Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 14 (1972), pp. 1370-4. SHEMA, READING OF, the twice daily recitation of the declaration of God’s unity, called the Shema (“Hear”) after the first word in Deuteronomy 6: 4; also called Keri’at Shema (“the reading of the Shema”). As it had developed by at least as early as the…