Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Judaism has always been more about belonging than believing. When Ruth expresses her desire to join Naomi following the death of Ruth’s husband, rather than return to her native Moab, she says, “Your people will be my people, your God will be my God”, (Ruth 1:16) preferencing “peoplehood” over belief in God. The most famous statement of Jewish belief was written by Maimonides in the Middle Ages. Not everyone agreed with his thirteen foundational principles of Judaism, and there were others, down to our present day, who have undertaken the task of formulating a basic Jewish doctrine. Perhaps the earliest one is found in our Torah reading for this week:

“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

The sages place the origins of this statement earlier than its appearance in Deuteronomy. According to the midrash, our Father Jacob, lying on his deathbed in Egypt, is about to reveal to his children when their exile would end. At that very moment he loses the gift of prophecy. He sees the despair in his children’s eyes as they contemplate the indeterminate years of exile that stretch out before them. He calls out to them, “Have you lost faith in the power and mercy of God?” They respond, “Hear, O Israel (their father’s name Genesis 32:28) The Lord is our God, The Lord is One.”  Thus, they reassure their father, Jacob/Israel, that there is no reservation about God in their hearts, as there is none in his.

But that is midrash. It is a lovely interpretation, but you will not find the actual words, “Hear O Israel…” in the Book of Genesis. As noted, they appear in Deuteronomy 6:4 in the context of Moses’ second discourse to the People of Israel as he bids them farewell. In the Book of Matthew (22:37) this statement is called, “The first and greatest commandment.” In Islam it is reformulated as, “There is no god but Allah”. Rabbi Joseph Hertz in his Chumash  calls it “The greatest contribution to the religious thought of mankind.”

I will close with this beautiful meditation by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, on what it means to “hear”.

Shema Yisrael does not mean “Hear, O Israel”. It means something like: “Listen. Concentrate. Give the word of God your most focused attention. Strive to understand. Engage all your faculties, intellectual and emotional. Make His will your own. For what He commands you to do is not irrational or arbitrary but for your welfare, the welfare of your people, and ultimately for the benefit of all humanity.”

In Judaism faith is a form of listening: to the song creation sings to its Creator, and to the message history delivers to those who strive to understand it. That is what Moses says, time and again in Deuteronomy. Stop looking: listen. Stop speaking: listen. Create a silence in the soul. Still the clamour of instinct, desire, fear, anger.

Strive to listen to the still, small voice beneath the noise. Then you will know that the universe is the work of the One beyond the furthest star yet closer to you than you are to yourself – and then you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might. In God’s unity you will find unity – within yourself and between yourself and the world – and you will no longer fear the unknown.

Image created by AI