(A previous version of this text was published on this blog in Portuguese under the title "A mudança tem que vir de todos!")
As I discussed in last week’s drashah, the Sh’ma is perhaps the most well-known phrase in Jewish liturgy. According to tradition, it is recited upon waking and also before going to bed; it is among the first phrases in Hebrew that Jewish children learn and, very often, the last one uttered. In addition to its opening sentence, “Hear, O Israel, ADONAI is our God, ADONAI is One”, many of us also commit to memory the first paragraph in both Hebrew and English: “And you shall love ADONAI your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might…”. These two passages come from the Torah and formed part of last week’s parashah[1]. Not everyone realises, however, that the two subsequent paragraphs are found, not in the sequence of the text, but in other passages of the Torah. The third paragraph[2], which speaks of the tallit and the tsitsit as instruments which remind us to fulfil the mitzvot, is in the book of BaMidbar, and the second paragraph, which speaks of punishments and rewards for those who follow Divine instructions, is in this week’s parashah[3].
For those who pay attention to the translations of these passages and compare the content of the first and second paragraphs, there seems to be a certain redundancy in the openings of the two texts: “Love ADONAI your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” begins the text of the first paragraph; “If you indeed listen to My commandments which I command you this day, to love ADONAI your God, and to serve [God] with all your heart and with all your soul” is the opening of the second. Commentators did not let this similarity between the texts go unnoticed. Rashi notes that, while the command in the first paragraph is formulated in the singular, that of the second paragraph is addressed to the whole community. Considering that the focus of the second paragraph is on the way God responds when humanity listens (or does not listen) to the Divine words, Ramban explains that Divine responses do not come as a reaction to our individual actions, but only to those of the society as a whole.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow wrote an interpretation of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma[4], in which he associates our behaviour towards nature, our interpersonal relationships, and our own ambition and greed with the way the planet, life, and God treat us. In his words, if we continue “chop[ing] the world into parts and choos[ing] parts to worship — gods of race or of nation, gods of wealth and of power, gods of greed and addiction,” then we will continue facing increasingly severe climate crises and a climate of hatred that will ultimately consume our existence.
As Ramban pointed out, these negative consequences result from our collective behaviour, [5] and the solutions must also be understood in broad terms. Certainly, each one of us needs to be mindful in how we relate to the environment and to other people, but we must also develop social mechanisms to ensure that these efforts are not only the work of a few well-intentioned people, but become our new way of life.
Who knows – perhaps the next time we hear the Sh’ma and its three paragraphs, we will begin to glimpse how to bring about such a profound social change?
Shabbat Shalom!
[1] Deuteronomy 6:4–9.
[2] Numbers 15:37–41.
[3] Deuteronomy 11:13–21.
[4] https://bit.ly/3Aw6T4z
[5] See Ramban’s commentary on Deut.11:13
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