Rav Edmond H. Weiss, Ph.D.

January 2022

A New Sh’Ma

Why a New This reworking of Moses’ exhortation to the nation of Israel is meant
Sh’Ma? to make it more meaningful to those intellectual Jews who are put off
by the primitive magical and supernatural elements in the original
version.

What is Different The differences, though are not merely a matter of modernizing the
Here? terminology. There are three new theological perspectives in this
version, meant to free modern Judaism from its most serious
superstitions.

Deus sive Natura First, in this version God is not supernatural, bur, rather a synonym for
Nature itself, that is, all the laws, causes, and systems necessary for
the persistence of the universe. It borrows the Deus sive Natura (God
or Nature, clarified so well in the Ethics of the greatest Jewish
philosopher: Baruch Spinoza).

Reward and Second, it removes the promise of external, material reward and
Punishment punishment for performing this central commandment and offers
instead a Spinozan ideal of reason, virtue, and freedom as an inherent
reward.

Idolatry Finally, it reinforces the Torah prohibition against magic and witchery,
but boldly suggests that many irrational and esoteric forms of Judaism
still performed deserve to be discounted and abjured as idolatry.

SH’MA 1
Rav Edmond H. Weiss, Ph.D.
January 2022

Here, Israel! Our universe is a lawful Oneness, and its laws are eternal.
(This glorious universe is sometimes called Nature, sometimes called God.)

You shall--with all your mind, passion, and skills-- contemplate, study, and
analyze the laws of our universe until you feel you are part of it and are
humbled with gratitude for its existence—and for your own.

You shall teach this directive to your children and to all who would learn. You
shall reflect these words in your thoughts and deliberations, and also be
mindful of them in the work of your hands. And your household will display
this text in a prominent place.

Speak these words aloud, every day. And contend vigorously with anyone
who would dispute them by idolatrous claims of magic, mysticism,
superstition, necromancy, witchery, demigods, or the supernatural.

Expect no reward for this work, no wealth or honors, because the honest study
of the universe is its own reward. The person who shuns idolatry and, instead,
contemplates the universe with reason will act virtuously and experience a
unique kind of freedom.

Carry or wear items that remind you of the task, which will distract you from
evil temptations and shallow feelings that often surround you. Seek
perfection, though you will never achieve it. Try to be as intellectual as the
eternal universe you were given.

SH’MA 2