How is it possible to love the Lord your God?

The question is: Love is not something that a person can decide about something.
Certain things are given about something and according to which a person will love it or not. He cannot decide whether he loves it or not.
Therefore a person cannot decide that he loves God.

So the question he asked: Why did God command to love Him?
It is either you love Him or you don't.

I've seen this kind of misunderstanding several times, and I think the rabbi doesn't see the titles of the questions. It would be better to write the full question in the body of the question.

It is clear that he saw very well, but he expected a more organized presentation of the point of difficulty. Is it because love is an emotion (as distinct from faith) or because love is a state and not a command to do something (and then one can also ask about the command to believe). And after all, the words of the Maimonides are well-known, how the path to love and fear Him is when a person observes His wonderful actions and creations, etc. (and so some explain about faith that the command is to bother to find reinforcements for faith). It is possible to command an action and it is possible to command a state, and in any case you will understand that actions need to be taken to reach it. It is only about opinions that there is a problem with commanding.

Go to a relationship counselor, tell him I stopped loving my wife. He will give you some simple tips on how to arouse love.

And besides, according to Rabbi Michi, see column 22, 142, 259. And here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%90%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%A8%D7%92%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%94#_ftnref2

Please be precise. The Torah says: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

And immediately after that comes the explanation:
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart = And these words which I command you today shall be on your heart.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thine hand; and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates.

Ruling: In the Parshah, it was written, "If you hear, it is written with all your heart and with all your soul, without with all your mind," and it is still written there to bind it as a sign on the hand and to write it on the mezuzahs of the house.

Parashat And there was a man who heard a matter mentioned and to his servant.
The commandment to worship the Lord with all your might will lead to idolatry.

The meaning of loving God is further explained: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him.

What. You say that binding on the hand is a detail of love with all your might. In the parshah and if it were heard that there is a binding on the hand and love (or worship) with all your might is not mentioned. If because it says “to serve Him” then the Torah did not want to say “with all your might” because perhaps that would lead to idolatry (not that I understood this misunderstanding, yes, but let's say) – then let the Torah be honored to say “and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul and to love Him with all your might”. You see clearly that binding on the hand is not a detail of love with all your might. There is no mitzvah to pull out interpretations from under your sleeves.

But later it is written: And you shall lay up these words upon your heart and upon your soul; and you shall bind them as signs upon your hand, and they shall be as drops between your eyes.

This is the detail and parallel of your heart which is written in other words.

Your heart is in the inner things within you, your soul is in your souls (family), your soul is in your possessions. Hence the fear of idolatry.

Maimonides wrote in Chapter 2 of the Basic Principles of the Torah:

This honorable and awesome God commands us to love and fear Him, as it is said: “You shall love the Lord your God.” And it is said: “You shall fear the Lord your God.”

And what is the path to loving and fearing Him? When a person contemplates His great and wonderful works and creations, and sees in them His great wisdom that has no value or end, he immediately loves, praises, glorifies, and desires a great desire to know the great name, as David said: “My soul thirsts for the Lord, for there is no living God.”

And when he considers these very things, he immediately recoils, and is afraid and fearful, knowing that he is a small, lowly, and obscure creature, standing with a small, insignificant opinion before the innocent, as David said: "For I will see your heavens; what is man that you remember us?"

You are being pushed into rocky crevices for no reason. The reasonable approach is that if the detail (and its connection) appears without the general (from you), then apparently it is not actually a detail to the general and there is no connection between them, and therefore there is no connection in Parashat Vehavat either.
Regarding the concern about idolatry, you know that this is not the only commandment of the Torah to worship G-d with objects. We bring sacrifices, offerings, and firstfruits to G-d, and build a temple for Him with a pure gold menorah inside, and we set aside tithes, so the Torah is afraid to add a closed sentence about worshiping G-d with all your might that it will cause a decline against explicit verses that explain not to worship idolatry? And the fact that it immediately afterwards interprets it and says, "I only meant to tie something on my hand," does not allay its concern? This is a very narrow crevice.
Besides the fact that the sermon in which "with all your heart" means "with all your possessions" is not a simple biblical text, "with all your heart" is a literary word of emphasis, as in "with all your heart" and "with all your soul" - "work as much as possible, very much, with all the materialities you can muster." And from the perspective of the simple interpretation, there is no reason to think that there are three separate expressions here (with all your heart and soul) that are broken down into three separate citations, but rather one general expression of emphasis that infuses all sorts of details. I personally think that the attempt by later commentators (since the Melbim) to cast a special meaning into each word and to look for patterns beneath the salutations is forced and artificial, and its main purpose in the world is to provide material for lazy preachers in the Seven Blessings.

This is a pointless argument. You don't understand the Torah.
All the commandments of sacrifice and all the rituals of putting on tefillin and how to tie them and from what skin and what is the order of the parshiot, and all of these contain a kind of idolatry that humans need. The Torah is directed to the essence of things and humans are concerned with the rituals of things. Golden calf.

Continue to have fun with literary bones and golden calves.

It is explained in one of the commentators: “Hear, Israel, in whom our God is the Lord ’
One – and love”

That is, when you understand that the Lord is one and cannot be compared to anyone, then you will come to love the Lord ’.

In the 2nd of Tevet 5:1

The consciousness of the One God, which internalizes the infinite greatness of the Creator, leads more to a sense of man's nothingness, to awe and futility.

Love comes more from the paradoxical feeling that instead of the greatness of God, in which everything is as insignificant as nothing compared to Him, there is the humility of Him, who is the God our God, who leads us in the paths of truth and goodness of His Torah and watches over us to benefit us in all our ways.

Our gratitude to God, who shepherds us and cares for us, internalizes and intensifies love for Him.

Best regards, Simcha Fishel Halevi Plankton

In the 23rd of Tevet 1

The matter of great abundance is great abundance. It should be said that in all of your abundance, the matter of all the abundance and abundance that your God has given you, in your heart and soul. A person has only one heart and one soul, and for his very existence, he must acknowledge his God's favor.

But apart from his very life and mind, a person receives abundance and blessings from his God in various areas. Some are blessed with talents and abilities, some are blessed with material success, some are blessed with spiritual success, some are blessed with a loving family, and some are blessed with a supportive society.

Therefore, apart from your very existence, your soul And the very fact that you are a wise person in your heart, you must acknowledge your gratitude to your God for all the abundance He has bestowed upon you, for your material, spiritual, family and social possessions.

This is perhaps the depth of Chazal's sermon "In all your possessions", "In all your possessions", that the expression "in all your possessions" can be expanded to include all types of possessions.

With greetings, Yaron Tzemach Fish-Plankton

Even the events that a person goes through, his pleasurable experiences and his challenging experiences, are part of the "possessions of his spirit". of a person, and therefore they too can be considered a ’other’

On the 24th of Tevet 1 (the day of the command of the Rabbi Baal HaTanya)

The Rabbi Baal HaTanya writes in chapter 33:
‘And behold, in love there are two degrees: – great love and love of the world. “Great love” is love in pleasures, and it is the flame that arises naturally and comes from above to one who is complete in fear… But “world love” is love that comes from wisdom and knowledge of the greatness of God’…’

Another direction can be learned from the introduction of the blessing of love of the world/great love to the Shema in which we are commanded to love God; – another way to cultivate love of God arises. The insight that He chose us from all nations and adopted us to be His firstborn sons and gave us the instruments of His grace, His Torah that sanctifies and elevates us and guides us to adhere to goodness and truth and even to bestow this goodness upon the entire world. Contemplating this great privilege that our Creator has bestowed upon us brings us to return love to Him.

With best wishes, Yaron Fishel Ordner

Similar to what I suggested (in paragraph 2) that love of the Torah leads a person to love the Giver of the Torah, the Maimonides writes in the Book of the Mitzvot 06:4):

‘Let us observe and look at His commandments, commandments, and actions, so that we may attain Him and enjoy His attainment, which is the purpose of pleasure, and this is the love that commands. And the language of my book: ” As it is said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God’, I know how I loved the place? Learn to say: ‘And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart’, from which you will know the One who said and the world was”.

A common denominator can be found between the path outlined by the Maimonides in the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah to reach love for the Lord’ From contemplating the wonders of creation, and the path that Maimonides suggests in the commandments, to contemplate the commandments of God and the ways of His guidance explained in the Torah. In both ways, man encounters the goodness and wisdom of his God, and this recognition leads him to love the source of goodness, truth, and wisdom.

With blessings, Yifau

Paragraph 1, line 2
… In the Book of Mitzvot (Ezek. 4’)

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… In the commandments of the Lord and in the ways of His leadership