(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:
(1) Blessed are You, Hashem our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to be engrossed in the words of Torah.
It has been clearly demonstrated to you that Hashem alone is God; there is nothing else.
להבין הענין נקדים פסוק (ירמיה ב׳, י״ג) אותי עזבו מקור מים חיים כי הוא השם יתברך הוא המקור שממנו השפעות החיות לכל חי בכל האופנים אין עוד מלבדו וכל הדבוק בו הוא דבוק בשורש החיות אשר לא יכזבו מימיו ובלבד אשר לא יהיה הפסקה מצדו כי אם ח״ו על ידי עונותיו יפסיק את עצמו מהמקור יעדר חיותו ממנו אך מצדו יתברך אין שום הפסק כמו שאמר הכתוב (ישעיה נ״ט, ב׳) כי אם עונותיכם היו מבדילים וגו׳
To understand this matter we will begin with the verse, they have forsaken me, the source of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13). Its meaning is that Blessed God is the source from whom comes the flow of life-force to all living things in all manners, there is no other besides [God] (Deut. 4:35); and anyone who is attached to [God] is attached to the root of life-force whose waters do not fail (Isaiah 58:11) – but only so long as there is no blockage from his side. For if, God forbid, on account of his sins he blocks himself from the source, his life-force will become absent; but from Blessed [God’s] side there is no blockage as the verse says, but your iniquities have made a separation [between you and your God] (Isaiah 59:2).
... משה רבינו אמר לישראל, אתה הראת לדעת כי ד׳ הוא האלהים אין עוד מלבדו. לא לדורו בלבד אמר זאת, כי התורה נצחית היא, ומשה רבינו מנהיגנו הנצחי הוא, וגם עתה מכריז ומשמיע לכל לב ונפש ישראל, אתה הראת לדעת כי ד׳ הוא האלהים אין עוד מלבדו. הידיעה שנחשוב שד׳ ית׳ נמצא במרום מחוצה לנו לא די׳ לנו, רק הראת לדעת, שנראה ונרגיש אותו ית׳ הוא העיקר, וגם אתה תלמיד ותיק, כבר הראת מעט לדעת זאת. ואם לא תראה כנביאים והצדיקים הגדולים את שכינת כבודו לנגד עיניך, כבר רמז לנו משה רבינו, וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי ד׳ הוא האלקים, בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת אין עוד. והשבות אל לבבך השב אל לבבך, ותדע כי ד׳ הוא האלקים וכו׳, כי ראה נא מה היא הרעדה אשר בלבך לד׳ ותשוקתך לתורה ומצות ולתפלה אמיתית,... מאין כל אלה בך, אם לא שלפני אדון ד׳ צבאות אשר לנגדה תחיל נפשך ואליו תשתוקק ותתמוגג, וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי ד׳ הוא האלקים, כשתשיב אל לבך אז תדע כי ד׳ הוא האלקים.
Our teacher, Moses, said to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 4:35), "You have been shown, to know that the Lord is God; there is none else beside him." He did not say this to his generation alone. For the Torah is eternal and our teacher, Moses, is our eternal leader. So even now is he announcing and making it known to all Jewish hearts and spirits, "You have been shown, to know that the Lord is God; there is none else beside him." It is not enough for us to have the knowledge that God, may He be blessed, is found above, outside of us. Rather, you have been shown to know - what is central is that you sense and feel Him, may He be blessed. And you, advanced student, have already been shown a little bit to know this. And if you will not sense the Divine Presence of His glory in front of your eyes like the prophets and the great tzaddikim - our teacher, Moses, already hinted to us [what to do, when he said] (Deuteronomy 4:39), "And you shall know this day, and you shall set it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God, in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is none else." "And you shall set it to your heart" - so set it to your heart, and know that "the Lord, He is God, etc." For please note the nature of your trembling in your heart for God and your yearning for Torah, the commandments and true prayer. . . . From where does all of this come to you, if not from that which your spirit is struck by being in front of the Master, the Lord of hosts? It is for Him that you yearn and melt. "And you shall know this day, and you shall set it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God" - when you set [the matter] to your heart, then you will know that the Lord, He is God!
שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהֹוָ֥ה ׀ אֶחָֽד׃
Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH ONE.
“Listen God-wrestler, YHVH is your God, YHVH is One.” The words of the Sh’ma pierce through the veils of illusion. These words have the power to awaken us from our trance of separation that obscures the truth that there is Only God...
WHEN GOD TELLS MOSES to climb the mountain and lift his eyes, we are being invited to receive a glimpse of Unity. From the summit of this mountain, everything that we thought separate, all of the opposites that have warred within us, are suddenly united. It is all Echad — “One.” Then the fullness of Love can flow. Then, “You shall love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.” When we experience the knowledge of the Unity beyond Duality, it takes root inside us, and we become lovers of the highest order.
... ואתה צריך להתבונן בזה כי שנה הכתוב כאן לומר ה' אלהינו ולא אמר אלהיך כמו שאומר בכל מקום שמע ישראל אתה עובר היום וגו' כי ה' אלהיך (להלן ט א ג) שמע ישראל אתם קרבים היום וגו' כי ה' אלהיכם (להלן כ ג ד) וכן בכל הפרשיות שידבר עם ישראל יזכיר ה' אלהיכם או ה' אלהיך וגם בכאן אמר ואהבת את ה' אלהיך אבל הזכיר ביחוד ה' אלהינו כי עשה עם משה את הגדולות ואת הנוראות לעשות לו שם תפארת ה תורה:
...Now you must contemplate [the fact] that Scripture changed [the normal usage] here by saying the Eternal ‘our’ G-d and did not state “thy” G-d as it says everywhere else: Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day etc. Know therefore this day, that the Eternal ‘thy’ G-d etc.; Hear, O Israel, ye draw nigh this day unto battle etc. for the Eternal ‘your’ G-d is He that goeth with you. And so also in all sections where [Moses] spoke to Israel he mentioned “the Eternal your G-d” or “the Eternal thy G-d,” and even here [in this very section] he said, And thou shalt love the Eternal ‘thy’ G-d. However, in this declaration of the Unity [of G-d] Moses said, the Eternal ‘our’ G-d because He had done great and awesome things with Moses to make Himself a glorious Name [therefore Moses said “our G-d,” for had he said “your G-d,” he might have appeared to exclude himself from this declaration of Unity]. ...
Shema yisrael adonai eloheinu adonai ehad. The God-name yud-heh-vav-heh means being or becoming. Being is our God, Being is one. Or even, Becoming is our God. We have to discover what we will see. Becoming is a name for God that invites us not into a fixed image of what is true and right but into imagination.
The Zohar, a foundational work of Jewish mysticism, has an interesting definition of oneness. It teaches that each time we say the Shema, we bring together the faces of God through the combination of the divine names. The Shema is a declaration of oneness that is also a resolution of duality. Listen to the Zohar’s translation: Hear O Israel, the Holy One and the Shekhinah are unified, divinity is at one. In this reading, the Shema isn’t a declaration of a static reality, it’s a theurgic action, a ritual in which we create divine oneness by bringing together God’s faces into a whole. We are actually helping to create oneness by imagining oneness as we say the Shema. This oneness implies not aloneness but togetherness, joining, union— a union we can be part of. A union that includes everyone. The Hasidic thinker Shneur Zalman of Liadi says that the Shema describes a hidden reality in which there is nothing but God, a reality where all being is one.
So of course we read this parashah at the season of Tu b’Av. The fifteenth of Av, this Thursday night, which falls a week after Tisha b’Av, is a folk Israelite festival. It’s mentioned as a grape harvest dancing holiday in the Bible, and in the Talmud it’s mentioned as a holiday in which unmarried women put on white clothes and go out to dance in the fields, and men and the whole community go out to watch this dance, so the women may attract the attention of a potential relationship partner.
Two things about the white clothes: one, they have to be dunked in a mikveh, which means they are holy. Two: the clothes have to be borrowed from someone else. This means the holy dancers cannot be easily recognized in terms of tribe or social status. You have to know who they are, not by what they are wearing or where they live, but by discovering them in motion. This reminds us that we cannot find God in people when we think we know them by their traits or demographics. We have to know them through encounter.