Last week, I wrote about how peculiar the shma is. In its original context, it’s a declaration by Moses to the people. In our liturgy, though, it is transformed into a prayer by the people to G-d.

This week, I want to explore another mystery—the command to “Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, etc.” How in the world do you command love? In the Song of Songs we read, “If one offered all he has for love, he would be utterly scorned.” Or, in more modern parlance, “Can’t buy me love, everybody tells me so.” (It’s the Beatles, not the Grateful Dead, but it will do.)

What happens if you merely like G-d, but can’t bring yourself to love Him/Her/It? What happens if you don’t/can’t believe in G-d, even if you want to? Much less if you won’t believe in G-d? How can you love something you don’t/can’t/won’t believe in? And, after the Holocaust, we must ask: what happens if you hate the G-d you believe in?

The great commentator the Sfat Emet (rephrased in the words of Rabbi Harold Kushner) tells us that every human soul instinctively desires to love G-d, its Creator, but distractions and obstacles intervene. “Distractions” like exaggerated rationality (as if love—like belief—is rational in the first place); “obstacles” including everything from personal tragedy to national grief to the fate of the world.

So what is one to do? The Sfat Emet continues: By performing the mitzvot we remove those obstacles and let our souls fulfill their natural inclination. The Sfat Emet is not referring here to mere routine observance (although that’s a good start). He is saying that a life devoted to the fulfillment of mitzvot will, through inevitable spiritual development, develop the ability first to believe and then to love.

Put another way, the command to love is not like a command to turn on a light switch. No matter how instinctive it may be, it doesn’t happen automatically or quickly. “Love the Lord your G-d” is a command to begin a process that will fill your life with meaning. And living a meaningful life is an act of love.

PS: Although this is not directly related to prayer, I would just like to point out that the Sfat Emet’s description of the human personality—instinctively drawn to G-d—is worthy of consideration in its own right. One could think of many other less flattering ways to describe humanity (Mark Twain: “What is Man? Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey.”)

Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff