Introduction-What is Shema in the Home?

Shalom!  Welcome to Shema in the Home!  If you are wondering if this is a blog for you, I will tell you briefly about what I am hoping to share here.  

We all need inspiration.  Whether you stay home or work outside the home, home school or have kids in public school, take care of an elderly parent or neighbor, or babysit,we all need a pick me up. Remember the Calgon commercial?  I know for myself I tend to lose focus when I am stretched in so many different directions.  

My husband and I became Torah observant after our kids were born, it has been such a blessing in our lives.  I went through all of the stages-from christian to messianic to Torah observant Jew.  My husband is a born Jew and I strongly suspect I have Jewish roots, but nonetheless-I converted one year ago today along with my kids.  G-d really converted me before that but it became official a year ago.  

The Torah in my life has given me direction I did not have before and I want to share it with you.

  

When thinking of a name for this blog I thought of shema because it is the teaching of our children that helps to teach us.  My husband added "in the home" and the name was created!

So, I basically want to share the inspirations from the Torah portion that I share with my children each week, the physical activities we do and what we learn from them, the problems we encounter and how we handle them, and the goals we are trying to meet.  It helps to know there are other families out there who are experiencing similar things, so I hope to be a source of courage and inspiration to you (and myself) as I share our world with you.

Deuteronomy 6 is known as the Shema.  It is a Jewish prayer that is recited in the morning when one wakes up and also at bedtime.  The full shema is made up of 3 paragraphs, but the first line is the most well known.  Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One.  

The rest of the prayer speaks of teaching our children.  Teaching them what?  The words that G-d has commanded (Torah).  When do we teach them?  In the house, on the street, lying down and rising up (basically any chance we get)!  

Of course we could talk for hours on the shema but the point I want to make is the shema holds us together, as man to his Creator, as parents to children and us as a nation.  No wonder it is the most well known of prayers!  

The shema is not just studying, it is doing, it is creating an environment that invites Hashem in. 

Whether we homeschool, have kids in public school or private school, or even if our kids are grown we can practice shema.  It is said that even if we do not have children of our own, any child we teach is considered to be like a child of our own.  

We can teach our kids because any interest we have can be related to Torah somehow-there is nothing new under the sun!