The Sh'ma as Dynamic of Redemption

To the casual reader, there is nothing remarkable about Deuteronomy 6:5, Hear (Sh’ma) O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is One. After all, the concept of monotheism and the battle against idolatry is found throughout the Bible. Beginning with the account of creation, the stories of the Patriarchs, the Exodus, and the Stand at Mt. Sinai there is only one God in charge. However, the concept of monotheism itself is in need of analysis and “unity” as an attribute of God occupies a central position in Jewish theology. At the same time the Sh’ma is most prominent in the Jewish liturgy, and has come to play a special role in the personal experience of the individual. It is usually the first prayer one teaches one’s child and the last conscious utterance of a Jew before his death.

In what follows, I shall attempt to unpack the layers of meaning in Deut. 6:5 in order to explain how this verse came to be what I like to call ‘the battle cry of Judaism.’ On its face, Deut. 6:5 is a declarative sentence containing two assertions: “the Lord is our God” i.e. has a special relationship with Israel and “the Lord is one”. Bahye¹ saw it as containing three assertions: 1) Hear O Israel, the Lord (there is a God), 2) our God, 3) The Lord is One. In addition the words Hear O Israel can be read as an imperative (hearken, take heed) as a command by God to accept these three propositions. The Rabbis expanded their purview by connecting Deuteronomy 6:5 to the next four verses to form the first parsha of the mitzvah of kriyat sh’ma, a salient element of the twice daily prayer service. In effect, the Rabbis turned the recitation of the sh’ma into a formal speech-act by which the individual takes upon himself “the yoke of the Kingship of God” and commits himself to observe the commandments.²

The Many Meanings of “One”

“One” in a numerical sense. One and not two. There is only one God: See now that I even I am He and there is no god with Me (Deut. 32:39).

“One” in the sense of simple, that is, God is not composite. He cannot be divided into parts. Thus, for example, every human being is an individual. Yet he is composed of discernible elements such as physical and mental, reason and emotion, will and desire. However, God’s “oneness” is such that in describing God’s knowledge, Maimonides is reduced to this statement: “He is at once the knower, He who makes known and that which is known. There is no plurality in Him”³

“One” in sense of unique. God is a singularity. There is none like Him in any form, shape or manner. God belongs to no class or category and is therefore indefinable. The singularity of God may be expressed by saying, that while the existence of all else in the world is contingent, i.e. it may or may not be, the existence of God is necessary, i.e. being is the very essence of God.⁴

“One” in the radical sense of alone, that in reality there is nothing else in the world except for God. The omnipresent God, by his act of creation makes room for the visible universe. However, he continues to be the ground (makom) of the universe. So that “Should it be imagined that God should cease to exist, all else would cease to exist.”⁵ The Lord He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath, there is none else beside Him (Deut. 4:35).

Against this background, let us focus upon an aspect of the unity of God that has not received adequate attention. While the philosophers probe ever deeper into the metaphysical implications of God’s unity, Rashi interprets Deuteronomy 6:5 as follows: Here O Israel, the Lord who (at this time) is our God (but not the God of the idolatrous nations) the Lord is one, a time will come in the future when He will be the God of all. As his proof-texts, Rashi cites the following two verses: For then I will turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent (Zephaniah 3:9) And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day shall the Lord be one and His Name One (Zech. 14:9).⁶

The Zephaniah verse shows that God will create conditions for mankind to unite in His service while the Zechariah text promises that a time will come when that will actually happen: His Name will be one, revered by all. However, the difficulty here is that Zechariah also states that in that day the Lord shall be one! But God’s oneness is an essential attribute of the eternal God who “was, is and will be” in His unchanging singularity. So how can one say that only in the future will the Lord be one? Is there something about the concept of unity that we have overlooked? According to R. Moshe Chaim Luzatto⁷ the unity of God is different from the other Divine attributes such as His omnipotence, omniscience or omnipresence. These attributes are non-empirical concepts with a fixed meaning that cannot be falsified by anything in the real world. However, God’s attribute of singularity which includes the element of exclusivity (“there is none else”) implies the notion of actual rulership, that God alone rules in the world, that it is His will that is being done. Therefore, when we look upon the world and see that His will is being flouted, that evil is rampant, that people worship other values, then in a very real sense, God’s singularity has been compromised. Clearly, it is not the case that “there is none else”. It is in this context that the prophet comes to assure us that there will come a time when the Lord will be one, when all will serve Him in whole-hearted love and embrace His values of justice and righteousness. Only then will God’s singularity become fully realized. But notice how the prophet describes that much desired day, namely, as when the Lord shall be King over all the earth. God’s Kingship, is being equated with God’s “unity”, that is to say, that just as we have seen in respect to unity that in a sense the full realization of the unity of God rests upon the behavior of men and the progress of history so too is it with God’s Kingship. It is said “there is no King without a people” i.e. without a kingdom over which He rules, His title is meaningless. So too God’s title of king becomes fully realized only when all accept his sovereign majesty.⁸

This sensitivity of God to what goes on in human society makes for a somewhat awkward aspect in man’s relationship to God. For it would seem that God “needs” man almost as much as man needs God. Moreover, it may be used as an argument in beseeching God to forgive Israel. Thus, after the sin of the Golden Calf, when God threatens to destroy Israel, Moses pleads, Why should the Egyptians say, for evil did He bring them forth to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the earth (Ex. 32:12). Again, after the sin of the meraglim (spies) the prospect of harsh punishment brings Moses to turn to God and say, Then the nations who have heard of Your fame will speak saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He promised unto them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness (Num. 14:15,16). Moses, as it were, “reminds” God that the state of His name in the world is more important than punishing the Israelites. His punitive act will be seen as a sign of His limited power, undoing the fame He won as a result of His miraculous liberation of Israel from Egyptian slavery. The fact that in both instances, God accedes to Moses’ plea would indicate that Moses was correct in his understanding of the importance of What will the nations say? (Psalm 115:2) However, it remained for the prophet Ezekiel to take this idea to its logical and most significant conclusion. Speaking in the name of God, the prophet proclaims that the very fact that Israel, the people of God, find themselves in exile is in itself a desecration of the name of God.

They profane My holy Name In that men said of them, these are the people of the Lord and are gone forth from His land (Ezekiel 36:20). We thus arrive at a theological dilemma. On the one hand, the just and righteous God, in His providential care of the nation of Israel is committed to an ethic of reward and punishment (Lev. 26:3-46, Deut. 28:1-69). On the other hand, as we have seen, extreme sanctions on Israel might be perceived as a defeat for God and thus a profanation of His Name.

However, there is a positive side to this equation as well. Should a situation arise in which the name of God is threatened, one may expect providential intervention on behalf of Israel regardless of their merit. Such a situation is described by the prophet Ezekiel: Thus says the Lord, God (Ezek. 36:22) I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out from the countries and bring you into your own land (Ezek. 36:24) I do this not for your sake O House of Israel but for My Holy Name which you have profaned among the nation and I will sanctify My Holy Name among the nations (Ezek 36:23).

God has staked the full actualization of His attribute of sovereign rulership upon universal recognition of His Name. However, for a long time, humanity, exercising the freedom given them by their creator has taken other paths. Has God been thwarted by His own creatures? This brings us back to the prophetic texts cited by Rashi. Zephaniah informs us that ultimately at a time judged “right” by God, conditions will be brought about creating a sort of common perceptions in the light of which all will voluntarily recognize the reality of the moral God. Therefore, finally, “in that day will the Lord truly be ‘one.’”

In summation: within the concept of God’s singularity there resides an aspect of exclusivity, there are no others (Deut. 4:39), which has serious implications for the full realization of His sovereign rulership. This tension between what God wishes and the bitter reality of history has been shown to be reflected in the arguments of Moses and the prophecies of Ezekiel. In the thought of the Rabbis, these theological and prophetic ideas coalesce to transmute the six words of the Sh’ma into a personal commitment of allegiance to the God of Israel as in the mitzvah of kriyat sh’ma as well as a ringing battle cry of confidence in the future, that Judaism’s vision of universal redemption is guaranteed by the dynamic inherent in the words, God is one.⁹