Love

In the Bible it says, ".....and you should love Hashem (G-d), your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul....."  This is a basic tenet in Judaism, something we say multiple times in our daily prayers.  But,  something about it has always perplexed me.

Thirteen years ago, in the speech I gave at my older son's bar mitzvah, I verbalized what that something was (and continues to be) for me.  In my speech I asked, "How can we be commanded to have an emotion?  How can we be commanded to love?"

I understand being commanded to do or not do something like "Honor your father and mother" or "Don't steal", etc, but to be commanded to have an emotion, that really perplexed me.  The research I did for my speech left me pretty dry, nothing completely satisfied me.  All these years later, with this issue still being on my mind, I think I got my answer.

This past Shabbos, (Sabbath) Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman, the scholar-in-residence at the Davar Institute in Teaneck,  said we can find the true definition for ahava (love in hebrew) by looking at ancient Near East political treaties.  Ahava played a very important role in these treaties. To love, in the political term of the ancient Near East, is to demonstrate loyalty or faithfulness.

Love as loyalty.  WOW, pretty different than how we define love in our star struck American culture where we seem to trip all over it, falling in and out of it all the time!

This definition resonates with me and it makes it easier for me to understand how we can be commanded to love.  We are being commanded to be loyal, to be faithful, to fulfill an action, not to feel an emotion.

That I get.  So we are to be loyal to G-d with all our heart and all our soul.  So with this understanding comes the hard part, being loyal to G-d .......