Duteronomy 6:4 says, “And you shall love HaShem your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.” According to Rabbi Yeshua, this is the most important of all the commandments (Mark 12:30), but what does it mean to love HaShem?
According to Rabbi Israel Meir Cohen (of blessed memory), this means meditating on God and learning about Him in order to understand and to know Him. This would include daily prayer and study, but R. Yeshua implies that it is more than this. In Matthew 22:40 R. Yeshua says that this is one of the two commandments that the entire Law and Prophets is based on. All of the other commandments go back to this and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
When R. Yeshua says that the laws hang on this one, he means that this is the reason behind the laws. For instance, the commandments against idolatry. We shouldn’t worship other gods if we really love God. It’s the same for all the other commandments.
R. Cohen goes on to say that we have a duty to fulfill this commandment every single moment of every single day. We do this by keeping God in mind, as well as His laws. In that way, everything we do, and even what we don’t do becomes a part of this mitzvah. If we don’t steal, then we fulfill this commandment, because God said “You shall not steal,” and we keep that in mind. This goes hand-in-hand with an idea common in Judaism that a law is only really fulfilled if we intend to fulfill it. You may give to charity, but if you don’t do it for the purpose of keeping the commandment to give to charity, then it is not fulfilled.
To summarize, the essence of this commandment is to live thoughtfully. Instead of stumbling through life without thinking, we should live every day with careful intent. This will even help us in our relationships with other people, if we think carefully before we speak or act.
Well put!
ReplyDelete