Devarim 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel
Six verses whose first line nearly every Jewish child knows, written by hand inside the mezuzah on the doorpost.
For children, teens and adults
Nearly every Jewish child in Israel can say the first line. Almost nobody has read the other five closely, and they are the strange part. After Hashem echad the passage stops talking about belief altogether and starts issuing instructions about your arm, your doorframe, your bedtime and your conversation. Moshe is speaking to a generation that grew up in the desert and is about to live ordinary lives in a land of its own. These verses do not answer the question ‘What do you believe?’ They answer a harder one: how does something stay true once nobody is splitting a sea for you?
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ ה׳ אֶחָד׃
Devarim 6:4
Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad.
Listen, Israel: Hashem is our God, Hashem is one.