Va’etchanan: Commanded Love

And thou shall love the Lord your G-d (Devarim 6; 4).

Picture the scene: two newlyweds on their honeymoon. Romance is in the air. The husband turns to his new bride and in a stern tone of voice says, “My dear, I command you to love me.”

Is this for real? No one is so crass to demand love in such a way from someone else. How are we to explain then, the commandment in this week’s Torah portion for us to love the Lord, our G-d?

In this week’s Torah portion we have one of the most famous verses in the entire Torah, the Shema. The first verse after proclaiming G-d’s absolute unity is the positive commandment to love the Lord our G-d; one of the six special commandments that are required of us to be practiced constantly, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  But just think for a moment, how can Hashem command us to love him? Isn’t love dependent on who we are and how we feel? Isn’t love an emotion?

The Sfat Emmet answers that in the question alone is the answer. Certainly it is engraved in our nature to love our Creator, our Father in Heaven. If this is so, if it’s there already, why do you need a commandment? The answer is that it is naturally within us to love Hashem, but one needs to exercise this love through meditation, longing and yearning to reveal and bring it out from the potential into expression.

Let’s try and understand this concept further. Why is our love so hidden within us? In Hebrew, the world we live in is called “Olam.” The root letters of the word “Olam” mean “hidden”. Essentially our world is a place where G-d is hidden. Hashem in His great mercy hides Himself, allowing us to exercise our free choice. We must choose the proper path and earn our reward in the world to come. If one were to sit himself down and think about his situation in this world certainly he would start to recognize the millions of miracles that Hashem does for him daily! Never the less because we see in this world tragic events occurring and people suffering, our evil inclination plays havoc with our minds minute by minute. If Hashem loves me then why am I so short, ugly, poor? Why do bad things happen to good people like me?

This is exactly what the snake did to Adam and Eve on the first day of creation. He succeeded then and he has continued to work to ruin our relationship with our loving Father in Heaven Who created everything, even the evil, for our benefit!

When we doubt that Hashem loves us, then our love for him wavers. When this happens, one can eventually do whatever his heart desires, even until the most despicable behavior, may G-d protect us.

Therefore we now can understand that the reason that G-d commands us to love him stems from His love for us! The commandment is really for our own benefit! When our love is in place we can deal with all the enticements of the physical world and make the right decisions in life.

Using these concepts Rebbe Nachman explains one of simplest and at the same time most profound explanations of the Shema is in Likutei Moharan 4:1and 4,

“When one knows that all that takes place is for his best interest, it is as if he lives in the World to Come.. As the Rabbis of blessed memory say in the verse from Zechariah 14:9, “On that day Hashem will be One and His name will be One. They ask, isn’t Hashem One now? The Rabbis answer, presently one makes a blessing over good tidings, “Blessed art Thou…Who is Good and does Good.  Over seemingly bad events we bless, “Blessed art Thou, The Judge of Truth.” In the future, we will bless over all tidings, ”Who is Good and does Good.” That’s the meaning of “Hashem and His Name is One.” This is called perfect wisdom, to understand the unity of Hashem’s attribute of Mercy and Judgment and not to differentiate between the two. The word for truth is Echad has the same numerical value for the word love, Ahava. That means to say whether G-d acts according to His name of Mercy which is, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, or according to His name of Justice, Elokim, it’s all for our benefit. Why is this so? It’s all out of love. For Hashem loves us, as it is written in Mishlei 3, “Those whom He loves, He rebukes.”

This teaching of the Rebbe is explaining that this is the way that the truly righteous view our world. Even though on the surface things may seem 50-50, meaning sometimes good, sometimes bad, the tzaddik understands that any suffering is a function of a person’s transgressions. With great loving-kindness, G-d goes out of His way to remind us to fix our ways with His attribute of justice. But in truth, it’s all love.

The Shabbat after the 9^th of Av always falls out when we read in the Torah the “Shema Yisrael” and the commandment to love G-d. This Shabbat is called Shabbat Nachamu (comfort) for this is the essential comfort, to know that everything that happens to us, whether is appears to be good or the just the opposite is really all from the same source, our loving Father!

Rabbeinu Bachya in his classic work, “Duties of The Heart” teaches, after having declared the unity of Hashem, meaning realizing that His attributes of Loving-kindness and Judgment are one and the same, then we are commanded to love Him. Loving G-d is the pinnacle of serving G-d is to love Him. There is no spiritual level higher and nothing that comes after it. For this reason, the climax of his classic Duties of the Heart is the chapter, “Sha’ar HaAhava” (The Gate of Love).

Everyone says that they love Hashem, but if you really want to know where you’re holding in your love of Hashem, Rabbeinu Bachya reveals to us how to know.

He writes that one who possesses love of Hashem is someone who runs after people to bring them closer to Hashem. Rabbeinu Bachya explains that even a person who reaches the level of the prophets can’t match the merit of one who helps others to return to serving their Creator. Since they have a portion of so many peoples’ good deeds, their own merits are compounded daily.

One of our generation’s living examples of a true lover of Hashem, is the Rosh Yeshiva of Chut Shel Chessed, Rav Shalom Arush. In his 35 years of outreach, which was initiated out of love for his Creator, he has reached millions with his books and lectures. His love and devotion to Hashem is an inspiration to anyone who comes in contact with him. Possibly Rav Shalom’s great success could be understood from the Zohar’s teaching in this week’s parsha. “The mitzvah of loving Hashem is the highest of all service in the world. Through this commandment one honors Hashem on the highest level, and through it, is blessed eternally.”

In my humble opinion, studying Rabbi Arush’s teachings and supporting his cause are sure to advance both one’s love for his Creator as well as Hashem’s love for His people. May we also merit the promise of the Zohar to eternal blessings!