The rest of “Shema Yisroel” elaborates on all this and touches upon even more, including accepting the yoke of G-d’s Kingdom upon yourself and loving Him, accepting the yoke of His mitzvot, and recalling the exodus from Egypt. We’ll explore that all paragraph by paragraph.

The first of the three paragraphs (from Deuteronomy 6:5-9) abjures us all to “love G-d your L-rd with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might”. This obviously urges us all to subject ourselves to and undergo an all-embracing and thorough love of Him. So, we’re to take this to heart when we recite it and to actualize it right there and then.

We’re to then intend to transmit the idea of emanating G-d’s holiness and of accepting upon ourselves the yoke of His Kingdom to our children and our descendants, in keeping with “teach [these words] dilligently to your children); of rectifying humankind, in keeping with “[speak of them] while you remain at home and when you go on your way”); of solidifying our relationship to G-d, in keeping with “bind [arm-tephillin] for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets [head-tephillin] between your eyes”); and of perfecting our households, in keeping with “write [these words] upon the door-posts of your house, and on your gates”).

Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.