Shema Yisrael: Its Place in Rosh Hashana's Musaf - Rabbi Mark Dratch

so I thank you all for joining us and um i' like to begin with a story a story about the great rby elezar silver Zara was one of the leading figures in uh in World jury of American Jury uh in the 194s and the 19 in the 1950s and um following the end of the shaah rabbi silver went to Eastern Europe to see what he could do to to find Jewish children who had been given by their parents to Christian families to churches to monasteries during the war in order to save in order to save their lives now he went to a particular Monastery in um ales luren and and um spoke with the priest who was head of the monastery who assured him of course that there were no Jewish children um that were there and uh despite whatever arguments he could bring however he tried to convince this priest the priest would not hear of it he asked for permission before he left uh to go into the dormatory at night when the children were being put to sleep and just to be able to say good night to the children as the these young boys and these young girls were being put into their beds he stands in front of them and he says the words Shay Isel and he sees dozens of children starting to cry starting to call for their mothers and starting to call for their fathers he turned to the priests and he said these are the Jewish children throughout history the shma Israel has been such a powerful statement of faith and of identity it saved these Jewish children for their Jewish identities and for POS and for posterity it was the last words on people's lips as they went to martyrdom it was an ultimate Declaration of faith we Elevate uh and we culminate Kipper with the Declaration of shma Israel and as we'll discuss uh in our this evening uh the role the great role that the shma Israel plays in the musaf of of rashash so what is so special about it what's special about what is so special about those words about the about that PUK that what's the unique secret of shma Isel and why was this chosen to be the crescendo of the first of the three special BR in the musaf of sh that of malot the gorra tells us that we're to recite the blessing of malot the theme of God is King God said as it were so that we should that we should Place God as king over us and those of us who have been davening for a few years looks like we have some veterans here as well um we're familiar that all during the year during the week during the regular weekday there are 18 or 19 the first three blessings remain the same the last three BR remain the same and the b in the middle the blessings of petition on a Shabbat that middle the first three and the last three remain the same and it's only the middle section which is reduced to one blessing with the theme of K the sanctity of the the day of Shabbat or of the yam to that we are observing it's only on Ros during the mus that we that instead of having one blessing we have three malot and chot the theme of God is King God remembering and the theme of chofar many point that this is the three fundamentals of Jewish belief that there's a God in the world z that he's a personal God that to whom we relate and who relates to us and Chau foro the idea of reward and Punishment the structure of this of the braa is after a brief int uction we prove the the theme and we'll be talking about malot so I'll stay with that we prove the theme of malot with the um citation the quoting of 10 verses three from the Torah three from the pro three from the writings which usually is safer to three from the by the way it's not order right should be not and so why is the order mixed so T speaks about the theme as it existed in the past is the present and the viim the the prophetic vision of the future so we're we're following an arc that takes us from past present and future with regard to the Pim but we have those those nine Pim and then according to the gamarra um there was a custom as see here in the gar in Source number two in Ros they finished the section with auk from the Torah now the gor goes on to say that that works very well for Z because there are a lot of in the Torah that speak about God remembering and it works well for chaur RO because there were all kinds of citations of the chaur of tra of some kind of blast in the Torah so there are many suim to choose from the problem is you can go from from the beginning of to the end of and you only have three Pim that speak of God as M so if you want to end you want to end with that same theme then you're stuck you don't seem to have a pasuk and here the Garra chimes in um four lines into the into the went into the source of source number two the gar here's our here o Israel the Lord Is Our God the Lord is one Mal that is Mal according to reab Yosi Reb Yuda om he disagrees it's not what's the why does rabi say that you can use this for M and rabud say that you can't use this for M because what's missing the word Mel the word Mel so apparently Yuda is a literalist the word melik is not there I'm not going to accept it according to RAB Yosi I don't care so much about the word I care rather about the theme and thematically is about Mah is about God as king God's Oneness God's eternity and so much so that when the when when when kazal speak about the shma Isel the Mitzvah of shma Isel they refer to this ASAT we accept upon ourselves the Yoke of God's Kingdom so it's universally accepted that the theme of sh Isel is Mal and yet we have we have this debate the gar then goes on to suggest that there are two other possible Pim that could have been used as the 10th verse you should know this day and keep it to your heart me that God is the that God is the god is the god in the heavens above on the earth below again the theme of Mal the exclusivity and the power and the uniqueness of God again we have this m between Ros RAB Yehuda whether it's acceptable or not acceptable the word mik is not there RAB Yehuda therefore dismisses it the theme is there rosi therefore Embraces it and the third suggestion is you have shown us to know that Hashem God is King God is God and there is n besides him and again this m between rabi Yosi and rabi Yehuda now in the conversation as to which Pim are acceptable or not acceptable so we've now have this we p like RAB Yosi that we accept the idea of the the theme of M we choose is why we don't choose the other twoim if we have time we'll get to it if we don't have time I'll ow you another another opportunity but what's interesting the gor goes through other number of other PIM in throughout tanak that may include the word m but are rejected as a possibility to include in the 10 and one of those Pim you'll see at the end of source two which is the back of the first sheet the pasuk says inim actually this becomes a pasuk that we're familiar with um from the the par of tahim we recite before the blowing of the chauffer M was repeat it seven times zamu Elohim Z so the says that you should sing to God you should sing sing to our King you should sing because God is King over the whole earth so this is not accept at least the first part of the the first mention of Mel Malo was not acceptable according to the gamarra although the second the second part mik may be acceptable it's interesting debate there in the gamarra but malano is not acceptable now why should that be the word Mel is there even reab Yehuda should be happy because we're literalists and the word Mel is there why is malanu excluded ah because Mel the idea of God is King on Ros sh has to be Universal God is King over the entire universe if we say malanu then that's limiting it's saying that God is our King and only our King but not but not anyone else's and therefore that therefore this PUK or at least this part of the pasuk is going to be is going to be excluded and this idea of Mal of the universality of um of God and God's kingship in this braa we see throughout the braa so if you look at the end of that braa um for example at the bottom of Source One got you be king over the entire world all of the land I'll call this idea of universality of the word call that is repeated over and over and over and over again becomes uh becomes significant now if that's the case if that's the case Sal was very bothered by the PUK which is mentioned in in the next line because we the continues every creation should know that you're the Creator and everyone who has breath in their nostrils anybody who's alive should say God who is El Israel the god of Israel is king So what's wrong with this pasuk from our explanation particular it's particular it's right it's it's the god of Israel but it's not the god of the world salvic was bothered by this and in one of the records of um of one of his shim it says that the r said that he went to his father R mosha alic and he asked him how is it possible if malanu is not acceptable in the first PUK we saw how is it possible then that um ELO Israel the god of Israel is acceptable in this in this case so um R Moshe he said gave him an answer the difference between malanu and Al Israel the r claimed not to have understood what his father what his father said and uh the RV goes on to say that um in this case and in other cases it's really the last part of the P we take the theme of the pasuk not the word of the pasuk and somehow that's acceptable the truth is it's not really a problem for us here because this is not the 10th pasuk it's part of the Basha it's part of the um The Plea it's part of the petition at the end of the bra it's not count it doesn't count as one of theim so we're not we don't have to get awfully um awfully worked up about it it seemed to me that there was actually a um a simple answer to a simple way to explain Ros what's the difference between Malu our King which is limiting and Al Israel the god of Israel which is universal pardon because it is universal because it is universal and what's fascinating so one of the other things I do in my spare time that rebbi Shore didn't mention it very involved in Interfaith work um organization called ich KCK the jcic the international Jewish committee for interreligious consultations it's a mouthful I share the moment only because I know what the acronym actually stands for um but as a result of some fascinating met Fascinating People and WR interesting documents and what was interesting in some of the VA documents post Vatican 2 post no when the church started opening up to the rting dialogue with the Jewish people and and changing policies theology towards who the Jews are uh Salvation for Jews etc etc and a number of the documents they refer to the god of Israel but they refer to the god of Israel as a universal God that they too have a bit of a different understanding but they too believe in the god of Israel as the universal God so when we say malano the new ours at the end is limiting but God of Israel States a fact of who he is with whom God entered into a covenant the people that he chose and this is it this is the god of Israel but this the god of Israel is this Universal is this Universal God right so you could say that right so you could you you could you you yes you certainly could say that um actually the I stand correct it because the r actually quoted a different P when he asked his father when the PK says the God is king of Israel and its Redeemer I am first I am last and besides me there is no other God so the rub said that pule couldn't be used while he was concerned because of M Israel but it could be used because I am first and I am last and there's no God besides me is a universal theme that's the Pu that he was talking about and thank you for your questions so we're corrected for the record this is being taped we want to make sure we're saying the right uh make sure they're saying the right things so let's take it a little further in terms of the universality of God if you look at source [Music] number three I think it is yes the has if you make a blessing and you don't mention God's name it's not a you have to go back and repeat it comes to add to that any blessing which does not have the theme of Mal mention God is king is not a blessing so you have to sayem the hasem is important you have to say m and if you don't say Hashem or M then there's no it doesn't count because not only must we mention God in our um that we're addressing God in a blessing but the idea of God's Mal be is significant and fundamental to who God is and how he relates and how he relates how he relates to the world now this is true of most of the BR we say but there are a few exceptions where do we have brot in which we don't mention God is melan is a problem there's no so how how do they write such a how do they write such a similarly Friday night there's no there's no M so toot ask that question and in the interest of time we're not going to go through all of the too but um the answer the toso give is like Reb Yosi we're dealing thematically and we're not dealing literally so tovot says Along Came Abraham ainu into a world of idolatry into a world where nobody knew God and he was M he was he crowned God he coronated God as king for the world he introduced to the world the idea that Hashem is the king and that counts as Mal Friday night the holy God is like no other said tovot that is the theme of malut and then finally toso quotes the is from rash and says that also has the theme of Mal as well it's not a but we gotta but but this declaration of shma Isel is the theme of is the theme of Mal so that is the idea that's what I want to talk about so thank you so now we have the segue into our question of the evening how does sh Isel become Mal and what role does it play in what does it play in Mev um so I was here the previous session Robie bam was speaking some of you may have been here and he was speaking about the three brot of mus and he starts to talk about malot and all of a sudden my life flashed in front of my eyes because I was afraid he was going to take everything that I was saying tonight and uh we wouldn't have anything to say so first of all most of you didn't hear him so that's uh that is good and secondly he SK so that was good as well so thank you Rabbi bersan for um for for cooperating but he asked the question and the question is an important one is it true that God is King is it true that God is king So objectively speaking it is true that God is King he is the creator he is all powerful objectively speaking on paper God is King but in reality well we live in a world that's very difficult ult World a lot of pain a lot of suffering with war with anti-Semitism with atheism right with lack of morality with crime that God is King in pot in in objectively in potential but as the maharal said a famous uh line that was then appropriated by many many others a below there was no king without a people that it's true God could be sitting on his throne somewhere in the somewhere in the Heavens but if nobody recognizes him and nobody talks to him and nobody listens to him then the Mal the sovereignty is below I am no below below so this idea then that God after all that this was not the case so why do we need all together right God is King doesn't need us to come along and and coronate him right Rabbi salic used to quote his kabad mamade when he was a When U that he had when he was a Youngster that kidre night is coronation night um all the things that we say and the practices that we have and the blowing of the chauffeur and and so many of the and and and so many um I just mixed up rashash Shan Kipper it's getting late but Russ but the night of rashash is coronation night the blowing of the chauffeur the going to Tash by a body of water where ancient Kings used to be Crown used to be placed on their head near a body of water it's the theme of it's the theme of Mal and the word m is repeated over and over and over again why does God need that from us if God is King what do we add to it the point is that we make him relevant and meaningful in our lives and in the world by accept by the Kabal by accepting his kingship and by pronouncing that kingship by pronouncing that kingship to others in fact there's a um a great midash if you look at source number six so beginning of braet after in the second paric after Adam is created so Hashem brings before him all the animals to see what names he's going to call them right and he couldn't find the helpmate and the story goes in the direction that it goes but according to the midash first Adam names the animals then um towards the end one two three four about four the the um four line down towards the end of that line and then God says to Adam and you what is your name I'd like to be called because I was created out of the earth So Adam names the animals he names himself and then Hashem turns to him and he says and God says so what is my name look at the power responsibility but the power that Adam harishon had to name God so says to him to you it is fitting it is proper to be called my master my my king for you are the master of all of your creations so God exists but that he has a name and a name is something by which we can relate to somebody and call some call something and relate to something that was given to him by Adam Harish in fact that's probably why the Shir sham on Fridays and Adam is created on Friday the sixth day of creation and rashash is that is corresponds to that that sixth day of creation uh what is the uh what is the PUK hasem God God ruled God was the king and there's a hint to God becoming King because of that there's a hint to that is not a hint it's it's sted explicitly in the Adon this is Source number seven Adon God is the Eternal master who was king who ruled before anything was created God was King but when everything was when creation was finished and when Adam is created then he was called King because King and potential that anybody calling calling you King doesn't uh you know doesn't uh doesn't mean anything it's like Jackie Gleason being the master right he's the master of the house but when nobody listened to him what good did it uh what good did it do um what's interesting also not only does it happen at the time of creation but the go back to that the second says mayaz which the literal translation is that your throne was established mayaz from then from from the time of creation but the m in that says something fascinating your throne was established May AZ from the time of AZ from the time that ah from a your throne was established from the time of aashir when B Isel at the sea said God will be king forever so God is King in potential but he's the actual King when we make him when we name him when we crown him as king and make him relevant in our lives and the Jos of those tsim in that peric God became king at time of creation God becomes king at creat yamu is it's kind of hending to us that God has to be constantly crowned and reowned as king to remain relevant and meaningful and um and purposeful in our lives and in and in the world he wasn't melik yet until AB comes along and then says that so we have to work our way into that thank you I will I will accept that um so if all of this is true and then becomes this cresendo of Mal you know that pronouncing that God is that God is King because the theme is what objection might we have to using that as the PUK isem L new Our God Hashem is our God Hashem is one and what was the problem with new no new new doesn't work right when we had malanu that didn't work because it was individualistic it was particular it wasn't Universal so how then does rosi suggest accept and how then why then do we accept the P of as the culmination of the pronouncing of the universal God the universal King when it's when it's saying elokenu it's saying he's our God I think maybe okay is a descriptive term the focus is so then you'd have to answer like the r wanted to answer we're taking the last part of the PUK and not the first part of the P because the first part of the descriptive as opposed to declarative descriptive as opposed okay that could be I'd like to suggest that we're going to keep aloco and um there are a number of ways to understand this which will help support our help support our argument so the first is um how Rashi understood arashi understood the pasuk if you look at source number five sorry you have to go back to that most of the time you go to Air and there's a handout you always have to go back and you're skipping and that's just to keep you awake it's done intentionally so Rashi says on the and focusing I was very privileged that was a teacher of mine when I was learned here for the year many many years ago and she taught us how to read aashi and how to what the grammatical problem what the linguistic problem was and and sashi's linguistic problem here is that the word Hashem appears twice it could have just said why is it so Rashi says Hashem who is right now only our God El and not the god of the Nations sometime in the future he's going to be the one gods from all the people will come to call the name of God at that time sometime in the future God will be one and his name will be one and that's the of is so when we recite the shma Isel in the malot of rashash sh what it's saying is that not that ELO that he's only our God and we're going to hold on to that and and keep that forever but temporarily he's only he's our God but ultimately this our God is going to be Hashem is going to be that Universal he going to be that Universal god um I think that's as well why um it comes where the the the PUK just before the shma Israel if you look back for a second because it is getting late I'm keeping you awake um look back for a second at source number one so the the pent ultimate pasuk the pasuk just before sh Isel number nine in Source number one that's our and in your Torah it says I think that's why there's a j the position there because what that that what it's doing is defining for us and giving a cont for what Isel means in this case that ANS is an interesting problem I think that Rob solic rose raised as well if you look carefully so after we quote the 10im or the Nim there's a there's a paragraph that introduces the the end of the blessing a petition based upon the theme of malot if you look at Z you will see that the 10th is actually included in that concluding paragraph it'll say ALU it'll have some about the theme as the says in the Tor it'll quot the and then we'll have the final is not that wayel comes before the Al it's it's it's a list of 10im without an interruption without a heick so the rub thought that there was a problem with that and made a suggestion rub made many suggestions in love he would D it in in his sh with his minion it' be kind of hard to understand everything that was going on and he was speaking about the the wonderful Jewish pastime of baltim on um on rashash yam Kipper when you listen to the kin the kazin takes a breath he takes a break and everybody sings That's generally done between sections like to get a a break but it separates one paragraph from another in your sh in a week and a half in rashash after the says everybody's going to sing the r thought that that was wrong that really if you want to sing n it should be between n and 10 before the so if you do it after n and then say that attaches the to the concl the conclusion of the braa and that way you get away with it based on our explanation that would be improper because you need you need to give you the context and the the explanation of is in order to take it away from just L to make it Universal and so if you sing 99 after shma Israel is perfectly okay yes heard that they actually fin you'll see at Sor they do it there um after the Shir it's not before not not because it's before y because it's after the Shir and you'll see that and after ALU and after for the same reason because this connection between is so fundamental that that's where that Min hug that's where that Min hug developed okay so I think that's one I think that's one that that's one explanation Rabbi yes just emphasize something that Rabbi frankman said that based on the way you explained it in thear he's right thatu is descriptive but is what our mission is right so we're not just saying it on on rashash we're saying it t a day right so it sort of is a remind but that we're not there yet you know excellent so thank you for the segue this is you weren't paid to do this but this gives us the great segue into Source number nine a selection from rman so my time is running away from me so I don't can't do the whole thing inside ofman basically says as follows he says that we have two special that deal with the recitation of the shma every day of the year twice a day one is is here oh Israel you have to hear the words so your ears have to hear what your mouth is saying and Sh Israel understand o Israel means that you're allowed to say and you fulfill your obligation of the shma even if you would recite it in English French Germans any one of the 70 languages of the world you you fulfill your obligation so rman says that these twoot are really one and they have nothing to do just with the technicality of the recitation of the shma but to teach a very very important lesson and that is that every day and every time we recite shma Isel it's a proc it's a declaration to the DAR mat to all of the people living on the earth that that that there that there's one God a declaration to everybody living on the earth that God is King and therefore you can't whisper it you have to declare it and therefore you say it in every in every language and if that's the the case then this fits very well with this Universal requirement of the 10th of Mal is this declaration this proclamation to the world that God is King and then that fits very well with our um with our suggestions um I want to finish what's with the last word s this is Source number 11 um because I I think especially this year following October 7th and the difficulties with theim and the families and the soldiers who were killed and the problems that are going on up north and everything else that's um everything else that's been happening um I think the schma in that sense takes on a very different role and maybe is not the absolute Universalist role that we've been arguing until now but hints at it and what I mean is as follows rir in number 11 inar asks the question I mean quotes the the question that that the gamar asks gamar wants to know why is it that the first Miss in bra speaks about the that we recite at night and the next M talks about that we recite in the morning why do we mention the night shma first and then the morning and then the morning shma answer is simple says right recite the when you lie down and when you rise up but he quotes the gamar if you look four lines down into Source number 11 in the middle of the line we can learn it from the creation of the world with regard to the acceptance of the Yoke of God's Kingdom at first when the world was created it was it was night time it was dark accepting the Yoke of God's kingdom affirming a belief in God is absolutely necessary even at a time of Darkness even at a time of helplessness even at a time of struggle and of pain during that time we have to accept God as our King and if we are able to do so during in the darkness and during the time of trouble then he says then we will be Z we will Merit to be able to accept the Yoke of God's kingdom to have God as our King to have that full and complete and unquestionable faith during a time of oer of riches when the horror the yamama and the light of day and through complete and clear understanding that belief in God is hard and especially this time of year and this year on rashash Shana we're going to face challenges during oura during our during our Ding and yet if we're able to be anyway if we're able to say anyway then this will be a um a to be able to bring us and enable us to be able to praise God and accept God and declare God in the light of in the light of day when things are clear when there is peace when the when the world has returned to a state of to a state of normaly the Shay is we as as we started our discussion was that were the was the Saving Grace of those children in that Monastery in alas Lan that R Asar silver found the Shel gave them hope and enabled them to find a new life and to establish themselves and be re-embraced by their by their families by the Jewish by the Jewish Community Hashem our Declaration of Mal our understanding a Bel that God needs us and without us he can't be king and his kingdom right now is elu and not necessarily A to the rest of the world and we find ourselves during this period of of great Darkness hasem May our Declaration of Mal this year open up that possibility and that great blessing of redemption of national Redemption of universal Redemption of U of healing and of Hope for for us for our families for am Israel the Israel for the Jewish people and for all the people in the world thank you very much [Music]