The First Time in Midrash
כט וַיֶּאְסֹר יוֹסֵף מֶרְכַּבְתּוֹ וַיַּעַל לִקְרַאת יִשְׂרָאֵל אָבִיו גּשְׁנָה וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו וַיִּפֹּל עַל צַוָּארָיו וַיֵּבְךְּ עַל צַוָּארָיו עוֹד:
- How do you think Yaakov felt at this moment?
ויבך על צואריו עוד: לשון הרבות בכיה ...והוסיף בבכי יותר על הרגיל
אבל יעקב לא נפל על צוארי יוסף ולא נשקו,
ואמרו רבותינו שהיה קורא את שמע:
2. Why do you think the Rabbi’s say he he said Shema?!
My grandmother was in the holocaust. She spent a year and a half in Auschwitz and suffered greatly. She was ripped away from her entire family, therefore she was alone scared and extremely weak. At that point people usually turned to G-D or away from G-D and grandmother turned to him. She became spiritual and when the war ended she davened every day. She was so lucky to survive and she recognized that and attributed it to G-D. I think that moment when she realized it was over, that she was free and she survived, was a moment she said Shemah. I think it was a moment she truly recognized G-Ds presence. - Naomi
ReplyDeleteWhen i feel like I'm in danger and want to turn toG-D i usually say a perek of tehillim. Now that i know the meaning of shama from your class,I will try to get in to the habit of saying shame in time of doubt. Most people say shama before they're about to try or feel like they're going to die. Shama is said in the moment of fear, you recognize that G-D is here and the only one who can truly help you. I hope that everyone is able to recognize god when saying the prayer of shama. -Daphna Ansel
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother has been fighting cancer for 30 years. She was diagnosed in her early 30's and is still fighting strong in her late 60's. This to me is a true miracle and a time where my grandmother, along with my family, truly recognize Hashem's miracles and praise him for it - this is a time where we would say shema to show Hashem how truly grateful we are for him, especially in a time like this. All in all, I believe a time where one would say shema is when one recognizes a miracle Hashem preforms that they truly appreciate and feel the need to recognize and praise Hashem for all he does for us.
ReplyDelete- Natalie Moses
Though I do feel it is important to praise God when scared or worried I feel most astounded by Gods greatness when seeing His wonders in everyday life. A few weeks ago I was sitting on the bus in the morning and I witnessed a beautiful sunrise. I just thought about how amazing God and His creations are. God not only made living beings but also created innocent beauty in this world. When I see something as miraculous as sunsets, a baby being held by his/her mother for the first time, or even just simple weather, I have an immense feeling of thankfulness and an urge to praise Hashem for His gifts to us and this world.
ReplyDelete-Sylvie
One time I remember many of my friends went to travel camp. When they came back they told me that they had a scary experience when they went water rafting. All of them were drifting away and falling out of their tubes. Then when they were able to get out a person drove them back where they were supposed to be, they did not even know the person who was driving. During the drive they were saying shema.
ReplyDeleteHa that was me.
DeleteWhen I was on vacation in Africa, my family and I were on a safari watching some lions. Suddenly, a group of elephants come over to where we were and chase the lions away. The elephants were about a foot away from the truck we were in. We were right near a tree and the huge male elephant (the head of the group) went over to the tree and started hitting it to get the nuts down, while they were still less that a foot away from us! We were terrified!! My family and I were all saying Shema until the elephants finally left.
ReplyDeleteThis past summer, when I was in Israel, we went on a hike to En-Gedi.Before the hike a person who worked there said watch out for certain animals because they have raibes and if you get bitten you coulkd possibly have to get severe surgery. After a while my mom and I got really tired so we decided to go down and wait for my brother and my dad. As we were walking down a wild animal (that has raibes) stopped in front of us. We remembered the worked said one person got bit and it was so bad her whole face got swelled up and had bumps all over it and after surgery her face still wasn't ever the same, so we got pretty scared. We kinda had a stariing contest so to speak fro about 8 minutes and there was no way to get around it because it was on the stairs and next to us were cliffs and we couldn't go back because you should never turn your back to wild animal. We were stuck. I wanted to say shema there to pray that it would go away but i was so petrified i couldnt even move. After a while it finally moved to the side and my mom and I ran to the entrance away from the animal. it may sound stupid, but if you were there you would be just as scared.
ReplyDelete-Shelli Liebov
Whenever I by accidentally turn the lights on during shabbos or do something else without thinking I always say shemah. Somehow by saying that I believe in only One G-d it makes me feel a little better and I believe that Hashem will forgive me. These few words are the basis of Judaism because it is the main belief of Judaism. There are so many sects of Judaism and everyone has their different beliefs, but we all have one thing in common. We all believe in One G-d, our G-d, Hashem.
ReplyDeleteThis past vacation I accidentally tripped on a nail when I didn't have aNY socks on. It hurt a lot and it bleed. When I heard that I didn't need to go to the hospital, I said thank you to Hashem. I also said thank you to him when I found out a few days later that it was healing. Even though my foot is still healing, I thank still thank Hashem for letting my foot heel better and better each day.
ReplyDeleteOne time when I was at six flags I was on a roller coaster and I was berry scared and I said Shermah I did it on a lot of other rides too and it made me feel some what safer so I like to say shemah when im scared
ReplyDeleteI have an Uncle Josh who lives in Isreal and he's an excellent biker. He's always biking places and participates in triathlons. But last he was biking and he got hit by a car. It was a really bad accident and my family didn't know if he would be ok. Thankfully he was alight and my my mom got the call she said Shema because seriously could of happened and physical therapy became completely ok. But one thing I found really nice about this was when he was hit the passing by stopped and they stopped around my uncle to make sure he didn't get any further injuries. Which just shows how amazing Isreal is. But everyone was just extremely thankful that he was wearing a helmet because the hospital said he wasn't wearing he wouldn't have made. Now that is defiantly something worth saying Shema over, and if it's not I don't know what is.
ReplyDelete~Yael Feldman
there was this one time in my life when a family member was going throw a hard time they needed surgery it was really hard even though everyone was davening it was really hard for me considering that I was young and I couldn't really davening but I knew a few things and one of them was shema so I needed to tell g-d that I was really thankful that He was watching over us shema was the thing that I could thank Him for making it go so well
ReplyDelete