Vaetchannan

Sh’ma^c Yisrael (Deut. 6:1)

Transvaluation of a Credal Formula

By David Steinberg

Meaning	Comments
Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one	Local manifestations of YHWH e.g. YHWH of Samaria, YHWH of Teman, YHWH of Jerusalem, with different characteristics would have been a constant problem until the centralization of the cult under Josiah (shortly after 622 BCE)
Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH alone (to be worshiped i.e. through animal sacrifices[i])	This was implicit in the covenantal theology and the key point of the YHWH-alone movement. The Deuteronomic reform finally decided this issue
Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is unique and uniquely powerful	Part of the platform of the Deuteronomic reform and clearly implicit in the Exodus story
Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is the one (true god)	Clearly apparent in the Second Isaiah
Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is the one (in spite of the apparently different experiences we have of the numinous)	God in history, God in our experience of the numinous and the transcendent God of the philosophers are one. This sort of conception was probably a result of contact with Greek philosophical thought. (cf. the Jewish hymn Shir ha-Kabod, also called Anim Zemirot[ii])

See Further Israelite Religion to Judaism: the Evolution of the Religion of Israel

---

[i] There is some evidence that originally grain and incence offerings to other deities were tolerated.

[ii] See Encyclopedia Judaica article ANIM ZEMIROT