Loving G-d

In this week's parasha, Va-Etchanan, we read the words of the Shema. "V'ahavta et Adonai elohecha, b'chol l'vavcha, uv'chol nafsh'cha, uv'chol m'odecha." You shall love Adonai your G-d with all heart, and all your soul, and all your might.

These words as you know are often called the watchword of Judaism. Combined with the words we say at the end of the aleinu, bayom ha-hu, yiyeh adonai echad, ush'mo echad (in that day, there will be one G-d and His name will be one), they reflect the Jewish mission to establish a oneness and harmony in the world based upon the unity of G-d.

When the Torah proclaims the Shema and speaks about loving G-d with all your heart, it uses the word Levavcha, in Hebrew. That word is spelled with a lamed, two vavs, and a chaf tzofi...it could have actually used the word libecha which is spelled with a lamed, bet, and chaf tzofi. The two vavs in the former word actually indicates that you are to love G-d with both of your hearts. What could that possibly mean? According to Rabbi Daniel Landes, Rosh Yeshiva of the Pardes Institute where I just completed a course of study in Jerusalem, it means that you must love G-d with both your hearts, the one that has good inclinations and the one that has bad inclinations.

But we are also to love G-d with all of our soul and all of our might. Tractate Berachot 61B of the Babylonian Talmud speaks about this. "It has been taught: Rabbi Eliezer says If it says 'with all your soul' why should it also say 'with all your might,' and if it says 'with all your might', why should it also say 'with all your soul? The answer is: If there is a man who values his life more than his money, for him it says 'with all your soul'; and if there is a man who values his money more than his life, for him it says 'with all your might'.

Perhaps you've heard about the parable told by Rabbi Akiba(also found in Tractate Berachot) who knew that the Roman Government had forbidden Jews to study and practice the Torah. The parable goes like this:
A fox was once walking alongside of a river and he saw fish going in swarms from one place to another. The fox said to them: From what are you fleeing? They replied: From the nets cast for us by men. The fox said to them: Would you like to come up on to the dry land so that you and I can live together in the way that my ancestors lived with your ancestors? The fish replied: Are you the one that they call the cleverest of animals? You are not clever but foolish. If we are afraid in the element in which we live, how much more in the element in which we would die!

This of course is a parable about the Jewish people. Soon after telling it, Rabbi Akiba was arrested and thrown into prison for having engaged in the study of Torah. He was taken out for execution by having his flesh combed with iron combs. Akiba who always recited the Shema at the proper hour, even recited it as the Romans inflicted his soul with great suffering and pain. According to Tractate Brachot 61B "His disciples said to him: Our teacher, even to this point? He said to them: All my days I have been troubled by this verse, 'with all your soul,' which I interpret 'even if He takes your soul.' Akiba said to his students, When shall I have the opportunity of fulfilling this? Now that I have the opportunity shall I not fulfill it? He prolonged the word echad until he expired saying it."

What Akiba was trying to say to his students was that he loved G-d unconditionally and although he loved life, he loved it when he was able to live by the content of the Torah and its teachings. For him, loving G-d meant being willing to die for something that was important to him.

When I heard these stories in Jerusalem a few weeks ago, I was left with many thoughts. 1) How many people actually live their life like Akiba did by maximizing their human potential even under perilous conditions? 2) How many of us actually listen to the words of the Shema and love G-d unconditionally? 3) Is it possible to take the idea of loving G-d one step further by understanding that our love of G-d actually can lead us to love others because it is a basic premise that everyone is made in the image of G-d? 4) If we were faced with an extreme situation, would we be capable of expressing our love for G-d?

We say the Shema from the time we are little until the day we die. As familiar as the words are, it is important to think deeply about their meaning. They create a social reality for the Jewish world, a reality that recognizes that if we are commanded to love G-d, it is because we do indeed have the capacity to love G-d and G-d's creations.