Q&A: Love of God
Love of God
Question
Hello,
We have the commandment to love God: “And you shall love the Lord your God.”
What does this commandment mean, and how does one fulfill it? Maybe it would be more accurate to ask: how does one fulfill it in practical terms, as a matter of Jewish law?
Answer
It is commonly assumed that this is a commandment to love Him in one’s heart—that is, a commandment regarding emotion. Are you asking how one fulfills it, or how one reaches that state? Fulfilling it means actually feeling love toward Him. As for how one reaches that, Maimonides addressed it in Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 2:2. But each person has his own path. I don’t have a general recipe.
In my understanding, this commandment is not imposed on the heart, but rather to express that love through actions (sanctifying God’s name), or as an intellectual love (cleaving to the truth). See Maimonides at the beginning of chapter 10 of the Laws of Repentance, where he identifies love of God with doing the truth because it is truth.