Shema: As If

“Let these matters that I command you today be upon your heart.”

That is, “upon your heart as if I commanded them to you this very day at Mt. Sinai.”

This is a key idea in Judaism—every day should be “as if” the Torah was just given today.

Do you realize how much of Judaism is “as if”? We pray towards Jerusalem “as if” the Temple was still standing. We shake the lulav each of the seven days of Sukkot “as if” we were in the Temple. It is that connection we have to God that allows us to live “as if.” Because we connect to something that is beyond this physical reality.