The Shema‘
– the First Testament declaration of faith (1)
André H. Roosma
18 February 2012
(Dutch version: 28 Jan. 2012)
In the faith experience of Israel – both Israel in Biblical times,
and religious Jews today – the שׁמע - Shema‘ plays a big role.
That creed or declaration of faith begins as follows in the Masoretic text
(Deuteronomy 6: 4):
שְׁמַע
יִשְׂרָאֵל
יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֵינוּ
יְהוָה
אֶחָד
Or, in the older manuscripts:1
שמע
ישראל 
אלהינו
אחד
“Shema‘ Yisra’el,
YaHUaH ’Elohainu, YaHUaH
’echad!”
“Hear, Isra’el, YaHUaH our God, YaHUaH is One!”
The most important Word in these lines is easily recognized.
This Word appears twice. Unfortunately, it is this Word that many Jews
regularly leave out or replace by something else.
That Word is not just any word. It is the glorious Name
of God. Though I already paid attention to this lovely and magnificent
Name in other articles,2 I like to do that again, briefly, here.
Why is it that God mentions His glorious Name YaHUaH twice here? To get an answer to that question, we can best look
at what this lovely Name of the God of ’Abraham, Isaac and Jacob says about
Himself. Therefore I take you back some 4000 years back in time, to the time
of ’Abraham. The magnificent Name was written then as follows:3
  
This glorious Name we can see as build up of:
- the prefix - yad (arm/hand, to give);
here: He gives;
- the old verb - hawah - to live, to be there.
So, the glorious Name YaHUaH means,
among others, that He is the One giving us life. But what kind of life?
That old verb - hawah is remarkable in its contents.
It has been put together from two figures with raised hands and bent knees:
– they are full of joy, wonder and worship towards God.
In between them there is depicted a tent pin: .
This letter stands symbolically for connection and security.4 So, hawah depicts a full life in joyful attachment to
each other and in worship full of wonder towards our Creator.
And it is in particular that kind of life that the God of the Bible
loves to present to us!
We cannot make or create this on our own, without Him.
He knows that. And also in His lovely Name He expresses that He loves to
be with us always.1 In this way He wants to give us that full
life – day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.!
That is the essence of the שׁמע - Shema‘, or rather: He is the heart of it, whatever we may say about it further!
Hallelu YaH !
Notes
| 1 |
In old manuscripts from the last centuries before
Christ (as found in Qumran) the glorious Name of God was
written in the old Paleo-Hebrew script. This is the script that developed
gradually from the original, pictographic script that we call old (West)
Semitic. Only in the fifth century before Christ, the Jews replaced the
Paleo-Hebrew script by the Hebrew square script, which was actually a variant
of the Imperial Aramaic (Babylonian) script. |
| 2 |
The glorious Name of God I presented here - as well as
I could - from the oldest Hebrew original, instead of replacing this grand
personal Name of The Most High by a common word, such as ‘Lord’.
For more background information on this see:
André H. Roosma,
‘The magnificent and most
lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who will be there’  ,
extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009. |
| 3 |
The word explanations given here are based in part on
an extensive study of the oldest pictographic Bible script. See: André
H. Roosma, ‘The Written
Language of Abraham, Moses and David – A study of the pictographic
roots and basic notions in the underlying fabric of the earliest Biblical
script’ , Hallelu-YaH Draft Research Report,
1st English version: 18 April 2011
(1st Dutch
original: January 2011). |
| 4 |
In development psychology one has observed that
people of all ages thrive and function best in what is called ‘secure
attachment’ with others. I observe that that is exactly the goal of the
God of the Bible with us. |
Monty Downard (Messianic)
Yes Yes Yes! We should call on Abba Yah's
glorious name. I think it's pronounced Yahuah, but if anyone pronounces it
Yahovah, or Yahweh, they're making an attempt (not G-d & L-rd). My name
is a mixed bag too, Monty - Monte - Money - Moddy. It's okay though, seems
more personal than him or hey you. Like Torah, & Feast days, we try to
do them to the best of our understanding. shalom shalom
André (author)Thanks for your affirmative comment, Monty! Indeed: to the best of our
understanding. For now, we remain limited in our knowing (1 Kor. 13: 9, 12).
We need all other disciples of all ages to comprehend the great Love of YaH
in Messiah Yeshu‘ah! (Eph.3: 14-21).
Shalom to you as well!
MALACH BEN YISRAEL
SHEMOTH 9 : 16
PROCLAIM HIS NAME ABBA
YAHUAH
André (author)Yes indeed: as God YaHUaH said via Moses/Mosheh about the great
Egyptian ruler of that day in Shemoth (Exodus) 9: 16 : “but for this
purpose have I let you live, to show you My power, so that My Name may be
declared throughout all the earth”!
Shalom to you!
Previous aricle: The great
golden Menorah – Sign of God’s Presence.
Next article: The Shema‘ – Part (2).
|
