Hillel and Shammai on How to Pray the Shema

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 " You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 " These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 " You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 " You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 " You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deut 6:4-9) (Shema)

Since Hillel and Shammai debated over 300 questions, it should not be surprising that some aspect of the saying of the Shema would be disputed. From the Book, "Hillel: If Not Now, When?"...

“The last words (of the Shema) serve as the basis for the law requiring Jews to recite the Shema daily. But when and how must they do so? The answer hinges on how one understands the words ‘when you lie down and when you rise up.’

The School of Shammai taught, “In the evening, everyone should lie down in order to recite (the Shema), and in the morning (each person) must stand, for it is written, ‘when you lie down and when you rise up.’” But the School of Hillel taught: “Each person recites the Shema according to his preferred manner (that is, one can do so while sitting or standing, while laying down or walking.”

The Mishnah, in which this dispute is recorded (Berakbot 1:3), asks how the Hillelites explained the Torah’s words, ‘when you lie down and when you rise up,’ and answers that they believed that the words were not meant to be understood literally. Rather, the Torah’s intentions was to establish the proper time to recite the Shema, once in the evening, the hours when people lie down for the night, and once in the morning, when they rise.”

(Hillel: If Not Now, When?, Joseph Telushkin, page 85, Edition 2010)

Today "Hayom" If You Hear My Voice

I think what Sandi was asking can be heard on Dan Lancaster’s Hebrew series, Lesson 05, “Enter My Rest,” beginning around the 7:50 minute mark.

“Remember the story I told the children. In that story, Yehoshua Ben Levi, a third century Jewish Sage somehow encounters Messiah, according to him and asks, ‘When are you coming.’ Messiah says, ‘today,’ but then he doesn’t. So Ben Levi is ticked off and he goes to complain to Elijah.

Elijah explains and says, ‘What Messiah meant was, “Today.”’…Elijah said that the Messiah was quoting Psalm 95:7, ‘Today, if you would hear His voice,’ hayom. ‘Today if you hear my voice’ is ‘today,’ if you obey me, today if you repent. When is it “hayom,” when is it “today”? When is it that Messiah comes? When ‘you hear My voice.’ When you repent.” (Dan Lancaster, Hebrews Audio Lesson 5, Enter My Rest)

Scott