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Shabbat Announcements, February 21, 2009
Shabbat Announcements, February 21, 2009
Last week we saw the Sefer Hachinuch’s explanation of gain a feeling of love simply by understanding that we owe our
how loving G-d is connected to the rest of the first passage lives to G-d.
of the shma which is essentially about studying Torah and
The Divine Oneness and Unity that is described by the first
keeping the commandments. He claims that one must
verse of the shma leads directly to the next verse in the Torah
study the Torah to love G-d and one must love G-d to
which contains the mitzvah of loving G-d.
properly fulfill the commandments!
What still remains to be explained is how loving G-d is Thought to Ponder
connected to the verse that precedes it in the Torah, “Shma Think of another reason why the theme of ahavat Hashem,
Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad,” “Hear O Israel love of G-d is connected to the essence of the shma:
the Lord our G-d the Lord is One,” whose theme is the Oneness of G-d.
Oneness of G-d.
One of the most original aspects of Maharal’s thought on
this subject is how he connects the mitzvah of ahavat
Hashem which is the first verse of the first paragraph of the
shma and the essence of the shma which is it’s opening
line, the verse that directly precedes it in the Torah which
speaks of the Oneness of G-d.