PRAYER
With all your heart
After declaring that Hashem is one, we are called to love him. The first passage of the Shema shows that love taking shape in our attention, speech, time and home.
In this lesson
From “hear” to “love”
The Shema is the recitation of three passages from the Torah, the five books of Moshe (Moses), in our morning and evening prayers. Its first passage, Deuteronomy 6:4–9, opens “Hear, O Israel.” Now read the words that follow. Moshe is teaching Israel how to live in relationship with Hashem.
Ve’ahavta, “You shall love,” is the word you can look for in your siddur, or prayer book. In the prayer service it follows the opening verse and the praise beginning Barukh shem. Read the English beside each Hebrew passage; no Hebrew reading experience is needed to follow its meaning.
וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ
בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶךָYou shall love Hashem your God
with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם
עַל־לְבָבֶךָThese words that I command you today
shall be upon your heart.
Hashem means “the Name,” our reverent way of referring to God. The Hebrew source writes God’s four-letter name. Notice the repeated בְּכָל, bekhol, “with all.” The call is wholehearted: we bring our inner life, our living self and our strength to the love of God.
Which word is repeated before heart, soul and might? What does it emphasize?
“All.” The verse calls for wholehearted love, not a small religious corner kept separate from the rest of life.
What does the next verse place “upon your heart”?
“These words that I command you today.” The passage connects loving Hashem with attending to his teaching. It does not leave love as a feeling without words or direction.
Love reaches what we have
Our sages draw out the reach of “all your might.” The Mishnah, an early collection of their teachings, offers this reading:
ובכל מאודך, בכל ממונך
“With all your might”: with all your wealth.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
This is the Mishnah’s interpretation of the Torah’s phrase. It brings our possessions into the call to love Hashem. What we have and how we use it belong within our service, not outside it. The same Mishnah also reads the phrase as gratitude to Hashem through every measure he gives us.
Begin with a concrete question: what good can I do with something already in my care? Sharing a book, making room at the table or giving tzedakah, charitable support, can turn resources toward service.
Is “with all your wealth” an extra line in Deuteronomy 6:5?
No. It is the Mishnah’s explanation of “with all your might.” Naming the interpreter helps us hear both the Torah’s words and what our sages teach through them.
Let the words travel with you
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם
בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ
וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָTeach them diligently to your children and speak of them
when you sit in your home and when you walk on the way,
when you lie down and when you rise.
“Them” points back to the words placed upon our hearts. We receive the teaching and pass it on. Teaching children asks us to make the words clear enough to share, and to return to them rather than mention them only once.
The paired settings widen the picture: at home and on the road, lying down and rising. Torah belongs in ordinary life, not only in a special room. Rambam connects “when you lie down and when you rise” with the evening and morning recitations in Laws of the Shema, chapter 1. The fixed moments of prayer also remind us to carry the words into the rest of the day.
What are we told to teach and speak about?
The words commanded in the preceding verse. Keeping, teaching and speaking are connected actions, not three unrelated activities.
Name the two pairs of everyday settings without looking back.
At home and on the way; lying down and rising. Their breadth helps us see that Torah accompanies us through place and time.
Does bringing Torah into the whole day make the morning and evening Shema unnecessary?
No. Rambam teaches the morning and evening recitations from this verse. The broader application deepens those practices; it does not replace them.
Words on our bodies and doorposts
וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל־יָדֶךָ
וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָBind them as a sign on your hand;
let them be frontlets between your eyes.וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל־מְזֻזוֹת בֵּיתֶךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
These words take physical form in tefillin and mezuzah. Tefillin are leather housings containing Torah passages, worn on the arm and head. A mezuzah is a parchment containing Torah passages, fixed to a doorpost, usually in a protective case. The parchment, not merely the case, carries the words.
Rambam describes the first Shema passage among the texts in both tefillin and mezuzah. These are actual mitzvot, commandments, not only pictures for remembering. Recognizing them here helps you connect words heard in prayer with Jewish life outside the prayer book. Learn their practical observance with your rabbi or teacher.
What connects a mezuzah to the passage you have just read?
Its parchment contains this first Shema passage, along with Deuteronomy 11:13–21. The Torah’s words about the doorposts take form in a mitzvah at the entrance to our homes.
Follow one movement
Look back across verses 5–9: love, keep close, teach, speak, bind, write. This is a reading aid, not a replacement for the text. It helps us notice love moving into habits and actions.
The movement begins inwardly, upon the heart, and reaches our children, conversations, journeys, bodies and homes. We do not have to choose between inward devotion and outward mitzvot. This passage holds them together.
A reader says, “Only the feeling matters; the later actions are decorations.” Which verses help you respond?
Verses 6–9. The text itself joins love with keeping the words on our hearts, teaching and speaking them, binding them and writing them. The actions belong to the passage’s call, rather than being decorations added to it.
Explore the sources
Deuteronomy 6:4–9: the full first passage. Mishnah Berakhot 9:5: readings of wholehearted love. Rambam, Laws of the Shema, chapter 1: morning and evening, the passages and their order. Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll, chapter 1: the passages written in tefillin and mezuzah. Chapter 5: the mezuzah’s parchment and placement.