Mitzvah 3; To Love HaShem

The third mitzvah that we discussed is the mitzvah To Love HaShem. Just the name itself stamps this mitzvah with a sense of great significance. And this is an accurate assessment. Before discussing the mitzvah of loving HaShem I believe that I would be remiss if I did not dedicate more attention to the nature of these first three mitzvos as well as a few others.

We can classify all the mitzvos into two categories. One category is the means mitzvos and the other category is the direct mitzvos. I will explain the distinction as follows.

Ramchal, a great teacher of Jewish mysticism and author of many classical Jewish works, teaches us “Our Sages have instructed us that Man was created for the sole purpose of reveling in the Eternal (HaShem) and delighting in the splendor of the Divine Presence as this is the ultimate joy and greatest of all pleasures….. the path that helps us reach our desired objective is this world … The means that lead Man to this goal are the mitzvos that the Eternal commanded us to observe, and the place for doing the mitzvos is in this world alone… If you delve further into this matter you will realize that attaching to the Eternal alone is absolute perfection … For a person to be entitled to this good, it is only appropriate that he first labor and make the effort to acquire it. This means that he must try to attach to HaShem through deeds that will lead to this goal. These deeds are the mitzvos.”

Behold, Ramchal is teaching us that the mitzvos are actually a means by which we can attach ourselves to HaShem. (This is not to imply that there is no intrinsic value in the mitzvah itself but rather that the intrinsic value of the mitzvah is what attaches us to HaShem.) These mitzvos serve as the means to attach us to HaShem. This understanding works for all the mitzvos in the first category, the means mitzvos. However, the direct mitzvos are quite different.

The direct mitzvos are those mitzvos that directly attach us to HaShem; these mitzvos are the actual attachment. Let us take for example the first mitzvah To Know HaShem. Knowing HaShem is in itself a level of attachment to HaShem. The same is true with recognizing the Oneness of HaShem. The greater Man accomplishes this mitzvah the greater he becomes one with HaShem – clearly attachment itself. Our third mitzvah, To Love HaShem is also a direct mitzvah. The single most articulate manner of expressing attachment is love.

Having placed our third mitzvah in its context let us examine it.

As a child growing up I was always troubled with this mitzvah. How can HaShem expect me to love Him? I do not see Him. I do not touch Him. How can I relate to Him with an emotion of love when my entire exposure to Him is only on the intellectual level? Even a passionate physicist will not love gravity or any other law of nature. You might argue that our physicist friend does love physics, so you see that one could love on an intellectual level. If you would make that argument, I would respond that the physicist does not love physics like a mother loves her child or like a man loves his wife, he loves physics like he loves fish. When one loves fish, this means that he loves to eat fish; he has no special attachment to the fish. The physicist loves to study physics, he is not attached to physics; it is only a fascination in which he indulges. So can we come to love HaShem?

The answer is simple but requires much thought and much contemplation. In fact, the only reason this question bothered me as a teenager was because I never contemplated something that I already knew. HaShem is not an idea. HaShem is not some theory by which we can explain creation. HaShem is a very real Being that Exists. HaShem interacts with me, He does for me, He cares for me, He protects me, He maintains my physical and emotional well-being (to the extent that I do not mess things up myself). How can I not love Him? The only way for me not to love HaShem is to either deny His existence or to be thoughtless. Both explanations are an indictment which point to a lack of thoughtfulness and contemplation.

Does a blind child love her mother any less due to her disability? How about if the child would be blind and deaf? Of course the child would be limited in her ability to communicate with her mother but to the extent that she recognizes her mother and recognizes the incredible love that her mother has for her, she loves her mother. As the child grows older and becomes more sophisticated her love for mother will grow exponentially. This happens because as she realizes how helpless she is without her mother she realizes how much she needs her mother.

The path that leads us to loving HaShem requires us to devote our attention of the first two mitzvos. As our knowledge of HaShem increases and as our awareness of His Unity increases the natural result will be heart full of love that all the water in the world cannot extinguish.

Mitzvah 2; Recognizing the Unity of Hashem

The second mitzva that we addressed is the mitzvah of the Unity of HaShem. The base of this mitzvah finds itself in the abstract but expresses itself in every breathing moment of the Jew. We will address the mitzvah in that order.

The mitzvah is to recognize that the Being of HaShem is One. This mitzvah follows the mitzvah of recognizing HaShem’s existence as the only absolute existence. To best appreciate the notion of absolute existence we will use the analogy of the dreamer and his dream. We will take Sleepy Joe who lays down after a long day at work. After falling into a deep sleep he begins to dream of two people, Mike and Ike. The people in the dream do not exist they are not even representations of people who exist – they are simply figments of his imagination. In his dream both Mike and Ike develop into very successful businessmen. Mike becomes the CEO of a large corporation and oversees 900 employees. One day he turns to Ike and remarks how there is nobody who has been as successful as him. Ike tells him that he shouldn’t talk to loud lest he wake up Sleepy Joe. Ike points out to Mike that neither of them really exist. For that matter, adds Ike, none of the 900 employees really exist nor the corporation, in fact, nothing exists except Sleepy Joe, everything they know is nothing but dream puff.

Sleepy Joe is only a crude example that provides only a window to understanding the relationship between HaShem and His creatures. As Jews we know that HaShem created the universe and everything in it as well as Space in which the universe finds itself as well as Time through which the universe travels.

It is axiomatic that if HaShem created Time and Space then He must exist outside of Time and outside of Space, for if He exists only within Time and Space He could not exist before their creation and hence He could not create them.

Once we understand that HaShem’s existence is dependent on no state of existence and all else that does exists is a creation of His, then we can reduce all of created existence to the dream puff of HaShem. In other words, all of existence is the result of HaShem’s Will that it should exist.

If you are still with me, then we have arrived at the notion of HaShem’s Oneness. When we recognize that HaShem is One and there is none other, we mean to say that there is no other existence. And although we know that we exist as well as all of our employees and all of our employers, nevertheless, their existence is only circumstantial not intrinsic. Their existence is the result of HaShem’s Willing them into existence. Whereas HaShem’s existence is intrinsic – there is simply no way to contemplate HaShem as not existing.

Until now we have only touched the notion of HaShem’s Oneness. Let us attempt to understand the next level; the Unity of HaShem.

Once we have arrived at the understanding of His Oneness, then we understand that all of existence finds its source in HaShem. This means that as varied as creatures are they nevertheless come from the same source. This is true not only with creatures but with physical laws, such as gravitational force, centrifugal force, magnetic force, etc. even though these forces often and conflict each other nevertheless we recognize that the source of all forces is HaShem. The implication is that all matter and energy as varied as they may be come from the same Source and must therefore be understood as working with each other rather than working against each other.

There are other conflicting forces that will be reconciled with this recognition. Within each of the readers of this article there are conflicting tensions. One side of us wants another cookie or another cigarette and the other side of us knows that we should reject to temptation. We all have our upper half which in so many decisions disagrees with our lower half. Using our principle of the Oneness we recognize that both of these internal forces find their origins in HaShem. The implication is that both forces are needed for the common goal that HaShem intended. Hence we recognize the Unity of HaShem.

Let us take the principle of Unity into the realm of history. History is replete with good times and bad times. Some good times were very good while some bad times were very bad. Recognizing the Unity principle we understand that all of history finds its reality in HaShem. The implication is mind boggling.

It is not my intention to reconcile the conflicts that seem to be irreconcilable or to reconcile those that are easily reconcilable. At this point I want to distill the abstract to practical, and we just about there.

Once we acknowledge that all circumstances find their source in HaShem and that all circumstances are parts of HaShem’s grand scheme (if they were not part of the grand scheme, then HaShem would not cause it to happen) then there is no cause for me to get aggravated when the stock market falls 1,000 points. I certainly would be justified to feel sad, however, aggravation or depression would not be justified. Only an ignorant person or perhaps a child would be angry at the doctor who saved his life by amputating his infected leg. An intelligent person would only be sad at losing his leg but would be grateful to the doctor for saving his life.

Being human and thereby being subject to the human feelings, I acknowledge that such a perspective is quite difficult to adopt when serious tragedy strikes. Nevertheless, this attitude of recognition is very applicable when the difficulty or challenge arises which is not catastrophic. Take for example the traffic tie up that you hit on the way to a business meeting and as a result you miss the meeting. The difference between the one who recognizes the principle of Unity and the one who does not recognize it will be most apparent.

Being able to recognize the principle of Unity is an accomplishment of achieving the mitzvah of Unity.

Mitzva 1; Know HaShem

The first mitzvah that Rambam lists in his list of the 613 mitzvos is the mitzvah to know HaShem is the only Being that truly exists and that all existence as we recognize exists only because He wills it to be.

This mitzvah is articulated in the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. “I am Adonoi your G.D Who took you out from the land of Egypt from the house of slaves…”

The following question needs to be addressed. It is of a philosophical nature. How HaShem can instruct us to know Him. It is possible to instruct someone to know how HCl is formed or who America’s allies were during the war, because these are facts that are researchable and are verifiable. However with respect to HaShem’s being the only Being that truly exists is something that mortal man can scarcely comprehend and even if it is comprehendible he certainly cannot not research it or analyze its truth. At best, HaShem might instruct us to believe that He is the only Being that truly exists, but not to know Him. Knowledge implies an awareness in which there is no question of it’s’ veracity. Belief would be more appropriate to something that might be questionable but you accept it as belief.

Before answering this question let us pose a different notion of knowledge than we have thus far identified. There is a knowledge that although you cannot prove it, nor can you research it and analyze it’s veracity, nevertheless, you know it to be true. I speak about a solid knowledge, not a belief which is unverifiable. We find such knowledge about so many things that are closest to us. Let us take the knowledge that your sister is your sister. Anyone else could question whether she is your full sister, perhaps she is only your sister from your mother. And even that she is your sister from your mother could be questioned. The only way for you to verify that she is your sister would be through several packets of documents many of which are not necessarily reliable. And yet, from your perspective there is no question about who she is. Even if the documents could not be found you would not consider your recognition of being your sister a function of belief; it is absolute knowledge. It is a knowledge that only you know because you know who your sister is and someone else may not know. But that lack of veracity does not minimize your absolute knowledge.

Let us return to the mitzvah of knowing HaShem. Let us articulate the mitzvah a bit sharper now. Know, with an absolute unquestioning knowledge that needs no veracity, that HaShem is the only being whose existence is absolute.

Now the question is how HaShem can instruct us on this knowledge. If we have this knowledge then there is no need to instruct to have it; we already have it. And if we do not have this intrinsic knowledge how can HaShem instruct us to have it; it cannot be verified, as mentioned earlier?

The answer is that every Jew knows without question that HaShem is the omnipotent Being from Whom all existence emanates. The reason we are commanded to know this is because so often we lose this knowledge. We lose this knowledge because this knowledge is situated deep inside the consciousness of our neshoma (soul). As a person detaches himself from his neshoma by attaching himself to the physical world this consciousness become buried and we relate to this information like a stranger who does not know who my sister is. We actually begin questioning the very existence of a G.D. We need proofs that there is even a Creator.

Hence, the mitzvah to know HaShem is to open ourselves up to allow that knowledge to become apparent.

There is another approach to answer this question as follows.

I would like paraphrase Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his book on the mitzvos, Horeb.

Life lived properly should be the flower of one’s knowledge. However, in order for this flower of knowledge to blossom it is not sufficient that one has acquired knowledge in his mind and brain. The knowledge must be transmitted from the brain to the heart for it is the heart that guides man in all his life’s decisions. So long as the knowledge remains in the head the flower of life will not blossom. Man must take all he knows and work on internalizing it till the knowledge becomes a part of his very essence. At that point his knowledge will blossom and the knowledge will take on a life of existence.

Let us return to our original question; how can HaShem instruct us to know something that we cannot verify? And if we already know it just like our sister, then why bother instructing us if we know already?

In the Hebrew language the word of da-as refers to an intimate form of knowledge.; a knowledge that is part of man’s very essence. The first mitzvah as Rambam articulates it is “Know (using the Hebrew word of da-as) that HaShem is the only Being that truly exists…”

Although our knowledge of HaShem as being the only Being of true existence is something that is already known, just like you know that your sister is your sister, nevertheless, HaShem instructs us to internalize that knowledge and make that knowledge a part of who we are. HaShem is instructing us to allow that knowledge of Him to penetrate our every fiber of existence. So that our lives should be the flower of that knowledge.