Question

This topic has been talked to death, and I’ve asked about it too, but I still don’t feel I have a clear answer. In the Torah there’s no mention of serving for its own sake. There is the theme of love and relationship with God. True, in the past the Rabbi mentioned that Maimonides says that love means acting because the thing is right in itself (by the way, where is that Maimonides?), but that is not the plain meaning of Scripture. The plain meaning of Scripture, and also of the Prophets, seems to be that God makes demands of us because of the covenantal relationship and love, and because we are His children. And where is gratitude? The Rabbi’s understanding on this sounds like a man who would say to his wife: I treat you well not because I love you, and not because you are beautiful or wise—there are many better than you—but because it is the right thing to treat you well. Is that a normal form of relationship? As an aside, the Mishnah that criticizes serving God not for its own sake means external results beyond love, and the Sages also spoke about serving out of love. It does not seem at all that they spoke in the way the Rabbi does. Maimonides too describes love of God like the love of a woman. Thank you, and sorry that this isn’t organized well.