Shema Yisrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
There is one upper force called “Nature.” In Hebrew Gematria, “HaTeva” (Nature) and “Elohim” (God) both equal 86. From this force comes one all-encompassing law that embraces all of reality and advances it toward a single purpose, adhesion with the single upper force..
Each one of us exists under this force and fulfills its law, either compulsorily or through awareness and desire.
If we are already within its system from the outset, then what can we really ask for?
Love.
“And you shall love the Lord your God.”
To love Him with all your heart, with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination. With all your soul and with all your might. With everything that is within you.
What does it mean to love Him?
It means to make ourselves similar to Him. His nature is love and bestowal. Through this nature He sustains reality. If we too begin to function according to an inner law of love and bestowal, we will rise to His level, and this will be called loving Him.
In other words, “Shema Yisrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is One” is essentially a declaration: “I want to become loving and benevolent, like You.”
How does one attain such love for the upper force?
The sages said, “From love of people to love of the Creator.” This is a formula.
We need to develop love for everyone, to feel them as close to us as ourselves, and when we achieve such an attitude, we will be able to attain love of the Creator.
Therefore, Shema Yisrael describes the precise way we are meant to act in the world, according to the law of love.
Why is this specifically connected to Israel? It is because at our foundation we became a nation when we committed ourselves to attaining unity, mutual responsibility, and being “as one man with one heart.” At Mount Sinai, we were prepared to become such a nation, and we received the guidance for attaining love of the Creator.
The recitation of the Shema is a commitment of the heart that every action in our life will bring us closer to love. Of course, this is beyond whatever we must do simply in order to survive.
We educate our heart. We teach it to receive another person’s desires as though they were our own and to care about fulfilling them. Through such exercises, the heart begins to incorporate others as though they were us. Gradually, we emerge from self-concern and become spread out among others, experiencing reality through them.
Then we discover that, indeed, a higher force dwells in the world.
How does this happen exactly? That force exists outside our ego, and other people also exist outside our ego. Therefore, if we are able to rise above the boundaries of egoistic perception and unite with others through love, to that same extent we begin to feel the single force that exists throughout creation.
There is nothing higher than the Shema.
In these words are all the states we must pass through, from the evil inclination to the good inclination, throughout every stage of development.
For example, “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand” symbolizes the light of Hassadim, while “And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” symbolizes the light of Hochma, different spiritual states attained in the soul after love has been developed.
From a broader perspective, humanity’s development has brought us into an interconnected world. Whether we like it or not, life shows us that we depend on each other.
In such a reality, we will be compelled to advance to the feeling that we are all one family. Otherwise, we will not survive.
The network of connection is closing in around us. It contains an inner program that obligates us to reach balance, connection, and complementarity. When each person thinks only of themselves and exploits others and the environment, the network shakes us forcefully. Every individual experiences some form of shock, and the correct response is: “Shema Yisrael. The Lord our God. The Lord is One.” In other words, we internalize that only one force operates in the world, and that everything that happens is intended to advance us toward love for all.
The sages established the practice of reciting the Shema in the morning and in the evening. This directs us to connect with the Creator before every action, i.e., with the force of love and bestowal. As it is written, “There is none else besides Him.”
Then, we go out to act in the world according to His law. We will try with all our heart to be like Him, i.e., to be good, benevolent, loving, and giving. At the conclusion of the action, whether or not we succeeded, we return to Him once again. Whatever happened, He arranged the picture in that way.
Thus, Shema Yisrael essentially says: Whoever wishes to connect directly to the upper force and participate with it in the general law of nature must understand that there is no other force operating in reality.
Everyone is activated by it like puppets, like pieces on a chessboard. But we can connect to it consciously. We can feel how it sustains us and moves us in every motion. To do so, we must constantly examine how we can love and give to the greatest extent possible. This is how we will increasingly feel how the force of the Creator exists within us and guides us, the profound meaning contained in the declaration, “The Lord is One.”
Based on “New Life 177 – Shema Israel (Hear O’Israel)” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
