What is the Shema in the Torah?

The Shema is Judaism's central declaration of faith, drawn from Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one” (Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad). “Shema” means “hear” or “listen,” its opening Hebrew word. It is not a prayer of request but an affirmation — that the God of Israel is the one, undivided God, owed the whole of a person's loyalty. The verse continues into the command that defines the covenant: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). The surrounding verses (6:6–9) instruct that these words be kept on the heart, taught diligently to one's children, and spoken “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise”; bound as a sign on the hand and between the eyes; and written on the doorposts of the house — the basis for tefillin and the mezuzah. Observant Jews recite the Shema morning and evening, and traditionally as the last words before death. Its power is in compression: the oneness of God, total love of God, and the transmission of faith across generations, all in a few lines. How the full three-paragraph Shema is assembled and recited is where the study continues.