Shema

Shema means hear — but in Hebrew, hearing implies obeying; to truly hear God is to heed him. It is the first word of Israel's central confession, the Shema: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Devout Jews have prayed these words morning and evening for millennia.

The Shema is the bedrock of biblical faith — the declaration that there is one God, and the command to love him with the whole self. When Jesus was asked for the greatest commandment, he began by quoting it. To hear, in the biblical sense, is not merely to register sound but to let the truth take command of the life.