<P> Yaakov Shwekey in his "Shema Yisrael," used the story of Rabbi Eliezer Silver's saving Jewish children hidden in Christian monasteries following the Holocaust by reciting the first line of the Shema . </P> <P> Singer Justin Bieber says the Shema before each public performance with his manager Scooter Braun, who is Jewish . </P> <P> The second section of the Hasidic text the Tanya, by Schneur Zalman of Liadi (Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah-Gate of Unity and Faith), brings the mystical Panentheism of the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, into philosophical explanation . It explains the Hasidic interpretation of God's Unity in the first two lines of the Shema, based upon their interpretation in Kabbalah . The emphasis on Divine Omnipresence and immanence lies behind Hasidic joy and dveikut, and its stress on transforming the material into spiritual worship . In this internalisation of Kabbalistic ideas, the Hasidic follower seeks to reveal the Unity and hidden holiness in all activities of life . </P> <P> Medieval, rationalist Jewish philosophers (exponents of "Hakirah" - rational "investigation" from first principles in support of Judaism), such as Maimonides, describe Biblical Monotheism to mean that there is only one God, and His essence is a unique, simple, infinite Unity . Jewish mysticism gives a deeper explanation, by distinguishing between God's essence and emanation . In Kabbalah and especially Hasidism, God's Unity means that there is nothing independent of His essence . The new doctrine in Lurianic Kabbalah of God's Tzimtzum ("Withdrawal"), received different interpretations after Isaac Luria, from the literal to the metaphorical . To Hasidism and Schneur Zalman, it is unthinkable for the "Withdrawal" of God that "makes possible" Creation, to be taken literally . Tzimtzum only relates to the Ohr Ein Sof ("Infinite Light"), not the Ein Sof (Divine essence) itself . God's true infinity is revealed in both complementary infinitude (infinite light) and finitude (finite light). The "Withdrawal" was only a concealment of the Infinite Light into the essence of God, to allow the latent potentially finite light to emerge after the Tzimtzum . God Himself remains unaffected ("For I, the Lord, I have not changed" Malachi 3: 6). His essence was One, alone, before Creation, and still One, alone, after Creation, without any change . As the Tzimtzum was only a concealment, therefore God's Unity is Omnipresent . In the Baal Shem Tov's new interpretation, Divine Providence affects every detail of Creation . The "movement of a leaf in the wind" is part of the unfolding Divine presence, and is a necessary part of the complete Tikkun (Rectification in Kabbalah). This awareness of the loving Divine purpose and significance of each individual, awakens mystical love and awe of God . </P>

The lord our god is one god in hebrew