“Listen Israel! Adonai is our God, Adonai is singular.”
[Deuteronomy 6:4]
This cry out of the wilderness, our “Sh’ma”, to listen up, serves as one of the most central lines of Judaism today.
Here is a possible reading of what “Sh’ma” asks of us:
Listen like Israel, like a God-wrestler.
(Israel was the name that Jacob received after wrestling with a divine presence.)
Don’t take things for granted. Grapple with their meanings, even when that means challenging norms and standing up for what’s right in the face of oppression.
Adonai is our God and so wants us to be challengers. Being a God-wrestler is what God asks of the Jewish people. Take heart as we challenge the status quo.
Adonai is singular and so stands for all the universe as a single idea. Do not think that challenging for its own sake makes us correct. The universe is vaster than our consciousness and we should not think that one of our solutions will work for everyone, in every place, or at all times.
Thank you for following me down a different reading of a familiar text.
Wishing everyone a good week,
Jonathan