In this week’s parsha appear the words v’ahavta es Hashem Elokecha — and you shall love Hashem, your G-d. We say this verse morning and night, and the Rambam lists it as one of the Yesodei HaTorah (fundamental Torah principles) together with belief in Hashem and fear of Him. The Ibn Ezra states further (Shmos 31:18) that the command to love Hashem is the shoresh (root) of all the mitzvos.
Some meforshim ask: how can a person be commanded to feel love? If I feel love I feel it, and if not, I can’t force myself to feel it. And yet, this is a chiyuv d’Oraisa, and whoever fails to fulfill it has been mevatel a mitzva that according to the Ibn Ezra is the most important of all the mitzvos asseh.
Let’s add to the above that the Rambam, in the last chapter of Hilchos Teshuva, in describing “the proper love for Hashem,” writes that one should be literally “lovesick … unable to go for one moment without thinking about Hashem.” Could it be that failing to fulfill the mitzva in the exalted manner the Rambam describes means one has not fulfilled the mitzva at all?
In Nesivos Shalom, the Slonimer Rebbe addresses these questions, and answers that the actual mitzva of ahavas Hashem is that of taking a step that will lead a person in the direction of ahavas Hashem. Taking that step is a fulfillment of the mitzva of ahava. Whatever feelings of ahava may arise are to be understood as the result of fulfilling the mitzva, not the mitzvah itself. Even if we never reach the exalted level described by the Rambam, we nevertheless fulfill the mitzva of ahavas Hashem because the steps we take show that we are trying to grow in that direction.
The Rebbe bases this on the Ohr Hachaim’s perush to the verse “v’ahavta.” There, the Ohr Hachaim also deals with our question, asking how one can be commanded to reach “and you shall love Hashem…”? The Ohr Hachaim answers briefly that the Torah addresses this in the next verse: vehayu hadevarim ha’eileh … al levavecha. Meaning, if you “put words of ahavas Hashem on your heart at all times,” this itself will produce within you love for Hashem.
The Ohr Hachaim means to say that if a person makes efforts to take this commandment to heart and looks for ways to develop it, he is fulfilling the mitzva and his efforts themselves will generate feelings of ahavas Hashem.
What other steps can we take that bring us toward ahavas Hashem?
The Rambam (Yesodei HaTorah 2:2) advises us to observe the phenomena of nature and think deeply into the infinite wisdom that is openly apparent to any objective onlooker. This form of hisbonenus (contemplation, reflecting on Hashem’s creation) is also a step that brings us toward ahavas Hashem, and therefore fulfills the mitzva of v’ahavta. Particularly in the summer months, we can note that an outdoor trip or hike can be a goldmine of achieving ahavas Hashem, if done with the proper hisbonenus.
The Rambam states also in Sefer Hamitzvos that when a person studies Torah, he can behold the profound wisdom of Hashem and connect to it. Such a connection can surely lead to ahavas Hashem.
Rav Akiva Eiger once told someone: if you want to reach ahavas Hashem you should first feel how much Hashem loves you. Indeed, the bracha that precedes V’ahavta is “habocher b’amo Yisrael b’ahava“— Hashem chose with love his nation of Yisrael. That bracha should serve to internalize for us that Hashem loves us, and that should elicit from us a commensurate sense of love for Him.
The Chovos HaLevavos states (in the introduction to Shaar Ahavas Hashem) that a condition to reaching ahavas Hashem is to make the Torah the ikar and any other love of this world only secondary. This, he explains, is why he placed the chapter on Perishus (“refraining”) before the chapter on Ahavas Hashem, because without perishus, meaning without foregoing some of the taavos of this world, one will not get to ahava. This is particularly relevant for us today — we are so pre-occupied with matters of olam hazeh that it limits our ability even to take the steps that can lead to ahavas Hashem.
A grandson of Rav Shach once recounted that Rav Shach went to visit Harav Chaim Friedlander, who was very sick. Rav Friedlander lamented the fact that because of his illness, he was unable to learn Torah and felt he was not able to accomplish anything.
Rav Shach pointed out to him that Dovid Hamelech states in Tehillim, “I will not die, but rather I will live and relate the deeds of Hashem.”
“Look,” Rav Shach said, “Dovid haMelech was a Sar haTorah, but when he was sick he would relate the deeds of Hashem — that’s called being alive! Look at the heavens and see the work of Hashem’s hands, the birds, the trees, behold the power of the winds… Think about this. And also, you can still make blessings on foods. These are all things that lead to a bit of ahavas Hashem, and this after all is the tachlis of life. It’s worth being alive for this!” said Rav Shach.
May we be zocheh to fulfill this most fundamental command of ahavas Hashem!