The Shema is not a prayer. It is a command to hear in a way that changes how you live. Shama appears hundreds of times in the Tanakh, but its most potent use opens the identity oath of Deuteronomy 6:4. When HaShem says "Shema," He is not requesting attention. He is commanding obedience. The same verb appears in Genesis 3:17 where Adam's failure was not that he heard Eve speak, but that he let her voice displace HaShem's as his governing authority. Every man is shema-ing something. The question is whose voice restructures his life.