שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יהוה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יהוה אֶחָד

Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is One.

... one of the very few prayers I remember from school and, it appears, one of the most important. I never considered what it meant--what any of my religious studies meant--since, having been raised in a totally non-religious family, I was as alien in their environment as they were in mine. I repeated the words as I was taught... with little to no conviction. 

I remember, though, for a time, saying the first few lines before bed as if they might offer some measure of protection; I remember (incorrectly) hearing a plea in that first word--shema. Hear.

Hear me, I thought, naively.