THE TIME FOR THE EVENING SHEMA'

T-1.3: The Sages, Their Concepts and Beliefs, by E. E. Urbach, pp.19-21:

The monotheistic concept of One God, beside whom there is no other, was at the beginning of our epoch [the era of the talmudic sages. E.S.] the heritage of the whole Jewish people. It was not given a new formulation as a dogma, but the duty was introduced to read the verse Deuteronomy 6:1("Hear, O Israel," etc.) twice a day, and this very act implied the establishment of the belief in the Unity of God as the supreme creed. When was this practice made obligatory? We have no tradition on the subject. The Mishnah assumes the existence of the custom as something well known, as though it were Scriptural, and asks "From what time is the Shema' ('Hear') to be read in the evening?" "From what time is the Shema' to be read in the morning?" With regard to the details of the recital of the Shema', the Tannai'im who lived about the time of the destruction of the Temple--namely the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, and R. Eliezer and R. Joshua--hold different views. In the Mishnah describing the order of the service in connection with the daily sacrifice in the Temple it is stated "They read the Decalogue, Shema', `we-haya `im shamoa' (`And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken'), and wa-yo'mer (`And [the Lord] spoke')." This combination of the Decalogue and the Shema' is found in the Nash Papyrus, about whose exact date scholars are divided. Some date it as early as the second century B.C.E. and others as late as the first century C.E. The abolition of the recital of the Ten Commandments we shall discuss in another context. The precedence given to the recitation of the Decalogue, which obtained not only in the Temple but also outside Jerusalem, apparently points to the fact that it antedated the recital of the Shema' . To the question "Why are these two sections recited every day?" the Amora Rabbi Levi already replied "Because the Ten Commandments are comprised in them." The recitation of the content of the Sinaitic Revelation at the time when the sacrifice was being offered up constituted a renewal, as it were, of the covenant made by the Lord with His people. Now this section--unique in character and as a historic occurrence--is given prominence even in the Torah. When, however, was the section of the Shema' added? We may possibly find a clue to the time, if we note what its first verse adds to the opening commandments of the Decalogue. In the Decalogue it is stated that God is the God of Israel, whom He brought forth from Egypt, and Israel is commanded "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," "Thou shalt not make unto Thee a graven image, nor any likeness." But they contain no express negation of the existence of other gods, such as find expression in the sharp polemic of the prophets, and emerges clearly from the proclamation "The Lord is our God, the Lord is One." In the Persian period the Jews encountered a religion (Hebrew, dat , which is, incidentally, of Persian origin) that was different in many respects from the religions that they had known hitherto, a religion that did not recognize idols. Even if the Achaemenidian kings did not accept the teaching of Zarathustra, but held to the ancient Persian religion, or to the conception that Ahura-Mazda is the god of good and evil, yet he is still the father of the twins ( ainyu ), between whom exists perpetual antagonism; it is clear, therefore, that to people from without the dualistic principle was more in evidence than the distinctions that present-day scholars point out. If in the eyes of Herodotus, the Greek, the Iranian gods, in contradistinction to the Greek deities, appeared far removed from human nature, to the Jews they were gods. The daily proclamation in the one Temple at Jerusalem, "The Lord is our God, the Lord is One," expressed the great difference. The verse preceding "Hear, O Israel" in the Bible is, "Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee--a land flowing with milk and honey." But in the Septuagint we have the following addition: "And these are the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord commanded the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they went forth from the land of Egypt." This addition is found in the Nash Papyrus, and the probability is that it was interpolated into the Septuagint from the liturgy and not vice versa. The recital of the verse amounted to a proclamation vis-à-vis the world, that the God of Israel is the God of the universe and there is none beside Him, which is the sense, in truth, that the Tanna'im gave to the text: "`The Lord is our God' -- over us, `the Lord is One' -- over all mankind."

try to answer the following question

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T-1.4:

Read the following passage from A. Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud , p. 104:

In the Second Temple period, the regular prayer service was augmented by the reciting of the Shema' Yisrael prayer ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One"). This prayer evokes the general obligation to study and memorize the teachings of the Torah at all times, an obligation observed by the individual to the extent that circumstances and time permitted. In order to give this precept fixed form, two excerpts were selected from the Torah that elucidate the basic tenets of Jewish faith and exhort Jews to commit them to memory (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21); these were recited in the early morning and in the evening...

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When you feel that you understand this passage, try to answer the following question.

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T-1.5: The following passage is from the Mishnah , the most important work of Jewish tradition since the Bible. The Mishnah consists for the most part of concise statements of law, frequently presented in the form of disputes between various Rabbis (called "Tanna'im") who lived between the second half of the first century and the beginning of the third century C.E. The following excerpt is from the beginning of the first Tractate of the Mishnah, called Berakhot ("Blessings"), which deals with the prayers and blessings of the daily liturgy.

Mishnah, Berakhot 1:1

FROM WHAT TIME MAY ONE RECITE THE SHEMA' IN THE EVENING? FROM THE TIME THAT THE PRIESTS ENTER IN ORDER TO EAT THEIR TERUMAH UNTIL THE END OF THE FIRST WATCH. THESE ARE THE WORDS OF RABBI ELIEZER. THE SAGES SAY: UNTIL MIDNIGHT. RABBAN GAMALIEL SAYS: UNTIL THE DAWN COMES UP...

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