The Witness Letters of the Shema — Deuteronomy 6:4
שְׁמַע … אֶחָד
What to look for
Two enlarged letters in one verse: the ayin ending Shema ('Hear') and the dalet ending echad ('One').
What it is
The most famous enlarged letters in the Torah, in Israel's central confession: 'Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God, YHVH is One.'
Why it matters
The dalet guards against misreading echad (One) as acher (another) — the mirror of the guarding resh in Exodus 34:14. And together the two large letters spell עֵד, ed — 'witness.'
How it has been understood
Tradition teaches that whoever says the Shema becomes a witness to God's oneness, and the text itself carries the word 'witness' hidden in its two tallest letters. In the image you can also see the small samekh floating beside the line — a setumah mark, the codex's paragraph divider, showing a new section begins here.