Why I Say the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God is One.”

Why I Say the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God is One.”

The Shema, “Hashem echad,” the proclamation that there is one God might seem foolish for me to say. After all, I believe properties of God, such as omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence are within the world. Many Jews say that these properties of God are not true. That God is a force outside the world, and only acts upon it. This might be considerable as what a heretic might say, but I might liken that idea to a person operating a machine that is prone to failure. Rather than seeing God as separate from the machine, I see that God is as all, and no one is without, such that God is not separate from us, but is actually a part of us. However, God is not a part of us that we might extract, but that the essence of God permeates all, if and only if, we will realize that it is true.

What is the point of stating the Shema, if the mere thought that God is one is sufficient to connect me to God? I believe that the words of our mouths blow through the cosmos. We, humans, in dominion paint over our landscape, earth. Our actions influence what the world looks like. Ever make an arrangement or paint a painting, and you know that touch is important to conferring beauty. So too is it with saying the Shema. Through fulfilling this mitzvah, I feel that I am actually contributing to the beauty of the world. Likewise, just as we appreciate the beauty of scenic landscape, so to do these words add to that.

Why would not the mere statement of it be sufficient given recognition of human power to bring about an age of peace? Where is the power of prayer when there are those that suffer, and have unanswered prayers? That too lies in majority rule. If men in all of their dominion said these words and meditated upon them, it would be by majority that an age of peace would come. Recognition of the majority and going with it is a part of Torah. Thus, God goes with the majority of what we humans see as fit.

We, imbued with godly properties, have the freewill to observe if we desire. It is by justice that a thief pays back, and this takes action. For this reason, God does not have the power to make a thief pay, but it is when people witness and make sure that justice occurs that a thief receives punishment due. That is, God has no power unless there are people that are willing to act in a righteous way. Saying the Shema is one way to be in touch with that righteous way. May the letters color the world and make it beautiful even if a minority says it.