Birkat HaTorah and Shema
Question
The Artscroll Siddur says it is forbidden to recite any Torah passages prior to reciting Birkat HaTorah in the morning.
Suppose for some reason you cannot daven the full Shacharit by the latest time for reciting Shema. You want to recite just the Shema before that deadline and then the other prayers later. Since the Shema is a series of Torah passages, are you also required to recite Birkat HaTorah before you recite Shema?
Answers
Yes, the correct thing to do is to recite Birkat haTorah and then recite the Shema. Because so many parts of Shacharit are comprised of Torah passages (both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah) that is why Birkat haTorah appears at the very beginning of Shacharit.
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