Yesterday I tried a different kind of D’var Torah. We actually looked at sections of the Talmud. It ran longer than I expected but I think that is because people were interested and it was hard to draw the conversation to a close.
Yesterday was the portion that included the 10 Commandments and the Sh’ma. That is a lot of material in one week. I chose to focus just on the Sh’ma. One piece of Talmud that has always fascinated me is the idea of whether someone who is reading the Torah out loud fulfills his obligation for reciting the Sh’ma when this section is read in the Torah. Exactly what we would be doing.
“If someone was reading (the Shema) in the Torah when the time for its recital arrived, he has fulfilled his obligation (to recite the Shema) if he had the intention (to read the Shema from the Torah scroll beforehand).” (Mishnah Berachot 2:1, 13a)
The answer then is yes, it counts in order to fulfill the obligation of saying Sh’ma—but only if the reader has the intention, the kavanah. So I asked the question—what is intention? People answered that it has something to do with the heart, it is something you want to do, not simply because you have to but because you want to. When I am talking about it in a prayer context, it is the opposite of keva, structure. For me it is the thoughts that go on behind the words on the page, that draw me closer to G-d. So as long as you have the intention, the kavanah of fulfilling your obligation, you are fulfilled.
What is this about obligation? Why are we obligated to say the Sh’ma two times a day. What is with this specific prayer? Is it a prayer at all? It seems like a statement.
The Talmud teaches that we are obligated to say the Sh’ma both in the evening (the beginning of the Jewish day which starts at sunset) and in the morning. It asks the question, “From when”.
From what time may one recite the Shema in the evening? From the time that the priests enter [their houses] in order to eat their terumah until the end of the first watch, the words of Rabbi Eliezer.The sages say: until midnight. Rabban Gamaliel says: until dawn. Once it happened that his sons came home [late] from a wedding feast and they said to him: we have not yet recited the [evening] Shema. He said to them: if it is not yet dawn you are still obligated to recite. And not in respect to this alone did they so decide, but wherever the sages say “until midnight,” the mitzvah may be performed until dawn…Why then did the sages say “until midnight”? In order to keep a man far from transgression.
We learn a couple of important things here. That somehow our prayers are connected to what used to happen in the Temple. They are our obligation just like the sacrifices used to be so we are under the same timeframes. We learn that parents then are not much different than parents now. The father was sitting up waiting for his sons to return after an evening of partying and reminded them that they still have obligations. Can’t you just imagine that conversation with your own teenagers who are out past curfew? “Glad you are home. Hope you had a good time. Don’t forget you still have to do your homework, and your chores. You are still obligated to say the Sh’ma.” And we learn about the concept of putting a fence around the Torah so that there is no danger of violating, transgressing its laws. Yes, we can say Sh’ma until dawn. Better to have finished by midnight so we aren’t in danger of making a mistake. One of our members, an attorney, asked how they would know when midnight was. That maybe why the original answer was until dawn. We can tell when that is. Or can we?
FROM WHAT TIME MAY ONE RECITE THE SHEMA IN THE MORNING? FROM THE TIME THAT ONE CAN DISTINGUISH BETWEEN BLUE AND WHITE. R. ELIEZER SAYS: BETWEEN BLUE AND GREEN. AND HE HAS TIME TO FINISH UNTIL SUNRISE. R. JOSHUA SAYS: UNTIL THE THIRD HOUR OF THE DAY, FOR SUCH IS THE CUSTOM OF KINGS, TO RISE AT THE THIRD HOUR. IF ONE RECITES THE SHEMA’ LATER HE LOSES NOTHING, BEING LIKE ONE WHO READS IN THE TORAH. GEMARA: What is the meaning of BETWEEN BLUE AND WHITE? Shall I say: between a lump of white wool and a lump of blue wool? This one may also distinguish in the night! It means rather: between the blue in it and the white in it. It has been taught: R. Meir says: [The morning Shema’ is read] from the time that one can distinguish between a wolf and a dog; R. Akiba says: Between an ass and a wild ass. Others say: From the time that one can distinguish his friend at a distance of four cubits. (Berachot 9b)
Apparently we need to be able to distinguish day from night in order to meet our obligation to say the day time Sh’ma. This section I used to debate with myself driving to New York for rabbinical school. When exactly, precisely, is dawn, is sunrise. Notice that we have in Hebrew different words for the beginning of the day, like we have in English. There is Hanetzh hahamah (the glittering, the sparkling of the sun, just as it is about to come over the horizon about a tenth of an hour before “sunrise.” I love this image and think about it when I am up that early. The glittering of the day. Full of promise and hope. Holy sparks flying. Sunrise is Amud hashachar, literally the standing, the rising of the sun.
When you can distinguish blue from white? That’s easy and car headlights make it much simpler. When you can distinguish blue from green? Harder. Much harder but I was always intrigued by the green highway signs. Why did we pick green for this if it is so much harder to do? What about these animals. Can you tell a dog from a wolf? A dog from a coyote? Between a sand hill crane and a deer? Not always. You need light to do so. What about the subtlety between a wild ass and a domesticated one? I am not sure I could do that at midday. So what is this about? What is it that you need light for? I like the idea that you need to be able to recognize a friend. For me that is about building community. Prayer, therefore, is about community, not just me driving in my car somewhere between Boston and New York. However, is it OK if you are driving and it becomes sunrise to stop the car to davven?
The school of Shammai says: In the evening all people should recline and recite [the Shema], and in the morning they should stand, since it says [in the verse (Deut. 6:7)], “When you lie down and when you arise.” But the school of Hillel says: Each person may recite it in his usual way (posture), since it says (ibid.), “When you walk on the road.” If so, why does it say “when you lie down and when you arise”? [It means:] at the time when people are lying down, and at the time when people are arising. Said Rabbi Tarfon: “I was once traveling on the road, and I reclined to recite [the Shema] in accordance with the view of the school of Shammai, and [by doing so] I put myself in danger of [attack by] bandits.” They [the other Sages] said to him: “You would have deserved to be guilty for your own fate, since you went against the view of the school of Hillel.”
In times of “great need” like leaving early on a trip, a person may read Sh’ma after Amud Hashahar, after sunrise. Maybe stopping on the Merritt Parkway to recite Sh’ma while watching Hanetz hahamah is a violation of halacha? This portion makes the case that safety comes first! Nonetheless, watching the distinction between hanetz hahamah and amud hashachar surely was pretty and connected me more closely with the Divine and these very passages that talk about saying these very words in your home and on your way. Way, path, road is the real translation of halacha. Think about all of this, the next time you are racing to get out of the house for that early morning, 6AM flight. I think that is why you sometimes see Chasidim davvening at the airport just as sunrise is starting.
Why this level of precision? Because we want to race to fulfill the obligation to pray. If we start the Sh’ma just before dawn, at hanetz hahamah, we can be like the vatikin, the alterkochers of the shul, the pious ones. They want to finish exactly on time so that they can begin the tefilah, the amidah at the earliest possible moment. Not so they can get out on time but so they can be right with G-d, whatever that means. BUT nonetheless, if we delay our own recitation until after sunrise, like the kings, until the third hour, when the kings had the luxury of arising, that is also OK and our obligation is still fulfilled. Ultimately, this time between hanetz hahamah and amud hashachar is an auspicious time.
Nonetheless it is important for your ear to hear what your mouth is saying, in order for you to fulfill your obligation.
MISHNAH. IF ONE RECITES THE SHEMA’ WITHOUT HEARING WHAT HE SAYS, HE HAS PERFORMED HIS OBLIGATION. R. JOSE SAYS: HE HAS NOT PERFORMED HIS OBLIGATION…GEMARA: What is R. Jose’s reason? — Because it is written, ‘Hear’ which implies, let your ear hear what you utter with your mouth. The first Tanna, however, maintains that ‘hear’ means, in any language that you understand. But R. Jose derives both lessons from the word.
We have two important lessons here. The first is that there is something really important about not just reading the words silently to yourself. The Sh’ma is about witnessing G-d is One. That is why the Ayin at the end of Sh’ma and the Dalet at the end of Echad are written larger. G-d is One. Saying it out loud so your own ears can hear what your mouth is saying is part of that witnessing. The other very important lesson here is that you should say these words in whatever language you understand best. Is it good to learn Hebrew? You bet. You learn so much of the subtlety that way. But your ears need to hear and understand what your mouth is saying. Therapists will tell you that part of what makes therapy effective is that patients say out loud what they are feeling in their hearts. Their own ears hear the words that their mouths are speaking. There is a subtle difference between “Hear” and “Listen”. We don’t always hear what we are saying. We don’t always listen. This is a command form. Hear! O Israel. The Lord is One.
The Talmud introduces one other problem for me however. Am I obligated to recite the Sh’ma, even though I am a woman?
Women, slaves, and minors are exempt from the obligation (to fulfill the mitzvot) of the recitation of the Sh’ma (keri’at Sh’ma) and of t’fillin, but they are obligated to fulfill (the mitzvot of) prayer, mezuzah, and the recitation of the grace after meals (birkat hamazon). (Berachot 23a)
I spent a semester on this chapter of the Talmud. It is a complicated concept. It is important to note that women appear to be exempt but not forbidden. The argument is that saying Sh’ma is a positive, time bound commandment. But as we have just seen, it is not entirely clear what the timing is. What we do know: The Sh’ma should be said twice a day, when you lie down and when you rise up. Even if women really are exempt, it is permissible for a woman to say the Sh’ma. Even the Talmud in Kiddushin 34a cautions us to not draw any conclusions about who is exempt from time bound mitzvoth, precisely because there are so many exceptions to what a person is obligated to. Nonetheless, prayer, in this case specifically the tefilah is not considered time bound. People—men, women, children, slaves, strangers, are entitled to do it any time because as the Gemara later teaches it is because of the compassion of G-d that we have access to prayer.
Because it was a discussion, a study session, where I divided the group into chevruta, small groups of friends, it ran long. It takes longer for people to wrestle with the text themselves and be able to teach something to the whole group. But it also creates a deeper sense of mastery and ownership. When we finally read the words, “Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad” out of the scroll, we knew what we were were saying. It was a holy moment, full of kavanah, intention.
So we are obligated to recite the Sh’ma, when we lie down and when we rise up. When we can distinguish between blue and green and the faces of our friends. We need to say these very words out loud so our ears can hear what our mouths are saying and we need to do it with intention—because we want to not because we have to.
Hear! O Israel. The Lord. Is our G-d. The Lord is One!