Hear, O Israel

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

When Israel enters a land of cities it did not build, wells it did not dig, vineyards it did not plant, "then beware lest thou forget the LORD." "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." And when a child asks, "What mean the testimonies?" the answer is a story: "We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out."

Reading the words closely

• Shema: "hear," but also "heed" and "obey."
• YHWH eloheinu YHWH echad: "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" or "The LORD is our God, the LORD alone." The grammar allows both: a statement about God's unity, or about Israel's exclusive loyalty. They overlap but are not identical.
• Levav, "heart": in Hebrew the seat of thought and will as well as feeling.
• Nephesh, "soul": life, the whole living person, rather than a separate immortal soul.
• Me'od, "might": literally "very much," all one's strength or resources; the rabbis read it as including one's wealth.

Tefillin and mezuzot from Qumran

The Qumran caves preserved dozens of tefillin (phylactery) slips and some mezuzot, tiny parchments folded into leather cases, from the 1st century BC and 1st century AD. They contain passages from Exodus 12–13 and Deuteronomy 5–6 and 10–11, but not always the same selection as later rabbinic rules: some include the Ten Commandments and longer sections. They show that the command of 6:8–9 was being kept literally in the late Second Temple period.

The Shema in Judaism and Christianity

The Mishnah opens with the question of when to recite the Shema in the evening. It is the first prayer taught to Jewish children and traditionally the last words said before death; Rabbi Akiva, executed by Rome, is remembered dying with "one" on his lips. Asked for the first commandment, Jesus quoted it (Mark 12:29–30), and he answered the tempter in the wilderness from this chapter: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:7, quoting 6:16) and "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:10, quoting 6:13).