929/Devarim 3-7: What is Shema?

(4) Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9) inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(3) He [the priest] took the knife and separated the lung from the liver ... They then went down from there to the Chamber of Hewn Stone to recite the Shema.

The appointed [priest] said: “Say one blessing”, and they blessed. They then recited the Ten Commandments, 'Shema', 'Vehaya im Shamoa' and 'Vayomer'. They also blessed the people with three blessings: Emet Veyatsiv, Avodah [from shemone esrai ], and the Birkat Kohanim. On Shabbat, they also blessed the departing watch.

The Mishnah teaches: "...And they read the Ten Commandments, the Shema, Vehayah and Vayomer. Rebi Ami in the name of Resh Lakish: this teaches that omitting the blessings do not preclude reciting [the Shema since the 10 commandments intervened]. Rav Aba said we can conclude nothing from this since the Ten Commandments are the essence of Shema. ‘R. Matna and R. Shemuel b. Nachman both said, “In terms of pure law, people should recite the Ten Commandments daily. Why do they not recite them? Due to the claims of the heretics, lest [the heretics] say that “only these [commandments] were given to Moshe at Sinai.”’

In the Temple they read the Ten Commandments, Shema, VeHaya im Shamoa, VaYomer, Emet veYatziv, the Avoda, and the priestly benediction. Rav Yehuda in Shmuel's name: They sought to recite the Ten Commandments outside the Temple but it was already abolished due to the heretics. As a baraita also states: Rabbi Natan says: They sought to recite the Ten Commandments outside the Temple but it was already abolished due to the heretics. Rabba bar bar Ḥana thought to institute this in Sura, but Rav Ḥisda (c.300) said to him: They already abolished it due to the heretics. So too, Amemar thought to institute this in Nehardea. Rav Ashi (early 400s) said: It was already abolished due to heretics.

The answer: That which the deceased rabbi did, i.e., to sit [during the 10 commandments], is the worthy custom....And so it is fitting to do wherever their custom is to stand, it should be prevented, because what comes from it is a loss of faith because it implies that that has levels, some greater than others and this is wrong. Some heretics believed that only the 10 commandments were from Heaven and Moshe wrote the rest on his own, so they didn't read the rest. Hence we must treat all Torah text as on the same level.

(1) From when may one recite Shema in the evening? From the time when the Kohanim go in to eat their Terumah, until the end of the first watch – so says Rabbi Eliezer. And the Sages say: Until midnight. Rabban Gamliel says: Until the break of dawn. ...

(3) The Shamai school say: In the evening all people should recline and read Shema, and in the morning they should stand, since it says “And when you lie down and when you arise.” But the Hillel school say: Each person may recite it in his usual posture, since it says (ibid.), “And when you walk on the road.” If so, why does it say “and when you lie down and when you arise”? At the time when people are lying down, and at the time when people are arising. Said Rabbi Tarfon: “I was once traveling, and I reclined to read Shema in accord with the Shamai school, and I exposed myself to the risk of bandits.” They said to him: “You were liable for your own fate, since you went against the view of the Hillel school.”

Rav Safra says in Rabbi Yehoshua ben Ḥananya's name: What does it mean: “teach your sons diligently [veshinnantam]”? Do not read “veshinnantam,” rather, veshillashtam [one nun would be twice, an extra nun means thrice]: For person should always divide his years into thirds: A third for Bible, a third for Mishna, and a third for Talmud. Who knows the length of his life [to calculate how long a third will be]? No, it is necessary to divide one’s days into thirds. Therefore, the first Sages had done so much Bible that they were called: Those who count [soferim], because they would count all the letters in the Torah...