Bat Kol International, Weekly Torah Nuggets
Parashat Va-etchanan | Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
“Hear, O Israel! The Eternal is our God, the Eternal alone” (Deut. 6:4).
This week’s Torah portion includes the Sh’ma Israel, a Jewish prayer which can be seen as a Jewish confession in a nutshell.
A literal translation may look like this: “Hear oh Israel, Eternal our God Eternal one”. Interestingly, the only verb in this prayer is at the beginning: “hear”. The Sh’ma is not addressed to God but to the Israelites, challenging the people of God to listen.
When looking at the written appearance of these lines in the Torah we can notice something very particular. The first word “sh’ma/שמע” (“hear”) ends with the letter ayin/ע which is printed considerably larger than the other letters. Also, the last letter of verse 4 in the word “echad/אחד”, translating as “one, unique, alone, indivisible” is more enlarged than the rest of the word. The two enlarged letters combined form the word “עד/ed”, meaning witness.
To Jewish sages this phenomenon indicated that reciting the Sh’ma meant bearing witness to the one and only Holy One
Reflection:
Am I a good listener? Do I also aim to listen in my prayers to God?
Barbara Kauffmann, Germany
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4