Love of God

Found 6 Search results

  1. Paradise Regained: The Return to Gan Eden in Shir HaShirim

    Dr. Yael Ziegler

    תאריך פרסום: תשע"ב | |

    How does Shir ha-Shirim (the Song of Songs) help us relate to our relationship with God? Can human relationships contribute to a deepening of our relationship with the Divine? We examine the motif of the Garden of Eden within Shir ha-Shirim and look at the story of Gan Eden in Bereisheet along with references from other books to Gan Eden to appreciate how Shir Hashirim relates to, and attempts to repair, what happened in Gan Eden. 

  2. Love of God and Torah Study

    Rabbi Yehuda Rock

    Getting to know God can be a means to loving God, as Maimonides suggests; however, knowing God can also be an independent goal, achieved by the study of Torah. The commandment to study Torah at any given time educates us to the centrality of God's will in our lives, and expresses man's love for his creator.

  3. Shema Yisrael - The Goals of Mitzva Observance

    Rabbi Reuven Taragin

    Moshe delivers two parallel speeches over the first eleven chapters of Devarim. Beyond developing links between Mitzva observance and success, the second speech also redefines the man-God relationship forged by this observance. The first speech focuses on fearing God while the second speech focuses on loving Him.

  4. Implications of the Akeida - Part 4: Prophetic and Religious Challenges of the Akeida

    Rabbi Ezra Bick | 32 minutes

    In this fourth instalment of the Akeida series, we discuss the nature of prophecy, the limits of Ahavat Hashem (the commandment to love God), and the goals of the Torah. We examine the Rambam’s point of view as we wonder about the challenge inherent in the Akeida. Is this episode a challenge for Avraham, for God (as it were), or for the rest of the world? 

  5. Duplication and Contradiction

    Part 6 - Three Themes Unique to Sefer Devarim

    Rabbi Amnon Bazak

    Devarim has a special nature with its idiosyncratic style and unique ideas. Moshe, in his speeches, treats identical topics found in Devarim and in the other books of the Torah with different emphases utilizing specific themes.  This provides a convincing response to the questions raised by Biblical scholars from de Witte onwards regarding the disparities between Devarim and other books of the Torah.

    The expression "remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt", which occurs five times over the course of Devarim, is a motif that reflects the emphasis in Moshe's speech on the moral dimension of the commandments, in contrast – or in addition – to the religious aspect that is emphasized in the other books of the Torah. Moshe delivers his speeches as the nation is about to cross the Jordan and enter the land, undergoing a great transformation from a nomadic people to a nation living in its own land. For this reason, Moshe regards it as essential to emphasize the social aspect of the commandments, as a fundamental condition to sustain Israel’s presence in the land for the coming generations.

    Moshe's speeches are the only sources in the Torah that treat the relationship between God and Israel from a perspective of love and the reciprocal command for Israel to love God. Only in the Land of Israel can the relationship between God and Israel reach a level that may properly be called "love." For this reason, it is just prior to entry into the land that Moshe permits himself to mention this concept to describe the bond between God and the nation.

    The phenomenon of the sanctity of Israel appears so prominently in Devarim. It would seem that on the eve of the entry into the land, Moshe describes a utopian reality – the ideal situation of Israel. The whole nation was indeed supposed to be imbued with the same sanctity as that of the kohanim, but only if Israel were truly deserving of their status as a holy nation. This question – of whether Israel merit God’s benevolence and designation as a holy nation – is one of the central themes of Moshe's speeches throughout Devarim. On the one hand, he asserts that the people are indeed holy. On the other hand, this vision itself hints strongly that this holiness is not automatic; rather, it is contingent upon observance of the commandments. This idea, too, recurs in Moshe's speeches on the eve of the entry into the land. 

  6. Shmuel David Luzzatto (Shadal) as a Bible Commentator

    Rabbi Dr. Martin Lockshin |

    In this class, we will examine the unique approach of Shadal (Shmuel David Luzzato) in his Bible commentary. We will look at different texts that highlight interesting features in his commentary to them. He does not hold back from interpreting the pshat (plain meaning of the text) in a way that contradicts traditional Rabbinic interpretations. Occasionally, he strongly voices his opposition to Rambam (Maimonides) and the apparent influence of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle on Rambam’s comments. Luzzato’s comments also reveal ideas about equality, sexual ethics, and the conviction that the purpose of the Torah(including mitzvoth such as Loving God, is not philosophy, but action: for furthering the goal of doing and spreading justice and righteousness.