the Old Testament boldly
proclaims, "Sh'ma Israel, Adonai Eloheynu,
Adonai echad" - "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God, the Lord is one.1"  T.M. Ludwig has said,
"Nothing in Jewish life is more hallowed than
the saying of these words."  Indeed from these
words a devout Jew would draw many convictions
concerning God.  Upon it rests the second of the
Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith: "I believe
with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be
His name, is a Unity, and that there is no unity
in any manner like unto His, and that He alone
is our God who was is, and will be.2"

      The Shema, named such because of the
Hebrew word it begins with, in this instance
meaning "to heed, or listen and obey,3" became
part of Jewish worship during the Babylonian
exile when the Jews were suddenly separated from
their Temple and from Jerusalem.  Worship
remained a necessity, and the synagogue service
developed, consisting of the Shema, prayers,
Scripture readings and exposition.4  These words
were used at the beginning of the Jewish
services of both morning and evening (derived
from Deuteronomy 6:7), and may be termed the
"short creed of the Jews.5"  According to
rabbinic tradition, the Shema originally
consisted only of Deuteronomy 6:4, but was later
expanded to include verse 5-9, 11:13-21 and
Numbers 15:37-41.6

      The Mishnah devotes considerable space to
the proper means of fulfilling one's obligations
to recite the Shema, as debated by various
Rabbis through the ages.7  This involves
regulations governing what is deemed to be "too
quiet" an utterance to fulfil one's obligation,
in both normal situations and scenario's where
one's life is in danger; the precise moment of
the day or night by when one must have recited
the Shema in order to fulfil their obligation,
and so forth.

      The Shema is now recited twice daily by
every observant Jew, as the central credal
statement of Judaism - the Mishnah explains it
is distinctive of Jewish profession.8  Further,
by a merely external interpretation of Exodus
13:9, 16 and Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18, the
Jewish practice of wearing Phylacteries (prayer
fillets) was introduced, containing small
scrolls of parchment with four portions of the
Torah, one being the Shema.9  A Jewish home is
distinguished by a small case of metal, wood or
glass fixed outside the door on the upper third
of the right doorpost (the Mezuzah), and again,
this contains a scroll with the Shema inscribed.

      At times the Shema was recited as a "very
efficacious" means of counteracting the various
ills occasioned by demons.10  Messianic Jew David
Stern believes it is to the Shema that James
refers when he states, "You believe that God is
one?  The demons believe it too, the thought
makes them shudder with fear.11"  Surely the
Shema is the central affirmation of Judaism,12
and to the Jew it encapsulates a great depth of
meaning far beyond such external formalities.

ONE GOD

      The first and most obvious teaching of the
Shema is that God is one, a unity.  This
immediately implies monotheism.  To the Jews
there is but one God, in stark contrast to the
polytheistic pagan religions which surrounded
Bronze-Age Judaism - indeed, "one God" was a
divinely revealed insight, especially important
in view of the multiplicity of Baals and other
gods of Canaan and elsewhere.  The very first of
the Ten Commandments given on Mount Sinai
expressed "You shall have no other gods before
me."  This statement is unambiguous.  Israel
must not worship any god but Yahweh.  Indeed,
Yahweh is the only real God, as expressed in
Psalm 96 - "For all the gods of the peoples are
idols; but Yahweh made the heavens" and Isaiah
41:24 - "Behold, you are nothing, and your work
is nought; an abomination is he who chooses
you."  The Biblical writers express that either
other gods do not exist, or they are powerless.
An idol is merely wood, stone or metal.  Thus
Deuteronomy 6:4 expresses the basic tenet of the
Israelite religion.13  Jehovah is the absolute
and only uncaused God.14

      More than this, Zodhiates comments,

    Moses is teaching not only the priority of
    belief in one God, but also a means to
    preserve that belief.  As time went on, the
    proper understanding of the Shema with its
    spiritual implications was no longer
    grasped by the people (Zech. 7:12-14; James
    1:22-25).  This absence of saving knowledge
    became a factor in their spiritual downfall
    (Hos. 4:6) which ultimately led to the
    deportation of Israel and the exile of
    Judah.15

      Bouquet comments however, "True monotheism
is not simply the affirmation that God is one,
but. . . . that the world is all God's by
reconciliation to His meaning in it and His
purpose beyond it.16"  Dr. Leo Baeck explains
further,

    In its briefest form it [Hebrew religion] is
    the idea and challenge of the One.  This
    challenging idea is first the One thing, the
    One thing that alone is needful, that which
    has been commanded, the Good, the Right.
    Secondly and mainly it means the One Being
    who has proclaimed this One Thing and demands
    it from men, the One God, beside who there is
    none else.  And finally it means the unity and
    totality of man.  It means that through this
    One Thing, and therefore with his whole heart
    and soul, man is to serve the One God and Him
    only. . . . there is only one reality - the
    One God, His commandment and the doing of it.17

      The One God is different from polytheistic
religions such as that of the Hellenising
Greeks.  This is not simply by a difference in
the number of gods, but a stark difference in
the very nature of God.  Yahweh is not the "one
god" in whom Plato and Plutarch believed18 - a
mere fusion of the attributes of the many gods,
but is an entirely different sort of Being,
incapable of being fairly likened to anything
else.

      A second implication of the Shema to the
Jewish mind, despite that such a "conception of
Deity was the inheritance of Christianity19", is
that God is not a triune Being.  To the Jewish
person God is one.  He is not two parts spirit
and one part Jew.  He is neither man, nor a god-
man.  Further, the Jewish person would not
consider the Holy Spirit any sort of Being to
whom personality, and certainly not divinity,
may be ascribed.

      However, although the Trinity is not a
revealed truth of the Old Testament, it is
greatly revealed in the New Testament, and the
Christian may be assured of its reality.  The
Old Testament does not make such claims about
God, but it is far from devoid of supporting
evidence.  As Stern states,

    Isaiah 48:16 uses three different terms to
    speak of the divine: ". . . . from the time
    that it was, there am I; and now Adonai God
    and his Spirit has sent me."  At Genesis
    1:26 God uses the plural to speak of
    himself: "Let us make man in our image,
    after our likeness". . . . Likewise, here in
    the Sh'ma (Deuteronomy 6:4) there are two
    such r'mazim [hints]: (1) the triple
    reference to God, and (2) the use of the word
    "echad," which often means a multiple unity
    (such as "one" cluster of grapes or "one"
    bundle of sticks) instead of "yachid," which
    nearly always excludes multiple oneness.20

      Lindberg adds to this by appealing to the
plural form of Elohim, and the plural verbs and
plural pronouns used in Genesis 1:1, 26; 3:22;
11:7 and elsewhere.  He then appeals to Proverbs
30:4 and Psalm 2:11-12 for evidence that God has
a son.  Further, in Psalm 110, the one who is in
a future day to rule in Zion is addressed as a
divine personality by another who is also deity
- "The Lord says to my Lord," wrote David.21
There is no contradiction between God being
"one" and a Trinity.  There is no contradiction
between the Old and New Testaments.

      Stern effectively summarises the matter in
his Messianic Jewish commentary.  Referring to
Matthew 28:19, he states :

    The Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh
    [the Holy Spirit].  This is the closest the
    New Testament comes to stating the
    proposition that YHVH, Adonai, the one God
    of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov, consists of
    Father, Son and Holy Spirit (compare 2C 13:14).
    The word "trinity" appears nowhere in the New
    Testament; it was developed later by
    theologians trying to express profundities which
    God has revealed about himself,  The New
    Testament does not teach tritheism, which is
    belief in three gods.  It does not teach
    unitarianism which denies the divinity of Yeshua
    the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  It does not
    teach modalism, which says that God appears
    sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son
    and sometimes as the Holy Spirit, like an actor
    changing masks.  It is easy to wander astray
    into error or nonsense in thinking about God,
    since his ways are not our ways and his
    thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).
    Some Messianic Jews use the term "triunity"
    in conscious avoidance of the word "trinity,"
    which has such a non-Jewish, traditionally
    Christian ring to it, and in order to emphasise
    the unity of God as proclaimed in the Sh'ma
    without neglecting what this verse highlights.22

LOVING GOD

      Immediately following the Shema is a
command to love God with all one's being - "Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength.23"
This phrase is also found in the very second
paragraph of the Shema, beginning at Deuteronomy
11:13.  For Jesus, the two went together and
constituted a single principle.24  This was
mostly the first half of his summary of the
entire Torah of Moses - "Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and will all your soul and
with all your mind. . . . Love your neighbour as
yourself25" - which he labelled "the first and
great commandment."  The natural response of the
person penetrated by God should be one of
overwhelming love.  As the twenty-four elders of
the book of Revelation say, "You are worthy, our
Lord and God, to receive glory and honour, and
power, for you created all things, and by your
will they were created and have their being.26"

      The Shema is essentially Godward.  It
reminds man of God and man's obligation to Him
as such.  It serves as a constant reminder to
the devout Jew of the God they serve, and
elicits an appropriate emotional response.

      Rabbi Epstein comments, "Beginning with
the confession of faith in the unity and
uniqueness of God in the declaration, `Hear, O
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One',
the first paragraph proceeds to claim the
Israelite's love and the devotion of his whole
being to the Lord.27"  Rabbi Brasch goes further,
stating, "It calls on man to love God with all
his being and at all times, to make Him an ever-
present reality in thought, talk and action.  It
stresses the duty of the older religion to teach
religion to the young and to surround existence
with special signposts to God.28"  Some Jewish
sources state that wen man in prayer thus
declares with love and reverence the unity of
God, the walls of the earth's darkness are cleft
and God's presence is revealed lighting up the
universe.29

THE RULE OF GOD

      By association, the Shema also serves to
remind the devout Jew of their convictions
concerning the rule of God in one's life.
Edersheim explains this like so:

    . . . . in the Jewish mind the expression
    `Kingdom of Heaven' referred, not so much
    to any particular period, as in general to
    the Rule of God - as acknowledged,
    manifested, and eventually perfected.  Very
    often it is the equivalent for personal
    acknowledgment of God: the taking upon
    oneself of the `yoke' of the `the kingdom,'
    or of the commandments - the former preceding
    and conditioning the latter.  Accordingly the
    Mishnah (Ber. 2.2) gives this as the reason
    why, in the collection of Scripture passages
    which forms the prayer called `Shema,' the
    confession, Deut. 6:4ff., precedes the
    admonition, Deut. 11:13ff., because a man
    takes upon himself first the yoke of the
    kingdom of Heaven, and afterwards that of the
    commandments.  And in this sense, the repetition
    of the Shema, as the personal acknowledgment of
    the Rule of Jehovah, is itself often designated
    as `taking upon oneself the Kingdom of
    Heaven.'30

ZIONISM

      The devout Jew recites the Shema day and
night.  He also focuses his mind on Eretz
Y'Israel - the land of Israel, whose very people
the Shema addresses.  Indeed, the Shema was
given en route to this promised land.  To the
Jew, the Shema invokes Zionistic expressions of
patriotism to the Land of Israel - the Jewish
homeland and state, whereby Jews are free to
develop as Jews.

THE NAME OF GOD

      The reverence of the Jewish people for the
name of God is well known.  Most English Bible's
today translate "Yahweh", the Tetragrammaton, as
"Lord" (the Hebrew word "Adonai") in conformance
with Rabbinical custom.  To the Jewish people,
God's name is holy and sanctified - to even
crumple a piece of paper with God's name written
on it is desecration.

      With the Shema the Jew sanctifies God's
name.  It has become his inspiration and last
fervent confession.  This one sentence, selected
out of the 4875 verses of the Torah has become
Judaism's greatest contribution to the religious
thought of mankind, and its eternal confession
of faith.31

AN EPITOME OF JEWISH LIVING

      Rabbi Brasch states that the Shema is "an
overwhelming spiritual force.  It bears the
secret of the Jewish home, which is the
guarantor of Jewish survival.32"  Although the
words of the Shema are inscribed on the Mezuzah
scroll, no one is ever expected to remove it
from its case and actually read it (certainly
the words are etched in one's memory anyway),
yet the spirit expressed in the Shema is always
present.  It calls on every man to make an
unqualified surrender of all he has an he is to
the love of God.  Man is told to dedicate
himself to Him with all one's heart, soul and
might.  The Shema reminds man of the moral world
order in which every action begets its reaction,
every sound has its echo, and thoughts become
deeds.  Man's individual responsibility is thus
implicitly inscribed on the threshold of his
home in the Mezuzah.33

      It further emphasises that existence must
be an integrated whole, that religion must
permeate man's life on all occasions and at all
times.  It accentuates the parents' duty to
teach their children the Jewish way of life.
They must not delegate this holy task to any
outsider, however learned and expert he may be.34

      The Shema is a most potent religious
influence.

    In an arid and disappointed world, the
    scroll on the door constitutes to the
    discerning eye and knowing heart a
    revelation of timeless reality.  It is the
    affirmation of the superiority of the humane
    and Divine over all the economic and mechanical
    forces weighing man down today.  The Mezuzah at
    the entrance of Jewish dwellings opens up the
    Jewish life to the spirit of God.  It can
    change a mere house into a Jewish home, and
    render every home a temple of God.35

CONCLUSION

      The Jewish people hold to the Shema of
Deuteronomy 6:4 with great affection and
devotion, indeed to the Jew, it is the most
important text in the Old Testament.36  Rabbi
Me'ir has emphasised the high prominence of the
Shema in his statement, "that he who lives
permanently in Palestine, speaks Hebrew,
observes the laws of purity, reads the Shema
morning and evening, is certain of the life to
come.37"  More than this however, Rabbi Brasch
states, "At the very hour of death the essential
beliefs of Judaism find supreme expression.  It
is the sincere wish of every Jew to die with the
declaration of his faith, the Sh'ma, o his lips:
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
One".  If the dying person is unable to
pronounce the words, he who is nearest and
dearest to him utters them within his hearing.38"


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Becker, Joachim. Messianic Expectation in the
     Old Testament. Translated by David Green.
     Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.

Bentzen, Aage. King and Messiah. 2d ed. Edited
     by G.W. Anderson. London: Lutterworth
     Press, 1970.

Bouquet, Alan Coates. Comparative Religion. 5th
     ed. Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1956.

________. The Christian Faith and Non-Christian
     Religions. Connecticut: Greenwood Press,
     1976.

Brasch, Rabbi R. The Unknown Sanctuary: The
     Story of Judaism, its Teachings, Philosophy
     and Symbols. Sydney: Angus and Robertson,
     1969.

Bruce, F. F., ed. The Illustrated Bible
     Dictionary. Vol. 2, Judaism, by H. L.
     Ellison. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,
     1980.

Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through The
     Centuries. Rev ed. Michigan: Academie
     Books, 1982.

Dake, Finis Jennings. Dake's Annotated Reference
     Bible. Georgia: Dake Bible Sales, Inc., 1963.

Dunne, John. The Way of all the Earth. London:
     Sheldon Press, 1972.

Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus
     The Messiah. Massachusetts: Hendrickson
     Publishers, 1993.

Epstein, Rabbi Isaac. Judaism. 2d rev ed.
     London: The Epworth Press, 1945.

Gaer, Joseph. How the Great Religions Began.
     Rev. ed. New York: Signet Key Books, 1961.

Lindberg, Milton B. In Light of Tenach: The
     Trinity. Lansing: American Messianic
     Fellowship, 1992.

Loewe, H., ed. Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 2,
     The Contact of Pharisaism with Other Cultures.
     New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969.

Matarasso, Antoine. Israel. Townsville: Rhema
     Bible College, 1984.

McDowell, Josh, and Don Stewart. Handbook of
     Today's Religions. California: Here's Life
     Publishers, Inc., 1983.

Neusner, Jacob. The Mishnah: A New Translation.
     New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Norwood, Frederick A. Strangers and Exiles.
     Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1969.

Oesterley, W. O. E., and Theodore H. Robinson.
      Hebrew Religion. 2d rev ed. London S.P.C.K.,
      1966.

Oesterley, W. O. E., ed. Judaism and
     Christianity. Vol. 1, The Age of Transition.
     New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969.

Ringgren, Helmer. The Messiah in the Old
     Testament. London: SCM Press Ltd., 1956.

________. Israelite Religion. Translated by
     David Green. 2d ed. London: S.P.C.K., 1969.

Rosenthal, Erwin I. J., ed. Judaism and
     Christianity. Vol. 3, Law and Religion. New
     York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible.
     Chicago: Moody Press, 1978.

Scholem, Gershom. The Messianic Idea in Judaism.
     London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1971.

Smith, James. The Promised Messiah. Nashville:
     Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993.

Stern, David. The Jewish New Testament
     Commentary. Maryland: Jewish New Testament
     Publications, Inc., 1992.

Wiesel, Elie. Souls on Fire. Translated by
     Marion Wiesel. London: Weidenfield and
     Nicolson, 1972.

Wurmbrand, Max and Cecil Roth. The Jewish
     People: 4000 Years of Survival. London:
     Cassell and Company Ltd., 1974.

Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study Old
     Testament.  Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1994.


REFERENCES

        1Deuteronomy 6:4.
        2Milton B. Lindberg, In Light of Tenach:
The Trinity (Lansing: American Messianic
Fellowship, 1992), 2.
        3Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word
Study Old Testament (Chattanooga: AMG
Publishers, 1994), 491.
        4The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980
ed., s.v. "Worship".
        5Finis Jennings Dake, Dake's Annotated
Reference Bible (Georgia: Dake Bible Sales,
Inc., 1963), 235.
        6Charles C. Ryrie, The Ryrie Study Bible
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1978), 284.
        7Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah: A New
Translation (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1988), 3pp.
        8Idem, B'rakhot 3:3.
        9Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of
Jesus The Messiah (Massachusetts: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1993), 755.
        10W. O. E. Oesterley, ed., Judaism and
Christianity Vol. 1, The Age of Transition (New
York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1969), 207.
        11James 2:19.
        12David Stern, The Jewish New Testament
Commentary (Maryland: Jewish New Testament
Publications, Inc., 1992), 67.
        13Helmer Ringgren, Israelite Religion
Translated by David Green, 2d ed. (London:
S.P.C.K., 1969), 66.
        14Dake, op. cit., 235.
        15Zodhiates, op. cit., 491.
        16Alan Bouquet, Comparative Religion 5th
ed. (Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1956), 222.
        17Idem, 210.
        18Idem, 219.
        19Idem, 211.
        20Stern, op. cit., 97.
        21Lindberg, op. cit., 3-8.
        22Stern, op. cit, 86.
        23Deuteronomy 6:5.
        24Mark 12:30.
        25Matthew 22:37-39.
        26Revelation 4:11.
        27Rabbi Isaac Epstein, Judaism 2d. rev.
ed. (London: The Epworth Press, 1945), 48.
        28Rabbi R. Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary:
The Story of Judaism, its Teachings, Philosophy
and Symbols (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1969),
161.
        29Ibid.
        30Edersheim, op. cit., 185; also Stern,
op. cit., 276.
        31Brasch, op. cit., 161.
        32Idem, 211.
        33Ibid.
        34Ibid.
        35Idem, 212.
        36Zodhiates, op. cit., 491.
        37Oesterley, op. cit., 151.
        38Brasch, op. cit., 17.

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