Shema... Listen: A Call for Connection

It is often said that we teach what we most need to learn. Every time I teach, I learn something new, gain a new insight, make a new connection. Tonight, my big ah-ha was that sometimes we need to call out in order to listen.

I just taught an experiential workshop on integrating the arts into the classroom as part of the Washington Jewish Music Festival. Since I only had one hour, I decided to use a text that most, if not all of us, were familiar with: the shema. Not really a prayer, the shema is a declaration of faith for all Jews. Literally translated, it states: Listen, Israel. Adonai is our God. Adonai is One.

It is the first prayer most jewish children learn, often as part of their bedtime ritual. Six words. It seems so simple and straight forward, right? Maybe not.

We began our hour by exploring what associations we have with this text: Connection, ritual, unity, tradition. For each word, we delved more deeply into its layers of meaning...

Shema: Pull yourself together. Get ahold of yourself. Shield yourself from the distractions and remember what's important. Go within and listen.

Yisrael: Wrestling with God. A sign of transformation. A nation.

Adonai (yod,hey,vav,hey): Eternal being... was, is, will be. We are made in the image of God. We have that divine essence with us.

Elohainu: Our God. A sense of community, tradition. We are individuals within a community. A sense of belonging.

Adonai (yod,hey,vav,hey):

Echad: One. Unity.

Have you ever said the shema as a meditation? It's very easy. All you do is breathe in deeply and slowly. As you exhale slowly, you say one of the words. Like this:

Breathe In. Breathe out, "Shema."

Breathe in. Breathe out, "Yisrael."

Breathe in. Breathe out, "Adonai."

Breathe in. Breathe out, "Elohainu."

Breathe in. Breathe out, "Adonai."

Breathe in. Breathe out, "Echad."

What do you notice? Did you squirm? Did you feel relaxed? Did it give you time to connect to the words in a new way? Did you find yourself listening— shema...?

There are many ways to connect with a piece of text. Through study. Through sound and breath and music. Through movement.

I think that sometimes, if we recite something so familiar, we forget to pay attention. It becomes rote, and we go through the motions without really being present. So it was very interesting for me that insight came from intentionally being in motion, rather than mindlessly going through the motions of recitation.

We did an exercise where each participant made up a movement to represent a word of the shema. We did this twice. The first time, the movements took us from low to high, as they led is through bending to rising upward. To me, it was a perfect metaphor for how prayer can raise us up from our instinctual self to our spiritual self, from our nefesh to our neshama, from our body to our soul.

The second time we did the exercise, we were all stretched. The first person did a movement for shema that had us all questioning for a moment. Shema was a movement reaching up to God as if to call, perhaps even plead, for an audience. Who is calling? Who is listening? Ah-ha! Sometimes I need to call out loud for God to hear. And sometimes I need to call out loud to hear myself. It is different having a conversation in my head than giving it voice... scarier, riskier, more vulnerable. This sense of vulnerability continued through the process. Yisrael was a movement of moving the arms around as if encircling the globe. Were we talking about ourselves as a nation of Jews? As the nation, Israel? As the whole world? Adonai was a bending movement from the waist, as if bowing to God. For Elohainu, we straightened up and brought our arms back around from our sides to our hearts, in a circular, all-encompassing movement. The next Adonai we raised up on tiptoes, spreading our arms out and leaning forward, as if taking off in flight. This required balance, and also added to the feeling of vulnerability I was experiencing. We ended with Echad, coming back down on our feet and bringing our hands to rest over our hearts.

So here's what I got out of it: Declaring one's faith can be an act of courage. It is just as important to call out, as it is to listen, whether you are declaring individually or as a community. Declaring is both an act of reverence and an opportunity for deep and soaring connection. And if we open ourselves to the process, we just may open our hearts and souls to a connection beyond anything we can imagine.

To close out our time together, participants took time to write their own interpretations of the shema, and create a piece of art, illuminated manuscript, to incorporate their experience and take it home with them.