The Shema
Less a petition than a declaration, and the prayer that bookends a Jewish day and a Jewish life.
Less a petition than a declaration, the Shema proclaims God's oneness in verses drawn from Deuteronomy and Numbers. Recited morning and evening, it is often the first prayer a child learns, and tradition hopes it will be among a person's last words. It bookends both the Jewish day and, in aspiration, a Jewish life.
The Shema proclaims God's oneness in verses drawn from Deuteronomy and Numbers. It is recited morning and evening, it is often the first prayer a child learns, and tradition hopes it will be among a person's last words.
The full liturgical form runs to three paragraphs and includes a line said quietly after the opening verse that is not part of the biblical text. The first paragraph, Deuteronomy 6:4 to 9, is the part most people mean by the name.
It is a declaration rather than a request, which is unusual among the prayers people reach for at hard moments, and part of why it works at a deathbed: it asks for nothing.
Does it have a text?
This one this site holds, in Hebrew facing the 1917 Jewish Publication Society English. The Hebrew was verified by comparing two independently maintained Masoretic editions character by character, vowel points included.
- The Shema, first paragraph, in Hebrew and English, with the edition it came from and how it was checked.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Judaism
- Nichum avelim: what Jews say when someone dies — The Jewish practice of comforting mourners, and the two fixed phrases that carry it: Baruch Dayan HaEmet on hearing of a death, and HaMakom yenachem etchem said to the bereaved.
- Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv — The three daily Jewish services, and the fixed liturgy each one follows.
- The Amidah — The standing prayer at the centre of every Jewish service.
- Kaddish — An Aramaic praise of God's name that marks the joints of every service, and that mourners recite.
- Berakhot — The short fixed blessings said over food, drink and ordinary acts.
- Jewish prayers of healing and memory — Mi Sheberach for the sick, and El Malei Rachamim for the dead.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.
Content last changed 15 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.