**SEM** (Heb. Šēm). — One of the sons of Noah, perhaps the firstborn, since in the enumerations he is listed first (S., Ham [v.] and Japheth [v.]: Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 9:18, etc.); but in the "Table of Nations" (ibid. 10:2-21) the brothers are mentioned first because they are excluded from the narrator’s interest, which then follows only the history of the Semitic-patriarchal family (Thareites). The Semitic stock takes its name from S.
A particular passage of religious and historical-ethnic importance is Gen. 9:18-28, in which the differing attitudes toward their father characterize the three brothers. At the conclusion of the episode Noah utters over S. words of blessing: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of S.” (ibid. 9:26), which directly praise God but, as a “blessing,” refer to the son: an expression of a special relationship between the true God and S., in contrast to his brothers.
Others interpret, with a slightly different reading and without substantial difference in meaning: “May S. be blessed by the Lord, my God,” and “May the Lord bless the tents of S.” In S. is understood his descendants, partly as an actual providential choice on God’s part, partly as a wish, and partly as a prophecy of future historical freedom. None of these motifs is absent, nor is any exclusive. The text does not lend itself to the recognition of a process of pure and simple projection of the ethnic group’s history onto the figure of an ancestor, as is often claimed for patriarchal narratives; if that were the case, the expressions would be much more precise. Indeed, monotheism in the Semitic stock (and in it alone) always had worship, though not in all its groups: that is, history will later show that “the Lord, the God of S.” in reality meant “the God of Israel.” The saying of Noah himself concerning Japheth (Gen. 9:27) had meaning only with the messianic advent, with the Apostles’ preaching to the West. There is therefore no reason not to regard the blessing of S. as prophecy, as certainly is that for Japheth.
In Gen. 10:21-31 the sons and grandsons of S. are recalled, in whom are mostly recognizable the ancestors of known groups of Semites (v.). Giovanni Rinaldi
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**“ŠĒMA' JIŠRĀ'EL”** (“Hear, O Israel”). — Hebrew words from Deut. 6:4-9, which with Deut. 11:13-21 and Num. 15:37-41 constitute a profession of faith in the unity of God, which stands at the center of Jewish liturgy.
The Š. J. is recited, according to Talmudic tradition (Bērākhōth, 1 ff.), in the morning from sunrise until the third hour, and in the evening toward sunset. The recitation of the Š. J. in the evening becomes the starting point for the rise of the evening prayer, 'arbhīth, which had already entered into practice by the beginning of the Christian era (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, IV, 8, 13).