Exploring Reform Liturgy: Sh'ma

Blessed is the Name. Having proclaimed God as our King, we are grateful for the privelege of serving the One Whose kingdom is eternal and unbounded.

This verse is recited in an undertone because:

• a) At Jacob's deathbed his children affirmed their loyalty to God by proclaiming the verse Shema ["Israel" in this context referring to Jacob]. Jacob responded: "Blessed is the Name..." The Sages taught: Should we say these words in our prayers because Jacob said them? Yes. But, on the other hand, Moses did not transmit them to us, for they are not found in the Torah. Therefore, let us say them softly (Pesachim 56a).
• b) Moses heard this beautiful prayer from the angels, and taught it to Israel. We dare not say it aloud, because we are sinful and therefore unworthy of using an angelic formula. On Yom Kippur however, when Israel elevates itself to the sin-free level of angels, we do proclaim it loudly (Devarim Rabba 2:36)

Art Scroll

Reform congregations say [the Sh'ma] standing. Halakhah prescribes sitting not standing for the Sh'ma. The issue goes back to a debate between Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai, in which Bet Hillel ruled successfully that the Sh'ma should be said in whatever position one happened to be when the time of its recitation arrived. In the ninth century, the Babylonian Gaon, Amram, enforced that position, as part of his religio-political attack on the Palestinians who still said the Sh'ma standing. His successful championing of the Hillelite perspective eventually entered the codes of Jewish law, which justified the Hillelite-Amram position with a variety of ex post facto arguments, that became standard Halakhah. When the Crusaders overran Palestine, destroying native Palestinian Jewish custom in the process, the Palestinian practice of standing died too, so that Jews around the world now sat for the Sh'ma as Amram had insisted.

Reform Jews, however, saw the Sh'ma as central to their claim that Judaism's uniqueness lay in its discovery of ethical monotheism. Wanting to acknowledge the centrality of the Sh'ma, and recognizing that people generally stand for the prayers that matter most, they began standing for the Sh'ma despite the Halakha. They justified their position by arguing that the halakhic act of sitting for the "watchword of Jewish faith" was inconsistent with the halakhic principle of accepting the yoke of heaven: how could one not stand to proclaim God one?

Lawrence A. Hoffman, My People's Prayer Book Vol. 1

My own approach combines two doctrines of the Rabbis. I too admit that in the end, we cannot fathom God's justice: whether we are talking about individuals or communities, it is simply not true that the righteous always prosper and the wicked suffer and I do not know why that is. I also believe that "the reward of performing a commandment is [the propensity and opportunity to perform another] commandment, and the result of doing a wicked thing is [the propensity and opportunity to do another] wicked thing" (M. Avot 4:2). That is, we should do the right thing because it is the right thing and not out of hope for reward, and we should avoid evil acts because they are evil and not out of fear of punishment.

This approach is a far cry from the direct, reward-and-punishment thinking of the second paragraph of the Sh'ma, and yet I recite the Sh'ma each day because it proclaims God's justice, and justice must be a critical element in the God I affirm. The calculus of reward and punishment articulated in this paragraph may be too simple and ultimately inaccurate, and, for that matter, it may be immoral in the first place to do the right thing and avoid the wrong out of concern for consequences...The Rabbis too had problems with the doctrine of justice announced in this paragraph, but they included it anyway because they too had a deep faith in the ultimate justice of God as the metaphysical backdrop and support for human acts of justice.

Elliot N. Dorff, My People's Prayer Book, Vol. 1