I don’t normally write explicitly Jewish content on this blog. Normally, everything is 100% implicitly Jewish. But Sacred Attunement inspired a little pious outburst, so brace yourself for some theology.
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Shema: Hear, O Israel: Adonai is our God; Adonai is One.
V’ahavta: And you will love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
Synthesis: Hear, Israel, you will love the infinite One as the entire one you yourself are. You must become your entire self, then love God with the entirely of this self you’ve become.
To fully love God who is One and infinite, we must ourselves be one, without omission, without remainder.
That is why the Shema is followed by the V’ahavta.