What is the Shema?

Understanding Deuteronomy 6:4

The Shema is the most important declaration in Judaism — a confession of faith so central that observant Jews recite it twice daily, parents teach it to their children from infancy, and it is traditionally the last words a Jew speaks before death. When Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest, He answered with the Shema (Mark 12:28-30). It is the theological foundation upon which everything else in biblical faith is built.

The Text

The Shema in its narrowest sense is a single verse: Deuteronomy 6:4 — Shema Yisrael, YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad. 'Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.'

In Jewish liturgical practice, the Shema includes three passages:

1. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 — The declaration of God's oneness and the command to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to teach this to your children.
2. Deuteronomy 11:13-21 — The blessings of obedience and consequences of disobedience, including the promise that faithfulness will bring rain and harvest.
3. Numbers 15:37-41 — The command to wear tzitzit (fringes) on garments as a reminder of God's commandments, concluding with the declaration: 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God.'

Together, these three passages form a comprehensive summary of Israel's faith: who God is (one), what God demands (total love and obedience), and what God has done (delivered Israel from Egypt).

The Meaning of the Hebrew

Every word in Deuteronomy 6:4 carries theological weight:

Shema (Hear). The opening word is not a passive 'listen' but an active 'hear and obey.' In Hebrew, hearing and obeying are inseparable — the same word (shema) means both. To hear God's word is to respond to it. When God calls Israel to hear, He is calling them to attentive, obedient engagement.

Yisrael (Israel). The declaration is addressed to a specific community — the covenant people of God. It is not abstract theology but relational truth: this God is our God, and we are His people.

YHWH Eloheinu (The LORD our God). YHWH is the personal, covenant name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14-15). Eloheinu ('our God') is relational — not merely 'God' in the abstract but 'our God,' the One who has entered into covenant with us. The Shema does not begin with a philosophical argument for monotheism. It begins with relationship: the LORD who has revealed Himself, who has a name, who has acted in history, who belongs to Israel and to whom Israel belongs.

YHWH Echad (The LORD is one). The word echad means 'one' but carries rich connotations. It can mean:

• Numerical oneness: There is only one God. This is a direct rejection of the polytheism that surrounded Israel on every side. The gods of Egypt, Canaan, Assyria, and Babylon are not real. Only YHWH is God.
• Uniqueness: YHWH is not merely one among potential gods — He is utterly unique, without peer or rival.
• Unity: Echad can describe a composite unity (as in Genesis 2:24, where husband and wife become 'one' (echad) flesh). Some Christian theologians have seen in this word an opening for Trinitarian theology — one God who exists in a unity of persons — though this interpretation is debated.
• Exclusivity: YHWH alone deserves worship, allegiance, and love. The commandment that follows ('Love the LORD your God with all your heart...') is the practical implication of God's oneness: if there is only one God, then that God deserves all of your devotion.

The Command That Follows

The Shema is not merely a creed — it is a call to action. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 immediately follows with the most comprehensive love command in Scripture:

'Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.'

This passage commands:

• Total love: Heart (the center of will and intention), soul (the whole self, including life itself), and strength (resources, energy, capacity). Nothing is held back. There is no compartment of life where God is not Lord.
• Constant teaching: The faith is transmitted through daily conversation, not just formal instruction. Parents are to weave God's truth into the fabric of ordinary life — sitting, walking, lying down, rising up.
• Physical reminders: The commands about binding words on hands (later interpreted as tefillin/phylacteries) and writing them on doorframes (mezuzot) ensure that the Shema is not merely internalized but externalized — visible, tangible, inescapable.

Jesus and the Shema

When a scribe asked Jesus, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?' Jesus answered: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength' (Mark 12:29-30). He quoted the Shema — word for word.

Then He added a second command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (Leviticus 19:18). And He concluded: 'There is no commandment greater than these' (Mark 12:31).

Jesus did not replace the Shema. He affirmed it as the greatest commandment and then linked it inseparably to love of neighbor. In Matthew's version, He says, 'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments' (Matthew 22:40). The entire Hebrew Scriptures — every law, every prophecy, every wisdom saying — is an elaboration of these two principles: love God wholly, love neighbor as self.

The scribe's response is remarkable: 'Well said, teacher... To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices' (Mark 12:32-33). Jesus replied, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' The man had grasped the heart of the matter: the Shema is not about ritual compliance but about total devotion to God expressed in love for others.

The Shema in Jewish Life

The Shema is woven into every dimension of Jewish religious life:

Daily prayer. Observant Jews recite the Shema twice daily — in the morning (Shacharit) and evening (Maariv) services — fulfilling the command to speak these words 'when you lie down and when you get up.'

Tefillin (phylacteries). Small leather boxes containing parchment scrolls with the Shema passages are bound to the arm and forehead during weekday morning prayer, fulfilling the command to 'tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.'

Mezuzot. Small cases containing the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21) are affixed to the doorframes of Jewish homes, fulfilling the command to 'write them on the doorframes of your houses.'

Deathbed confession. The Shema is traditionally the last words a Jew recites before death — an affirmation that even in the face of death, God is one and God is Lord. The martyrs of Jewish history — from Rabbi Akiva, who recited the Shema as the Romans tore his flesh with iron combs, to the victims of the Holocaust who spoke it in the gas chambers — have made the Shema not only a prayer but a defiant confession of faith in the most extreme circumstances.

The Shema and Christian Theology

For Christians, the Shema raises the question of how monotheism relates to the Trinity. Early Christians affirmed the oneness of God ('the Lord is one') while also confessing Jesus as Lord and the Holy Spirit as God. The relationship between the Shema's monotheism and Trinitarian theology has been debated since the earliest centuries of the church.

Paul appears to reinterpret the Shema in a Trinitarian direction in 1 Corinthians 8:6: 'Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.' Scholars like Richard Bauckham have argued that Paul is incorporating Jesus into the Shema itself — splitting the confession 'one God... one Lord' to include both Father and Son within the identity of the one God of Israel.

The Shema remains the beating heart of biblical faith — Jewish and Christian. It declares that reality has a single source, a single Lord, and a single claim on human devotion. Everything else in Scripture — law, prophecy, wisdom, gospel — flows from this foundational truth: the LORD is one, and the LORD demands all.