This history of the Shema was researched and compiled by Al Tauber of 
the Humanistic Jews of Greater Portland in 1994-1995


                  THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SHEMA

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, The Lord is One",the
Shema,has been the defining prayer of Judaism.

It is the first prayer taught to children as soon as they begin
to speak.

It is said before retiring.

It is contained in the mezuzah placed on the doorpost.

It is the prayer said when dying.

It the prayer uttered by millions of Jewish martyrs at the
moment of their slaughter.

By saying the Shema twice a day the ignorant and time poor
could achieve the same status as Torah students.

Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel) is the password by which one
Jew recognizes another in any part of the world.

It is identified with the Jewish historical contribution of
ethical monotheism to the world.

It is the prayer with the strongest emotional meaning even
for secular Jews.

The Shema is in Jewish thought the supreme affirmation of the
unity of God and is frequently called "acceptance of the yoke of
the Kingdom of Heaven"

The worshippers who recites it, proclaim, their alliance to
the Kingdom of Heaven, and their joyful submission to God's laws
and commandments.

The Shema is so familiar to us that it seem to be a part of
the essence of Jewishness it compels us to say things we can't
believe.

We tend to project on the past our current understandings
of Judaism.  Particularly with a prayer such as the Shema.

The discussion of the Shema will examine the political,
cultural,and religious setting in which the Shema arose.  It will
explore how the meaning of the Shema changed over a 3000 year
time period.
 
The discussion will also address how the Shema was chosen to
be the central prayer of the daily morning and evening service and
how is was programmed by the rabbis into the historic role it
has played in the preservation of Judaism.

Recognizing the deep resonance this ancient phrase has had for
Jews throughout their history and the strong memories it
evokes,Humanistic communities have incorporated a Humanistic
version of the Shema into their ceremonies.

The Shema has had multiple meanings. They developed to
meet different political, religious, and secular events that
occurred since approximately 1000 BCE.  These meanings include:

The Hebrew tribal gods of the north (Elohim) and of the
south(Yahveh) are one.

The Hebrew God (Adonai) is the only God that Hebrews
should worship.

The Hebrew God should only be worshipped in Jerusalem.

The Hebrew God can be worshipped anywhere.

The Hebrew God is the most powerful of all gods.

The Hebrew God is the only god in the world. (Monotheism)

The Jewish God is a just and merciful God and the only God in
the world. (Ethical Monotheism)

Our people are one, humanity is one. (Humanistic Shema)

The Shema and its meaning at a point in time was shaped
by struggles for power between different Jewish kings and
kingdoms,different priestly families, the prophets,the rabbis,
and the various conquerors of the Hebrew people.  The destruction
of the temple twice, and the diaspora, created demands for new
definitions as does secularization today.

The struggle for power is a universal activity of all nations
and groups.  Neither priests, prophets, or rabbis were indifferent
to its attraction.

The Kingdom of Israel (also known as Samaria) was created
around1400 BCE through the invasion, by a group of Hebrew tribes,
into an area in northern palestine.

The Kingdom of Judah (whose people were known as Jews) was
created around 1200 BCE through the invasion, by a different group
of Hebrew tribes, into an area in southern palestine.

The confederation of Judah included members from the tribe of
Levi who were known as communicators with the supernatural world
of gods and demons.  They descended from Moses and Aaron.
The Jews and Israelites were two distinct military
confederations and nations.  Each had its own capital.  Each had
it own god.  They didn't even like each other.

At the time of David Israel was the larger of the two. Of
men capable of wielding a sword 1,100,000 were in Israel and
470,000were in Judah.

The hebrew's political life was organized around tribes each
with its chosen leader as well as judges and priests.

About 1000 BCE after the death of Saul (the first Hebrew King)
the issue of succession to be King of Judah and Israel was
highly contested.

The critical contest was between the Son of Saul and David who
was headquartered at Hebron.  A cold war raged between the
two political forces.  David initially used persuasion and
politics. It was replaced by armed battles.  In the long 7 1/2
year war between the house of David and the house of Saul David's
position become stronger with Saul's son's general switching
sides. Intrigue, murder, and assassinations took place with
Saul's son being assassinated.

The elders of the northern tribes agreed to a covenant
appointing David as king of all of Israel and Judah as the best
hope of deliverance from the hands of the Philistines.

He would rule over a united kingdom for 33 years.

David needed a new capital that did not have an association
with either the North or the South.  He chose Jerusalem since it
was in middle ground and captured it.

The kings power was checked and balanced by the powers of
the tribal leaders, the chief priests, and above all, the
prophets.

The king needed the tribes because the tribal muster provided
the king with an army. The king needed prophetic designation
and priestly support because religion was not separated from
anything.It was a persuasive part of life.

David and his advisors created a myth which maintained that
the Jews and Israelites shared a common ancestry.

David appointed two chief priests in Jerusalem, one from the
north and one from the south.  David's northern priest was a
descendent of Moses.  David southern priest was a descendant of
Aaron. These were the two priestly families.

During the unification of Judah (southern Jews who's God was
Yahveh) and Israel (northern Jews who's God was Elohim) the
meaning of the Shema became "The Hebrew tribal gods of the north
(Elohim)and of the south (Yahveh) are one.

Indicative of the organization of religion under King David was
the fact that 38000 Levities working for the religious
establishment.

The Levi family of Zadok (descendants of Aaron) were chosen
by Solomon to run the temple and the other Levites were exiled to
the north and given public charity because they were still family.

Under Solomon and his son the consolidated Kingdom fell apart
and reverted to two Kingdoms Israel and Judah once again.

The next big player in the history of the Shema was King Josieh. 
He led a spiritual reawakening between the fall of Israel and
the Fall of Judah.

As the Assyrian armies withdrew in the face of the
Babylonian threat, they abandoned the land of Israel.  This was an
opportunity for the Jews to move in.  However Josiah had to
overcome centuries of rivalry.
                                            
If all the temples were closed down except the one in
Jerusalem,and if all Israelis were compelled to offer their gifts
to Yahveh and accept Jerusalem then they would come to accept the
royal house.

Josiahs'angle was to  attribute to God the reforms he wanted
to institute.  The peg was a dramatic one which was to introduce
these reforms as the words of Moses.  There was a discovery of an
old book written by Moses (Deuteronomy) while cleaning out the
temple.

It included laws governing ecclesiastical affairs and the
organization of the church.   Making it the word of God.

The second idea was packaging it for export.

The King (622 BCE) read Deuteronomy to all the peoples who
were required to assemble in Jerusalem.

This created a wave of patriotism and religious awakening
that swept the entire nation of Judah.  He also invaded Israel
and absorbed the remaining Israelites.  He destroyed all of the
places of worship except for Jerusalem.

The Shema now was given a new meaning. It was "The Hebrew
God(Adonai) is the only God that Hebrews should worship and he
has to be worshipped in Jerusalem."  Up till then Jews had been
pagans and worshipped many pagan gods.

This emerging of an inner discipline was that begun by Josiah
and perfected and finished by the Prophets was what was carried
into Babylon by the Jews (the leaders) who were exiled there after
the first fall of the temple in 587 BCE.

The captives of Judah carried with them into captivity
and implacable will to survive as Jews.

Prophets (Jeremiah) said the fall of the temple was because
the Jews did not worship properly.  His god wanted higher
moral standards that included no more sacrifice.  

Jeremiah's God punished Judah and Israel because of paganism.
Jeremiah was the a jewish cultist programmer and he said
"Deep within them I will plant my law writing it on their hearts."

He authored the original version of Deuteronomy.

This led to the creation of synagogues that were places of
both study and worship.

2nd Josiah created the next modification of the Shema "God is
the only god". (Monotheism) in Babylon.

The Torah as we know it today was originated in Babylon
and finalized by Ezra in 444 BCE. 

The Babylonian Jews were deeply concerned by intermarriage
in Babylon and wrote a prohibition of it into the Torah.

Meanwhile back in Jerusalem after the Greeks overthrew
the Babylonians and after a small Jewish rebellion the Greeks
attached Judah to the remains of Israel (who were worshipping a
modified Yahweh by now)

Persia gave the Babylonian Jews the opportunity to move back in
and rebuild the temple. The second move back was led by a Zadok
priest named Ezra that established a 300 year dynasty of Priests. 
They declared all of the northern Jews to be fakes since the
Assyrians had moved all of them into exile and the pretenders
were slaves who were brought into the area to replace them.  

They used the same technique that Josiah used of reading the
Torah to the Jewish people assembled in Jerusalem. 
They institutionalized the reading of the Torah during the year.

They then insisted on the elimination of intermarriage and made
all Judah Jews divorce their foreign wives.

Ezra (458 BCE) also was a programmer and insisted that the
general population live according to all of the laws of the bible
just like priests.

The Shema now meant that "The Hebrew God should only be
worshipped in Jerusalem by members of the Judah tribes."

The Babylon Torah included an explanation of why the Zadokites
had been granted supreme and absolute power over all the Jews.  It
made the High Priest the chief ruler of the Jews.

It also eliminated for all time the role of the prophets in
the future because the teaching of Moses was eternal, infallible,
and complete.

The ordinary Jew was required to devote large amounts of time
to ritual.

In 444 BCE Ezra canonized the Torah into its final form as we
know it today.

The next players in the story of the Shema were the rabbis. 
They faced both harsh Romans who destroyed the temple 70 CE and
the necessity to equip the jewish people with a system of worship
to carry with them during their wanderings. 

The most progressive of the sects in the Holy Land were
the Pharisees.  They were passionately spiritual Jews.  They
believed that the whole of Israel was called to be a holy nation
of priests. God would be present in the humblest home as well as
in the Temple. They cultivated a sense of God's presence in the
smallest detail of daily life.  Jews could now approach him
directly without the mediation of a priestly caste and an
elaborate ritual.

The development of the synagogue and Torah study were
the instruments that kept Jewish tradition and the Jewish faith
alive and that made them accessible to the rank and file of the
Jewish people.

The Shema which had been part of the daily worship in the
temple was taken over to the synagogue, by the Rabbis and given a
central place in the morning and evening prayers.  This became
assured and hallowed through Rabbi Akiba's martyrdom.

Rabbi Akiba, one of the key rabbis at that time (130 CE), and
a supporter of the Bar Kochba rebellion against Rome gave the
Shema special significance. Rome had banned the study of Torah.
Whoever taught Torah and whoever studied Torah were condemned
to death.  He was sentenced to death by torture.  At the time of
his death he was reciting the Shema because that happened to be
the hour for its recitation.    

He prolonged the word echad (the last word of the Shema) until
he expired while saying it.  This created the identification of
the Shema with martyrdom.

God was now acknowledged as singular or unique or
extraordinary,who in His wisdom had bound himself to the people
of Israel. In repeating the Shema the Jew directed himself to this
special relationship, he gloried in it, and pledged his very life
to witness to the Holy One.  One God was seen to imply one
humanity and therefore demanded the brotherhood of all; and
linked monotheism and morality. These principles were seen by
generations of Jews as rays shining forth from the Shema, as from
a diamond set into a crown of faith and proven true and enduring
in human history.

It included that all jews brothers, and responsible for
ransoming Jewish slaves.  A standard liturgy was created
prescribing forms of worship.  It created the minion and 120 jews
became a Jewish community.  God was now present in the smallest
detail.
 
It became a time of Rabbis instead of priests.  Synagogues
instead of temples and an even deeper embedding of Jewishness into
the population

The sages of the Talmud promoted a doctrine of divine
revelation which made the rabbi indispensable. The oral law was
the ultimate OK for the rabbinic authority. 

The Talmud, codifying the oral law, was compiled in the second
half of the fourth century.

Search for new meanings by the rabbis kept the movement up to
date.

Kept dissemination of new meanings and control via the Responsa
and a worldwide courier service of traveling sages. This kept
the Talmud up to date and modified to meet emerging circumstances,

The next evolution of the Shema took place during the
Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. 
There wording of the Shema could help resolve conflict
between tradition and humanism.

Rabbi Sherwin Wine developed the Humanistic Shema.

The Humanistic Shema is:  Hear, O Israel, our people are
one,humanity is one.

It has the same underlying meanings as the older Shema.  

Substituting humanity is one vs. the theist "the Lord is One. is
a continued evolution the Shema as Humanistic Judaism searches
for new meanings inherent in the Jewish experience.

The Humanistic Shema preserves the sound and the rhythm of
the Shema and uses this defining prayer as a bridge between the
old and the new.

The first phrase "our people are one" is in the tradition of
David meaning all of the Jewish people are one.

The second phrase "humanity is one" reinterprets the "the Lord
is one" to have meant that there is only one God in all of the
world.
 
That all people are the creation of the same supernatural being.
This universalistic outlook inherent in the monotheistic
concept is expressed as "humanity is one." 

Thus, the humanistic Shema and the theistic Shema resemble
each other, not only in sound and rhythm, but also in the
underlying meaning.