Shema Yisrael (or Sh’ma Yisroel or just Shema) (Hebrew: שמע ישראל; “Hear, [O] Israel”) refers to the most important prayer in Judaism that is recited every morning and evening during Jewish prayers. Its twice-daily recitation is a religious commandment (mitzvah) for observant Jews. The full “Shema” prayer comprises Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37–41.
The text of the first part of the Shema is as follows:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [1] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The two-fold message of the prayer is, first, that God is One, and, second, that each person should love God with all one’s heart, soul, and might. Jesus considered the Shema to be part of the greatest commandment: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord'” (Gospel of Mark 12:29 KJV). Jesus added that the second commandment is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus also refers to the Shema in the Gospel of John 10:30.