From: Deuteronomy 6:2-6
The Shema
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
6:1-9. This is a very moving text and one of special importance for the faith and
life of the chosen people. The high-point comes at v. 5, which is reminiscent of
other pages of the Old Testament (Deut 10:12; Hos 2:21-22; 6:6). The love which
God seeks from Israel is preceded by God’s love for Israel (cf. Deut 5:32-33).
Here we touch one of the central points of God’s revelation to mankind, both in
the Old and in the New Testament: over and above everything else, God is love
(cf., e.g., 1 Jn 4:8-16).
Verse 4 is a clear, solemn profession of monotheism, which is a distinctive fea-
ture of Israel that marks it out from the nations round about (cf. the note on 5:6-
10). The first Hebrew word of v. 4 (”shema”: “Hear”) has given its name to the fa-
mous prayer which the Israelites recited over the centuries and which is made up
largely of 6:4:9; 11:18-21 Numbers 15:37-41. Pious Jews still say it today, every
morning and evening. In the Catholic Church, vv. 4-7 are said at Compline after
first vespers on Sundays and solemnities in the Liturgy of Hours.
The exhortations in vv. 8-9 were given a literal interpretation by the Jews: this is
the origin of phylacteries and of the “mezuzah”. Phylacteries were short tassels
or tapes which were attached to the forehead and to the left arm, and each tas-
sel held a tiny box containing a biblical text, the two Deuteronomy texts of the
“Shemá” plus Exodus 3:1-10, 11-16; in our Lord’s time the Pharisees wore wider
tassels to give the impression that they were particularly observant of the Law (cf.
Mt 23:5). The “mezuzah” is a small box, attached to the doorposts of houses,
which contains a parchment or piece of paper inscribed with the two texts from
Deuteronomy referred to; Jews touch the “mezuzah” with their fingers, which
they then kiss, on entering or leaving the house.
6:5. God asks Israel for all its love. Yet, is love something that can be made the
subject of a commandment? What God asks of Israel, and of each of us, is not
a mere feeling which man cannot control; it is something that has to do with the
will. It is an affection which can and should be cultivated by taking to heart, ever-
more profoundly, our filial relationship with our Father; as the New Testament (1
Jn 4:10, 19) will later put it: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.[...] We love, because
he first loved us.” That is why God can indeed promulgate the precept of love; as
he does in this verse of Deuteronomy (6:5) and further on in 10:12-13.
“With all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (v. 5): the wor-
ding shows that love for God should be total. Our Lord will quote these verses (4-
5), which were so familiar to his listeners, when identifying the first and most im-
portant of the commandments (cf. Mt 12:29-30).
“When someone asks him, ‘Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?’
(Mt 22:36), Jesus replies: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first com-
mandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets’ (Mt 22:37-40;
cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). The Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this two-
fold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law” (”Catechism of
the Catholic Church”, 2055).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.