{"id":8390,"date":"2016-02-16T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T07:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=8390"},"modified":"2018-05-24T12:58:09","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T09:58:09","slug":"03-16-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/03-16-09\/","title":{"rendered":"09. The Laws of Reciting Shema"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One must recite <em>Shema<\/em> with great <em>kavana<\/em>, with fear, awe, trembling, and sweat; she should contemplate in her heart that she is now reciting God\u2019s word and focus on its meaning, as if they were new to her (SA 61:1-2).<\/p>\n<p>In addition to <em>kavana<\/em>, one must pronounce the words of <em>Shema <\/em>precisely, taking care not to slur any letter, harden soft sounds, or soften hard ones. Therefore, <em>le-khat\u0125ila<\/em>, one should distinguish between an <em>alef<\/em> and an <em>ayin<\/em>, a <em>khaf<\/em> and a <em>\u0125et<\/em>, a <em>kamatz<\/em> and a <em>pata\u0125<\/em>, and a <em>tzeirei<\/em> and a <em>segol<\/em> (SA\u00a0 61:14-23). The Sages say, \u201cIf one recites <em>Shema<\/em> and is careful to pronounce its letters exactly, Hell is cooled for him\u201d (<em>Berakhot<\/em> 15b). <em>Be-di\u2019avad<\/em>, if she did not recite <em>Shema<\/em> meticulously, she nevertheless fulfilled her obligation as long as she did not miss a word or a full syllable (SA 62:1; MB 1).<\/p>\n<p>One must hear what she is saying. <em>Be-di\u2019avad<\/em>, if she read the words only with her lips but did not hear herself, since she mouthed the words, she fulfilled her obligation. However, one who only recited <em>Shema<\/em> in her mind, without mouthing the words, did not fulfill her obligation (SA 62:3).<\/p>\n<p>Technically, one fulfills the mitzva by reciting <em>Shema <\/em>or the <em>Amida <\/em>in any language she understands, though it is proper to recite them in Hebrew (see above, 1:10). However, several major A\u0125aronim write that nowadays one cannot fulfill the obligation by reciting <em>Shema<\/em> in a different language, because there are words that cannot be translated accurately. For example, the Hebrew word \u201c<em>ve-shinantam<\/em>\u201d (\u201cteach them\u201d) connotes both repetition (<em>shinun<\/em>) and sharpening (<em>\u0125idud<\/em>). No foreign word captures exactly these meanings. Since the <em>Shema<\/em> cannot be translated precisely, there is no option to recite it in a different language (MB 62:3; see also <em>Peninei Halakha: Prayer<\/em>, ch. 15 n. 7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One must recite Shema with great kavana, with fear, awe, trembling, and sweat; she should contemplate in her heart that she is now reciting God\u2019s word and focus on its meaning, as if they were new to her (SA 61:1-2). In addition to kavana, one must pronounce the words of Shema precisely, taking care not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-16"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>09. The Laws of Reciting Shema - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/03-16-09\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"09. 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