Sh'ma

Sh'ma means "hear" or "listen". It's the first word of a key prayer proclaiming the "oneness" or unity of God and testifying to a belief in a monotheistic God. So when people talk about the Sh'ma, they are referring to this prayer. Sometimes they are only referring to the first sentence (shown below with and without the diacritic marks that indicate vowels) and sometimes to that sentence and a few more verses that follow (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) There are also slight variations in interpretation or translation.
: or 
:transliteration: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.
:translation: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. or Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.
The Sh'ma is often chanted or sung. There are many different tunes.
Like many other transliterated words, sh'ma can be spelled multiple different ways in other languages. In English another common spellings is shema.
==References==
* Judaism 101 on the shema (includes the Hebrew text of the prayer, transliteration and translation)
* Mechon Mamre's copy of Deuteronomy starting at 6:4 (side by side versus of Torah - Hebrew with an English translation)
* 
* JewishEncyclopedia.com on the Shema
Category:judaism