The Shema — Radical Oneness
The Teaching
Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One.
From the Zohar: "Hear O Israel — the supernal secret is: Adonai is one and his name is one. The mystery of the Shekhinah below, completing everything in the perfect unity."
From Isaac Luria: "Before the creation, Ein Sof filled all of existence. To create, the Infinite performed Tzimtzum — a self-contraction — making space for the finite world to arise. Yet the withdrawn light left a residue. Nothing was truly empty."
Commentary
Echad, one. But not one as a number among other numbers. One as the only reality, Advaita (non-dual) in the Hebrew tradition. The Zohar's mystical reading makes this explicit: the oneness is not a theological proposition but a description of ultimate reality.
The Lurianic Tzimtzum, divine self-contraction to make room for creation, is one of the most profound images in all mystical literature. God 'empties' Godself (kenosis!) to allow the finite to exist. This is the Taoist emptiness of the vessel, the Buddhist Sunyata as generative ground.
Sikhism's Ik Onkar, one creative reality, is the same declaration. The Hindu Advaita Vedanta is the same. The Sufi Wahdat al-Wujud (unity of being) is the same. The Shema is the oldest formulation of what all traditions are pointing at.