Shema Yisrael: Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad
July 4th, 2017Excerpt from CD recorded at Makom Ohr Shalom called “Reb Zalman Prays” © 2008 ShareWonder Media, transcribed and edited by Gabbai Seth Fishman.
Reb Zalman, a’h:
One of the things that makes parenting a joy is to put children to bed at night and they don’t want to fall asleep. At that time they come up with wonderful questions to engage you in such a way that you can’t say no. For instance, five-year-old Yotam asked me:
“Abba, what happens to people when they die?”
“What do YOU think,” I asked and he says:
“Well we sort of have two lives: There’s an awake life and a dream life. And I think the awake life stops and the dream life continues.”
And how wonderful an answer that was.
And Shalvi one time said:
“Abba, when you’re asleep you can wake up. When you’re awake can you wake up even more?”
These are the kinds of questions that come when you sit next to a child on the bed and you sing:
B’shem Hashem B’shem Hashem Elokei Yisrael. And then you say the Shema with them.
Or imagine a different scene: You are visiting someone in hospice.
This past erev Rosh HaShannah, one of our friends, who had been suffering from ALS, died. We had visited her in hospice and, we sang to her. And then, we said the Shema with her; that was a very important thing.
So the Shema is when you start out. And the Shema is when you leave. There’s something remarkable about this.