The Shema, paragraph by paragraph: what it says and why it is said twice a day

If there is one passage of Torah that most Jews know by heart, it is the Shema. It is often the first verse a child learns and, by long custom, the last words a person says. In between, it is said every morning and every night.

Plenty of people who say it twice a day have never looked closely at what it says. It is only 20 verses, taken from three places in the Torah, and it is worth a few minutes to read slowly.

The first paragraph: Shema and Ve’ahavta

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 6 verses. Moses, near the end of his life, tells the people that God is one, and that they are to love God with all their heart, all their soul and all their might. Then he says where that love should live: in words kept on the heart, taught to children, spoken of at home and on the road, when lying down and when getting up. The words are to be bound on the hand and between the eyes, which is the source of tefillin, and written on the doorposts and gates, which is the source of the mezuzah.

That one paragraph holds a whole way of life. It moves from a single statement of belief to the most ordinary places in a day: the kitchen table, the commute, bedtime.

The second paragraph: Vehaya im shamoa

Deuteronomy 11:13-21, 9 verses. Here the voice turns to the whole people, in the plural. If you listen to the commandments, the rain will come in its season and the land will give grain, wine and oil. If you turn to other gods, the sky will close. The paragraph then repeats the instructions of the first, tefillin, teaching children and the mezuzah, and ends with the promise of long days in the land.

The third paragraph: Vayomer

Numbers 15:37-41, 5 verses. God tells Moses to have the people put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, so that they will look at them and remember all the commandments, and not be led by whatever their hearts and eyes want. It closes with the line “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”

Why these three, in this order

The Mishnah asks this directly (Berakhot 2:2). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha explains that the first paragraph comes first so that a person accepts the kingship of Heaven before accepting the commandments, which is what the second paragraph is about. The second comes before the third because it applies by day and by night, while the commandment of tzitzit applies only by day.

So why is the third paragraph said at night at all? Because of its last line. The Mishnah (Berakhot 1:5) rules that the Exodus is mentioned at night as well, and the end of the tzitzit paragraph is where that happens.

One more line is said, though it is not in the Torah: baruch shem kevod malchuto le’olam va’ed, blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever. It follows the first verse, and because it is not part of the biblical text it is said quietly, except on Yom Kippur. Many people cover their eyes for the first verse, a custom the Talmud traces to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Berakhot 13b).

When it is said

The Shema at bedtime

The bedtime Shema, kriat shema al hamitah, is the most personal of the three. Siddurim differ in the details, but it usually includes a short prayer forgiving anyone who wronged you that day, the blessing Hamapil (Berakhot 60b), which asks for a peaceful night, the first paragraph of the Shema, and a set of verses and psalms asking for protection until morning.

It is also the easiest place to start a habit. It happens at the same time every day, in the same place, and it closes the day with Torah rather than with whatever was last on the screen.

Saying it with Torah Feed

Torah Feed puts the evening Shema in the Today sheet, next to the day’s reading, and the full bedtime Shema is in the siddur in Ashkenaz, Sefard and Edot HaMizrach. There is also a challenge called Seven Nights of Shema: end seven days with the Shema, within ten. It is a small thing to aim for, which is the point. Most people who try it find the phone is already in their hand at that hour.

To read the passages around the Shema, open Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 11 or Numbers 15 here in Hebrew and English. The first verse also appears, with a note, among our famous Torah verses.

Common questions