Parshas Va'Eschanan/Shabbos Nachamu-Professing our Love for Hashem

Parshas Va’Eschanan/Shabbos Nachamu

Torah Psych101-Professing our Love for Hashem

Dr. Jonathan M. Lasson

This week’s Parsha contains the most famous words that almost every Jew can state by heart, no matter their level of observance---The Shema.

Right after the Shema, we go right into ואהבת which professes our love for Hashem. The question is why the letter ו'? What is it connecting to?

The אור החיים הקדוש explains that the conjunction of the ו' tells us that we not only have to accept the kingship of Hashem, but we must love Hashem as well.

He goes on to explain that there are three facets of our love for Hashem. The Love of the good that Hashem does for us. The Love of what is sweet in Hashem. And the Love of what is beneficial.

When we think of these three facets of love of Hashem, we might be tempted to use it to describe our love for fellow man. To find what is good, sweet and beneficial in all creations can certainly help us be more productive in our אהבת ה' and אהבת הבריות.

The חפץ חיים explains that once we accept the מלכות of Hashem and all that it encompasses according to our mental processes of how we understand the מצות, then we can come to love Hashem. Additionally, included in the commandment of loving Hashem is to bring others to love Hashem by being מקרב others who may be lost like אברהם אבינו did for everyone he encountered.

I think the lesson is deeper in that we need to develop a consummate form of love that will help sustain our love for Hashem. If we are guided by principles and we are able to accept those principles with a full heart, we will not just love Hashem when things are going great for us. We will continue to love him when hardships set in. This is the fallacy of unsuccessful relationships. “I love you when things are going great. But our love is disposable when we have a disagreement, a bad day or when negative traits emerge.”

Therefore, we are told Shema and then ואהבת. The conjunction of the Vuv is now clear. First develop and cement your values of why it is important to love Hashem. Once that happens, we are able to move on to a more romanticized love and recognize what is good, sweet and beneficial.

Unfortunately, modern day society equates feeling true love with feeling totally free. What they do not understand is that total freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want is a life of self-destructive hedonism. Hashem truly loves us and calls us עמי…”my people.” He would not call us that unless we felt the same notion of אלו-קי-my God. In order to avoid self-destruction, we need to develop a true sense of closeness with Hashem and with that, as the prophet Yeshaya tells us נחמו נחמו עמי-Comfort, Comfort my people. We should all be comforted speedily in our days!