Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Coming to Loving HaShem Through Mitzvah Observance

It's one of those topics you just don't discuss in polite company.  If you are careful, you can mention "ahavas HaShem"; when you say it in Hebrew it takes the sting out and, besides, you also sound more frum.  Try this, though: say (out loud), "I love you, HaShem."

How did that go?  I know... not so well.  R' Avigdor Miller, z"tzl, said that one should try that exercise once a day in total privacy.  His estimate that after a few years it won't feel too weird, and in a few decades it might even have some sincerity.  Why it's so hard is pretty obvious.  Even belief in HaShem seems to be a completely intellectual exercise.  Appreciating that the Creator and Author of reality wants to have a relationship -- a personal relationship -- with me is a real abstraction.  Now I am supposed to love -- not like I love broccoli or chocolate, but actually "be in love with" seems way beyond the pale.

And is it really so important?  Well... it is a real, live mitzvah d'oraisa; and not one of those esoteric mitzvos that no one ever heard of.  Twice (at least) a day, we all declare: "You shall love HaShem your G-d; with all of your heart/mind, with all of your life, and with all of your might/midos/wealth."  Moreover, it is one the six constant mitzvos; which means that you are expected to have this in the front of your mind every waking moment.

Ok, ok... but "in love"?  Really?  Let's ask the Rambam, that great rationalist.  The Rambam says that loving G-d is supposed to feel like a man who is love sick (his words, "cholas ahava") over a woman.  In fact, the Rambam's description sounds a lot like the intensity of infatuation, but with the richness of a mature relationship.

How do we get from here to there?  Look at where the Rambam put that description of Ahavas HaShem... it's in Hilchos T'shuva at the end of sefer Mada (Knowledge/Science/Metaphysics).  The very next sefer in his Yad (Mishna Torah) is sefer Ahava (love).  Sefer Ahava starts with hilchos k'riyas sh'ma and t'fila.  Then come brachos, shabbos, pesach, n'zikin, etc.  In other words, the Rambam sees the obligation to be in love with HaShem as the logical conclusion of thinking into the nature of reality.  The logical next step is, therefore, declaration of that love (k'riyas sh'ma), building a relationship (t'fila), and then learning and doing what HaShem -- the object of your love -- wants.  Logical.

Oh well, when you put it that way.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aru...
Post a Comment
Read more