Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest. “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” He announced that this is the first and greatest commandment. He added, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’“ Jesus explained that, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The foundation of Judaism is considered to be parts of Deuteronomy, chapters 6 and 11, and Numbers, chapter 15. It is called the Shema prayer (literally, the “Hear,” as in Hear, O Israel.) It skips the second commandment that Jesus mentioned, which comes from Leviticus 19:18: “. . . but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Jewish or Christian, we have extraordinary talent for getting it all wrong. For instance, the whole of Leviticus 19:18 reads, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” We take solace that we love our family and close friends, but ignore the preceding seventeen verses of the chapter — those dealing with our parents, our incomes, flocks and fields, strangers, neighbors, the poor, and everybody passing through our community. This, we insist, is all about the sons of our own people. People just like us.
But the Shema says this and more. It might seem odd that Christians are not directly taught the very foundation of what the religion of Jesus emphasized, and He freely quoted. You know as well as I do that you naturally “follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.” In fact, if you never whored after something, you cannot be a Christian or a Jew. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God,” is blunt enough in Christianity. The full need to repent is fundamental in Judaism. (Roman Catholicism and a few other cults refer to this as past tense, or collectively. They do not believe that every person has sinned, nor do they believe in original sin. It may seem hard to understand why, then, they need a Savior, but they believe that some are just reaching for their own godhead and anointment. Paul (aka Saul) who was both a Pharisee and Apostle, considered himself “chief sinner,” so these latter-day saints are considerably more holy than he. It remains an impossibility for me to understand, especially when I see perfectly sinless wonders misbehave.)
We learn in religious studies that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” and go on not believing it as we whore after our own heart and our own eyes in self-acclaimed righteousness. That was Jeremiah crying, we say, and he whined about stuff.
Since you almost certainly are not familiar with the Shema (Why would I read Jewish stuff?) it might be amusing to see it for yourself. If not amusing, it should break your heart.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.” – Deuteronomy 11:13-21
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.” – Numbers 15:37-41
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