Parashat Va'etchanan

The recitation of the Shema. The verse that every Jew knows, the passage we read twice a day, the passage written on the mezuzah of every Jewish home, appears in this week's portion, 'Va'etchanan.' But what is it about this passage that turns it into such a deep summit of faith? Rav Kook writes that the first passage of 'Shema Yisrael' indicates absolute faith in the Holy One, blessed be He, that does not depend on reward and punishment, not on the past and not on the future. After it comes the passage of 'And it shall be if you hearken,' which deals with faith as it appears within reality: in a world of nature and history, of cause and effect, of reward and punishment, and of a living connection between the commandments and the orders of life. And then come the passages of 'Sanctify' and 'And it shall be when He brings you,' passages of memory, of the greatness of God as it was seen in our world, of a holy seal engraved in the heart of the nation. The recitation of the Shema is a proclamation of faith, because it unifies within itself all its shades: from the place that accepts its faith in the Holy One, blessed be He, without need of explanation, through the appearance of that faith within the laws of reality, to the connection to our past, present, and future.

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