Chodesh Tov!
Here’s the first installment of our new Halacha series, which will move seamlessly among numerous areas of practical, everyday Halachik practice, including Tefilla, Kashrut, Tzedek, Shabbat, and holidays. Please do share feedback with me, so that the series can continuously improve!
I thought to start with a couple of emails about the daily mitzvah of reciting Shma.
While Shma is embedded in Shacharit and in Ma’ariv, it stands on its own as an independent mitzvah. When reciting Shma we are actually fulfilling a Biblical mitzvah (“and these words that I command you today…. you shall speak of them…. when you lie down and when you arise”).
Interestingly, our great thinkers differ as to whether “the mitzvah of reciting Shma” actually requires the recitation of Shma itself! According to many thinkers, the Biblical mitzvah to “speak of them” grants us the leeway to recite whichever Biblical passages we’d like “when we lie down and when we arise”. All agree though that our tradition decided long ago that as a matter of practice we would include the verse “Shma Yisrael…..” among whatever other verses we may additionally recite.
The Halacha elevates the importance of the “Shma” verse even further, ruling that it is never sufficient to merely recite “Shma Yisrael…”. The movement of our lips must be accompanied by the “kavannah of our heart” in order for the recitation to qualify. This is a noteworthy departure from Halacha’s general stance that kavannah is a desired-but-not-requisite component of mitzvah performance. Not here though. If our heart is not aligned with our lips, we haven’t fulfilled the mitzvah.
Which begs the next question. What is the kavvanah that we are required to have in our hearts when we recite “Shma Yisrael” each evening and each morning? What should the statement that God is the One God mean to us? The kavannah that accompanies “Shma Yisrael…” is the conviction that all of the deeds I do, all of the words I speak, all of the decisions I make fall within my commitment to comport myself in a Godly way. There is no realm of my life that Is outside of God’s purview, no time or place that I am not in God’s presence. God is One.
The rabbis referred to this as קבלת עול מלכות שמים, accepting the yoke of heaven.
~ Rav Yosef
Up next: The delicious details of reciting Shma.
