V’hayah, Vayomer and Emes V’yatziv

The first paragraph speaks to each one alone: “you”, in the singular. The second paragraph speaks mostly to all of us together: לְבַבְכֶם and נַפְשְׁכֶם, “your hearts” and “your souls”, in the plural, and it adds what happens to the whole people: rain in its time, or the heavens shut. The grammar of that change is in §G79.

The commentary on Chabad.org notes another difference: “In the first passage, VeAhavta, the order of these commandments is reversed: first study, and then deed. In this passage, deed is mentioned first.” In V’ohavto, “teach them” comes before “bind them”; here, “bind them” comes first, and “teach them” after.

Lesson 19 promised one more remembrance, in the Shema itself. The Alter Rebbe (60:4), after the remembrances at the end of Ahavas Olam, adds: “Some authorities maintain that it is a mitzvah to recall the Shabbos every day.” Then he shows where: in the Shema’s words וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת כָּל מִצְוֹת, “and you shall remember all the commandments”, for Shabbos is weighed against all the commandments. I give that line in my own words, because the English on Chabad.org writes the Name there; the Hebrew says it in five words: “זוֹ הִיא שַׁבָּת שֶׁשְּׁקוּלָה כְּנֶגֶד כָּל הַמִּצְווֹת”.

Vayomer is the paragraph of tzitzis. Why knots and threads? The Alter Rebbe (24:1) explains it with a picture: someone who wants to remember something ties a knot in his belt; “the tzitzis [at each corner] have five knots which recall the Five Books of the Torah, and there are four corners, so that whichever direction a person turns, he will remember the mitzvos.” And on “you shall see it and remember”: “Seeing leads to remembering, and remembering leads to observance.” (24:5).

During the Shema we hold the tzitzis that we gathered at וַהֲבִיאֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם (Lesson 19). The Alter Rebbe (24:4): “It is a mitzvah to hold the tzitzis in one’s left hand” opposite the heart, and: “There are some who say that they should be held between the fourth and last fingers of the left hand, and when one reaches the passage concerning tzitzis he should take them in his right hand and look at them. … They should remain in his hand until he reaches the phrase ne’emanim venechemadim laad, at which point he should kiss the tzitzis and release them.” And (24:6): “Some people follow the custom of looking at the tzitzis and passing them over their eyes when they reach the phrase ure’isem oso — “And you shall see it.” This is a desirable custom, expressing one’s affection for the mitzvah.” He adds that it is customary to kiss them when looking at them: “All of this reflects how precious the mitzvah is.”

The kisses, as HaYom Yom (22 Sivan) counts them; I translate the Hebrew: “one kisses the tzitzis six times, that is, at saying the words: tzitzis, tzitzis, l’tzitzis, emes, kayemes, la’ad.” The three words of tzitzis are in Vayomer; emes is the first word of the blessing after it; kayemes is in וּמַלְכוּתוֹ וֶאֱמוּנָתוֹ לָעַד קַיֶּמֶת; and the last, la’ad, is in נֶאֱמָנִים וְנֶחֱמָדִים לָעַד, where the Alter Rebbe says to kiss them and let them go. The translator of the Shulchan Aruch adds, from Minhagei Melech, how the Rebbe would touch his eyes with the tzitzis before kissing them (as cited). How to do it yourself, ask your rav, or watch how it is done in your shul.

And why only by day? The Mishnah (Berachos 2:2) said it: Vayomer “applies only by day”, because tzitzis are a mitzvah of the day. Vayomer ends with the going out from Egypt, and that we mention at night too. The Mishnah (Berachos 1:5): “we mention the going out from Egypt at night”; Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said that he had not merited to see it said at night “until Ben Zoma expounded it”, from “all the days of your life”.

Vayomer ends אֲנִי יְיָ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, and the next word, אֱמֶת, is the first word of the blessing after the Shema. The Mishnah (2:2) lists the places “between the paragraphs” where a pause is allowed for a greeting of respect, and among them “between Vayomer and Emes V’yatziv”; but “Rabbi Yehudah says: between Vayomer and Emes V’yatziv one does not interrupt”. The Alter Rebbe (66:7) rules like him: between Vayomer and Emes V’yatziv one does not interrupt in any way, so as not to separate “Hashem your G‑d” from “emes”, for the prophet says (Yirmeyahu 10:10) that Hashem is the G‑d of truth. If one must stop there, one first says the words up to and including emes. And one should take care to say וְיַצִּיב as well, because it too is a word of truth.

If one stopped after emes, does one say it again? The Talmud (Berachos 14b) brings the question, “does he go back and say emes, or does he not go back and say emes?”; Rabbah says he does not. Once Rabbah heard someone say emes, emes, twice, and said: “every emes, emes has caught hold of him”. The Alter Rebbe (66:8): if one stopped after emes, or finished before the chazzan and waits for him, “he does not go back and say emes”, but begins from וְיַצִּיב or from where he stopped.

With a minyan, the chazzan says the last words of the Shema aloud again, with emes. The commentary on Chabad.org: “Thus it is considered as if they said the three extra words necessary to bring the number of words in their recitation of the Shema to 248.” The Siddur Sefard prints the same instruction for the chazzan at that place, in small letters. In practice, what to do when praying alone or with a minyan, ask your rav.

The Talmud (Berachos 12a), in the name of Rav: “whoever did not say Emes V’yatziv in the morning and Emes Ve’emunah in the evening has not fulfilled his obligation”, for the verse says “to tell Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness at night”. And Rav Yehudah (21a): if one is in doubt whether he said Emes V’yatziv, he goes back and says it, for, the Talmud says, Emes V’yatziv is from the Torah.

The Alter Rebbe (66:12) explains what the blessing is: “The entire blessing Emes veyatziv [recalls] the kindness [G‑d] bestowed upon our ancestors — by taking them out of Egypt, splitting the Sea for them, and leading them through it.” And: “one must make mention of the Exodus from Egypt, [G‑d’s] sovereignty, the Splitting of the Red Sea, and the Plague of the Firstborn.” If one left out one of them, he has not fulfilled his obligation. Yet the blessings do not hold back the Shema: “Whoever does not recite the blessings Emes veyatziv in the morning (as ordained) and Emes veemunah in the evening has [after the fact] fulfilled his obligation to recite the Shema, for the blessings are not indispensable elements of the recitation of the Shema.”

Look at the text with that list in hand: the Exodus, מִמִּצְרַיִם גְּאַלְתָּנוּ; the plague of the firstborn, כָּל בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם הָרַגְתָּ; the splitting of the sea, וְיַם סוּף לָהֶם בָּקַעְתָּ; and the kingship, in the song that follows, יְיָ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד. The Chabad commentary on Ezras Avoseinu cites the Tosefta (Berachos 2:1) for the splitting of the sea (as cited).

Two more things that can be counted in it. After the first word, “After the first mention of the word Emes, the passage continues with fifteen words that begin with the letter vav.” And the word emes itself: “This blessing mentions the term Emes, true, eight times: four before the passage beginning Ezras avoseinu, “the Help of our fathers,” and four within that passage.”

The blessing ends גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל, “Who redeemed Israel”, and right after it we stand for the Amidah. That is סְמִיכַת גְּאֻלָּה לִתְפִלָּה, “joining the redemption to the prayer”.

The Talmud (Berachos 9b) tells of the vasikin, the careful ones, who would finish the Shema with sunrise, “so that he joins the redemption to the prayer, and is found praying by day”. Rabbi Yossi ben Elyakim said in the name of the holy congregation of Jerusalem: “whoever joins the redemption to the prayer is not harmed the whole day.” And of Rav Brona, “a great man, and happy with mitzvos”, the Talmud tells that once he joined the redemption to the prayer, and the smile did not leave his mouth the whole day. Rabbi Yochanan (4b) calls him who does so at night “a son of the world to come”.

The Alter Rebbe (111:1): “(Even though the recitation of the Shema and its blessings and [the recitation of] Shemoneh Esreh are independent mitzvos,) one must recite the blessing Gaal Yisrael in direct proximity to Shemoneh Esreh.” Why? He brings the Sages’ parable (111:2): “The friend of a king knocks on the palace gates and the king comes out to greet him. If he sees him depart and go on his way, he will also turn away, and will not approach him when he comes back and knocks again. This is the case when one makes a break between Gaal Yisrael and Shemoneh Esreh.” Some say this is not needed on Shabbos, for the verse it is learned from speaks of a day of distress, “and Shabbos is not a day of distress.” The Alter Rebbe does not let us rely on it: “for the derivation cited is only a support, whereas the fundamental [obligation] to link the blessing Gaal Yisrael to Shemoneh Esreh is based on the words of the Sages.” It is so important that (111:4) one who comes late does not pray the Amidah with the congregation and say the Shema afterwards: “The rationale is that [the obligation] to link the blessing Gaal Yisrael to the Morning Shemoneh Esreh outweighs [the distinctive quality of] congregational prayer.”

And between גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל and the Amidah not even Kaddish or Kedushah is answered (66:10): “One may not make an interruption in order to respond to Kaddish or Kedushah between Gaal Yisrael and Shemoneh Esreh, just as one may not make any interruption within Shemoneh Esreh itself, for Shemoneh Esreh begins at the point at which Gaal Yisrael ends.” What does one do? “One should wait before [reciting the paragraph beginning] Shirah Chadashah in order to respond.” As for Amen after the chazzan’s גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל (66:9): some say not to answer; “This is the custom in these countries — to respond Amen between Gaal Yisrael and Shemoneh Esreh after the sheliach tzibbur has completed this blessing,” and “A person who desires to fulfill [the stringencies of] all the authorities can aim to conclude at the same time as the sheliach tzibbur.” The translator adds: “Lubavitch custom is that the sheliach tzibbur completes the blessing in his ordinary tone (Sefer HaMinhagim: The Book of Chabad-Lubavitch Customs, p. 25), and the congregants aim to complete it at the same time” (as cited); and in chapter 111: “Accordingly it is Lubavitch custom for the sheliach tzibbur to complete the blessing in his ordinary tone (Sefer HaMinhagim, p. 25).” (as cited). In practice, ask your rav.

Many siddurim, like the Siddur Sefard, add a short prayer before the closing words, beginning צור ישראל, “Rock of Israel, rise to the help of Israel”. The Alter Rebbe mentions those who wait there to answer Amen (66:9): “Some people make a point of waiting when they reach Tzur Yisrael”. But our siddur goes from גֹּאֲלֵנוּ יְיָ צְבָאוֹת straight to the closing blessing. The Chabad commentary: “In the Alter Rebbe’s Siddur, the lyric passage Tzur Yisrael is omitted.” It cites Mishnas Chassidim on the count of words from Mi chamochah to Go’al Yisroel according to the AriZal (as cited), and adds: “Moreover, Tzur Yisrael does not fit the structure of the blessing, for the entire blessing focuses on the praise of G‑d, while Tzur Yisrael is a request made of Him. Also, the tense structure is different. The concluding clause of the blessing uses the past tense, while Tzur Yisrael employs the future (Maamarei Admor HaZakein).”

The Alter Rebbe makes the same point about the tense in his Shulchan Aruch (66:12): “The conclusion of that blessing reverts to the redemption from Egypt, so that one can [thematically] join [the end of the passage] to the [concluding] blessing, … which is in the past tense.” And: “For the expression “Redeemer” includes the past, present, and future”. The blessing praises what Hashem did; the request comes in the Amidah. That is the grammar of §G83.