The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism: As Exemplified in the Shema, the Most Important Passage in the Torah

• Publisher:   Jewish Publication Society of America
• Number Of Pages:   222
• Publication Date:   1998-12
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0827606559
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780827606555

The Shema has been described as the "central watchword" of Jewish faith. For centuries, Jews have pronounced this single sentence affirming God's unity as their final words before dying, as well as beginning and ending each day with this prayer on their lips.

Using the Shema as his focus, Norman Lamm, prominent Orthodox scholar and long-time president of Yeshiva University, explores the relationship between spirituality and law in Judaism.

Rabbi Lamm is a deep thinker. And he deepens the reader's understanding of 'The Shema' .He helped me understand why we make use of two different names of G-d,why we use the language of singular and plural in the Shema. My belief is that anyone who reads this book will learn from it not only deeper meanings of the 'Shema ' but how to pray this basic prayer of Judaism in a more meaningful way.

. . . in which Lamm goes line by line through the Shema, pointing out how various commentators have addressed each line over the centuries. Lamm devotes the most space to the first sentence of the Shema (Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One), and to the Shema's requirement that we love God. As to the former, Lamm points out the difference between the two names of God referenced in the Shema: one represents the impersonal, universal God as seen in Nature while the other represents God as experienced in History, that is, the God who relates to Israel specifically and who is part of everything. Other interpretations of this phrase include a eschatalogical interpretation (that today God is One to Jews, but at the end of history all humans will see God as One), kabbalistic interpretations (some suggesting that nothing really exists outside God, but that God wills humans to act as if the world was real, others asserting that the Shema is an acknowledgement that awareness of the Creator's unity makes our lives less chaotic). As to the concept of loving God, Lamm discusses Maimonides' interpretation of this verse (asserting that we learn to love God by contemplating creation and through studying Torah), Samuel David Luzzatto's definition of love as obeying divine commandments, the views of the Maharal (who asserts that we love God by recognizing that we owe our existence to God, and by honoring Torah scholars who study divine precepts), and other commentators' complex analysis of different types of love.

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