We now come to the concluding passage of the first paragraph of the Shema, which deals with the second of the two “prac-tical” or ceremonial mitzvot singled out for mention in the Shema. This verse refers to the parchment bearing the first two paragraphs of the Shema, which is wrapped in a small case and affixed to the right doorpost (as one enters the room). (In com-mon parlance, this small scroll, and sometimes its casing as well, is referred to as the mezuzah. In the language of Scripture, however, it is the doorpost itself that is called the mezuzah;
there is no special name for the scroll. Nevertheless, already in ancient times the name “mezuzah” was borrowed from the doorpost and applied to the scroll containing the Shema.)
The principle behind the mitzvah of mezuzah is essentially the same as that for tefillin: it is a sign of our love for God. But whereas tefillin applies to the personal self, the individual qua individual, the mitzvah of mezuzah applies to our home—our
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t h e s h e m a
family and, by extension, our community, city, and country.
The belief in the absolute unity of God and the consequent command to love Him are incumbent upon the Jew in all the concentric circles that define his daily existence and endeavor.
Not only must the mezuzah be affixed to “the posts of your house” but, equally, “upon your gates.” The latter term com-prises all forms of domicile: “whether it be the gates of court-yards or the gates of alley-ways or the gates of towns and cities—all are required to have a mezuzah affixed to them,”
writes Maimonides in his halakhic code. Regarding the purpose of the mitzvah, Maimonides continues: “whenever he comes in or goes out, he will encounter the unity of the Name of the Holy One, and he will recall his love for Him and bestir him-self from his slumber and his idle thoughts about his temporal vanities; and he will know that nothing endures forever and ever, save the knowledge of the Rock of Ages. Thus, he will regain his senses and go in the way of the righteous.”35Here again, as in the case of tefillin, Maimonides emphasizes the love for God as a leitmotif of mezuzah.
It is interesting to note that in Maimonides’ halakhic mag-num opus, divided into fourteen separate “books,” the second book, Sefer Ahavah, “The Book of Love,” begins with the Laws of the Shema. It then continues with the Laws of Prayer, Tefillin, Mezuzah, the Scroll of the Torah, the Tzitzit, the Blessings, and Circumcision. All of these, in one way or another, are intimately connected to the Grundprinzip of the love for God.
Thus we find that the whole of the first paragraph of the Shema—from the proclamation of God’s unity through the commandment to love Him and, finally, to the mitzvot of tefillin and mezuzah—form one cohesive whole.
It is fitting to conclude with the following passage from the Tzeror ha-Mor by R. Abraham Seba, words that assume even
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t h e to r a h , t h e h e a rt, a n d e du c at i o n
greater significance and pathos when one takes into account the unspeakable suffering and profound human tragedies that befell him when, with so many other Iberian Jews, he was forced into exile during the Expulsion from Portugal in 1492:
The Torah considered the future—the suffering and the evil which would be decreed against Israel, forcing them to abandon their religion and to abstain from the study of Torah. This is what happened in the Expulsion from Portugal when it was forbidden to preach publicly and to teach children [Torah]. All books and synagogues were taken away, so that we would neither pray nor teach our children. As a result, Torah was all but forgotten by Jews—
for how shall we teach our children without books or teachers?
Nothing was left to us save to teach them the Shema—
that the Lord is One, and that one ought to love Him and be prepared to die for Him in martyrdom.
Therefore did God give Israel, for such times, this short passage of the Shema which contains (the essence of) the whole of Torah; and if they cannot know the entire passage (i.e., all three paragraphs) at least they will know the one verse Shema Yisrael which contains, in the main, the belief in the unity of God. Thus, they may teach this verse to their children so that they know that He is one and He is all-powerful. And if villains should come to coerce them to forsake their God, they should learn to offer their lives up for Him and die in martyrdom. This is what is meant [by the commandment] to love Him “with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.”36
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