Shalom!
 
This week's parasha contains the beloved and well-known Shema.  The word is translated as "listen, to attend to, to hear, to obey, give heed to."  But shema is much more than a response to sound.  When the Almighty calls Israel to "shema," He expects action.  Action that comes from the very center of one's being.  In context, the Shema is set in the middle of a very organized speech given by Moshe.  After giving a brief recounting of Israel's history (Devarim 5:2-5) and a repetition of the Ten Words (5:6-21), Moshe urges the people to be faithful to YHWH by obeying those commands (5:28-6:3).  Then comes the Shema with its focus upon making the commands an integral part of every aspect of life:
Devarim/Deuteronomy 6:4 " Hear, O Israel: YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one! 5 "You shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 " And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Moshe then follows the Shema with another brief summary of Israel's history (Devarim 6:10-19) and an exhortation to obey and pass on the commands (6:20-25).  With the double-recounting of Israel's history and exhortation to be faithful, the Shema stands at the mid-point of Moshe's speech, the centerpiece around which history and obedience to the commands are set.  YHWH has brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and has loved them as His people.  Our response - "to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength." (we love Him because He first loved us - 1 John 4:19)
 
Now a question for you.  When you speak the "Shema," who are you addressing?  Does it not appear from Devarim 6:4 that you are speaking to all of Israel?  Are you not connecting yourself with Israel as you claim YHWH is our Elohim"?  When you recite the "Shema," have a mutual love and respect for all who are a part of the unique set-apart people of YHWH  People who have died by the sword, fire, bombs, and the gas chambers with the "Shema" on their lips. 
 
I have some stories to share with you this week.  These are only a few of what connects YHWH 's chosen people through the Shema.  If you are one who joins with His people, calling YHWH "our Elohim," then I pray you will be mindful of the great privilege of joining with those who through their lives and death, exemplify what it means to "love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength."
 
In 2006, Major Roi Klein, a Golani brigade deputy commander died when he threw his body on a grenade, sacrificing his life for the sake of his soldiers.  In the last seconds of life, Roi mustered the strength to intently shout out, "Shema Yisrael!"  I highly recommend that you listen to his touching story here - The Story of Roy Klein
 
Here is a second story (as told by Shira Schwartz) dating back to the intifada in 2001 in Jerusalem:  
 
"The place was the recovery room in the Intensive Care Unit of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.  It was just 24 hours after the suicide bomber terrorist attack at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem which killed 15 people.  A father watched his daughter, her body bruised and battered after a surgery that restored her life.  She whispered weakly:  'Daddy, what about that family that was right in front of us in line for pizza?  What happened to them?'  The father knows what family she was talking about.  Both parents and all three children were killed.  She asks again and I ask her why she remembered that family.  She explained that when the terrible explosion of the bomb happened, those children were seriously injured, actually burning in flames.  The four year old, a boy named Abraham Isaac, lay on the ground bleeding, burning, and dying.  He cried out, 'Abba, daddy, please help me... save me!'  His father reached over from where he had fallen, and held his little boy's hand.  Together they said the words of the Shema as their last breaths left their bodies.  
 
"And this father in the hospital room, himself the almost sole survivor of a family that was destroyed in the Holocaust, who grew up on spine-chilling stories of the Shema that the Jews said before they were led to slaughter, had to tell his daughter that the burning of the crematoriums and the flames of the pizza store had become one...joined by the holy victims whose only sin was being part of the Chosen People." 
 
And another story as retold by Shira Schwartz:  
 
"A woman sits with her grandchild at bedtime, ready to recite the Shema with her, to help her go to sleep feeling loved and protected through the wonderful three-minute ancient routine.  But today, she first has a story to tell.
 
"The story began when she was four years old.  WWII had begun and her mother smuggled her into a monastery in Lithuania, hoping the nuns would hide her little Jewish girl until after the war.  'I will return,' she promised.  'But meanwhile, remember you are a Jew, daughter of the Chosen Nation.  They will teach you the ways of a new religion.  During the day, keep your Judaism hidden from those who wish to destroy your people.  But at night, allow your pure Jewish soul to turn to G-d with the words of the Shema and He will send angels to watch over you.'
 
"The mother never returned.  But the girl didn't forget her mother's words.  And every night, she would huddle under her covers and mumble the words of her people.  One night a man came into the room where the girls slept.  He was tall and wore a black hat.  He turned to the nuns, standing at the doorway and said he had come for the Jewish children.  It was time to take the Jewish children home.  He had to find out who we were.  He stood on a chair and turned to us in our beds.  And with tears running down his cheeks into his long white beard, he started reciting the Shema.  I found myself joining in and soon I heard Patricia and Annette and Miriam, from the beds nearby, reciting the words, too.  All of us with Jewish souls joined in.  We ran up to him, surrounding him.  And so, with hands joined, with tears and song, we left the monastery with this man who returned us home to our Land."
 
I tell all these stories to show that the Shema is not for an individual alone, but for one who identifies themselves as a member of the corporate people of Israel.  Yeshua referred to the Shema as the "first of all the commandments":
Mark 12:28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" 29 Yeshua answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Shema, O Israel, YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one. 30 'And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. 31 "And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Why is it then, that the Shema has had nearly zero recognition in the Christian church throughout the centuries?  I can't say that I ever heard a sermon in church on the Shema noting the importance of it to Yeshua.  Most of us were certainly never taught that it was an expression of our faith.  It is likely that Yeshua prayed the Shema at least twice a day, every day of His life.  His identity was with Israel.
 
So there it is.  The greatest commandment is like a prayer that helps identify us as " YHWH our Elohim's people, Israel.  It reminds us that He is the focus of our worship and that we are to love Him with every last ounce of our being.  For an example of that, I have one more story.
 
"Rabbi Akiva was an influential Jewish teacher who lived at the end of the first and beginning of the second century A.D.  Akiva was born and raised in Judea, studied and became one of the most respected rabbis in all of Judaism.  Akiva lived through the destruction of the temple by the Roman empire in 70 A.D.  Later, when the Romans wanted to erect a pagan temple on the site where the Jewish temple once stood, Akiva was instrumental in gaining support for a military rebellion against the Romans.  
 
"The Romans ordered him to stop teaching the Torah on pain of death.  Akiva would not be deterred, however, and continued to teach.  So they rounded him up and sent him to the executioner.  When they executed him, they raked his flesh with hot combs.  His students asked him why at that moment he began to pray the Shema.  He replied, 'All my life I've known how to love G-d with all my heart, and with all my strength.  Now I get to show G-d that I love Him with all my soul.'  Akiva prolonged the final word - echad (one) - and died with the words still on his lips."
 
Although many recite the Shema at the time of death, the Shema is really a prayer about living.  It speaks to "how" we should live.  That is by loving our Elohim with all our hearts, souls, minds, strength...with every last fiber of our being, every moment of the day, and in every thought and action.  And then, we must love our neighbors as ourselves, and we must teach our children how to continue on with this legacy!
 
To end, enjoy this very moving song of the Shema sung by Micha'el Ben David - Shema
 
 
Shabbat Shalom!
Ardelle