This week’s parsha, veetchanan contains the text of the shema. Although we are all aware of its importance and we recite it frequently oftentimes it enhances our practice to review some teachings of chazal related to a practice which often becomes habitual.
Rambam writes in sefer hamitzvot that the first words of ths shema are one of the principles of the 613 mitzvot: to accept upon ourselves god’s kingship with full acceptance.
The Gra’ writes that it is for that reason that our teachers chose to begin the talmud with the discussion of the appropriate time to say the evening shema. For this is the first rabbinic obligation :the recitation of the evening shema which is the first mitzvah performed when reaching the age of 13
A few comments on the text:
Rambam had a problem with the idea of a commandment to love (you shall love god with all your heart) present in the shema After all, one can command an action but not a feeling. And what should one do if he simply does not have that feeling of love ?
The sefat emet answers that everyone has at their deepest root this feeling of love for God but one must work to awaken it and bring it from potential to action. So the mitzvah "ve ahavta" is to work to awaken that feeling of love and bring it to the open.
Another teaching on veahavta:
Veahavta is taught 3 times:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself (lev 19:18)
You shall love him as yourself (lev 19 34)
And the reference in the shema
Since "ayn mookdam u meuchar" there is no earlier or later in the torah we learn that it is impossible to reach the level of love of god without first reaching the love of Israel (mankind) before hand. In other words both types of ahava are linked.
Many chachamim interpreted the words of the shema "b kol meodecha" not as with all your might as appears in most English translations but rather link the "meod" to material wealth. Chazal teach that one is to pray as much when in distress as in good circumstances.
Or as Rabbi Pinhas Halevi wrote:
Most people observe mitzvoth during their time of material need it is the exceptional person that worships god out of material success.
As is always the case, chazal can take a text and draw from it philosophical, behavioral and ethical teachings. In their hands the shema is far from a simple text recited thrice daily, it is a statement of interpersonal behavior, a halachic text and an insight into the individual’s religious inclination.
Shabbat shalom