![]() ![]() The opening line of the prayer is its most significant: Religious Jews recite the Shema prayer twice a day, upon arising in the morning and upon going to bed at night, and the prayer also forms an important part of the morning and evening prayer services. The significance of the Shema prayer in Judaism can be seen from the fact that not only is it one of the first prayers taught to small children, but its first line in particular is recited as a confession of faith by those about to die. But, like Judaism itself, the prayer does not confine itself to theological positions and contains a number of practical observances to be undertaken by a religious Jew. The prayer starts with the most fundamental of Jewish beliefs – monotheism, the belief that there is only one God (for many centuries this was the major point of distinction between Judaism and other faiths and this changed only with the birth of the other monotheistic faiths, Christianity and Islam). The first passage is Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, the second passage is Deuteronomy 11: 13-21, and the third passage is Numbers 15: 37-41. ![]() These three passages are referred to as the three paragraphs of the Shema. The prayer in fact consists of three biblical passages with just a single line of additional text inserted after the first line of the first passage. This Jewish prayer, like many others, is known by its opening words, ‘Shema Yisrael’ or, more simply, as the ‘Shema’. The Hebrew words ‘Shema Yisra’el’ are the opening words of the Shema prayer ![]()
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