page_title: Va'etchanan
section_title: In the liturgy
hierarchical_section_title: Va'etchanan / In the liturgy
caption_attribution_description: English: the beginning of the Shema prayer in the Siddur. فارسی: آغاز شِماع در سیدور.
context_page_description: Va'etchanan is the 45th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the Book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11. The parashah tells how Moses asked to see the Land of Israel, made arguments to obey the law, recounted setting up the Cities of Refuge, recited the Ten Commandments and the Shema, and gave instructions for the Israelites' conquest of the Land.
  The parashah is made up of 7,343 Hebrew letters, 1,878 Hebrew words, 122 verses, and 249 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August.
  It is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av. As the parashah describes how the Israelites would sin and be banished from the Land of Israel, Jews also read part of the parashah Deuteronomy 4:25–40 as the Torah reading for the morning prayer service on Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem.
context_section_description: The Torah reader and the congregation recite Deuteronomy 4:4 immediately before the Torah reading, signifying how learning the Torah embodies remaining steadfast to God.
  The Passover Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, quotes Deuteronomy 4:34 to elucidate the term "great terribleness" in Deuteronomy 26:8, interpreting the "great terribleness" to mean the revelation of the Shechinah or Divine Presence.
  It is customary for listeners to stand while the reader chants the Ten Commandments in the synagogue, as if the listeners were themselves receiving the revelation at Sinai.
  The Lekhah Dodi liturgical poem of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service quotes both the commandment of Exodus 20:7 to "remember" the Sabbath and the commandment of Deuteronomy 5:11 to "keep" or "observe" the Sabbath, saying that they "were uttered as one by our Creator."
  The verses of the Shema and V'ahavta in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 constitute a central prayer in Jewish prayer services. Jews combine Deuteronomy 6:4–9 along with Deuteronomy 11:13–21, and Numbers 15:37–41 to form the core of K'riat Shema, recited in the evening (Ma'ariv) and morning (Shacharit) prayer services. A shorter version of the Shema, composed of simply Deuteronomy 6:4, appears in the Torah service (Seder K'riat HaTorah) and the Kedushah of the Musaf service for Shabbat. And the Shema and for some the V'ahavta, Deuteronomy 6:4–9, are among the first prayers said upon arising and form the central prayer of the bedtime Shema, said just before retiring for sleep.
  Reuven Hammer noted that Mishnah Tamid 5:1 recorded what was in effect the first siddur, as a part of which priests daily recited the Ten Commandments and Deuteronomy 6:4–9.
  The commandment to love God in Deuteronomy 6:5 is reflected in Psalm 97:10, which is in turn one of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.
  The "love" of God that Deuteronomy 6:5 urges finds reflection in the characterization of God as the "Beloved" in the Lekhah Dodi liturgical poem of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.
  And the leshem yihud prayer before putting on tefillin quotes the commandment of Deuteronomy 6:8.
  In the magid section, the Haggadah combines Deuteronomy 6:21 and 5:14 in the first answer to the Four Questions (Ma Nishtana) in the magid section of the Seder. And shortly thereafter, the Haggadah quotes Deuteronomy 6:20 to provide the question of the wise son, also in the magid section.
  Also in the magid section, the Haggadah quotes Deuteronomy 6:23 — emphasizing the word "us" (otanu) — for the proposition that God did not redeem the ancestral Israelites alone, but also the current generation of Jews with them.
caption: the beginning of the Shema prayer in the Siddur
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