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Judaism is the first religion to command the love of God. But how am I supposed to love something as large as the infinite?
The key is in the phrase above, which is part of the prayer V’Ahavtah. It’s actually a formula of sorts. Love God with all your:
Lev is heart. But in the ancient world, the heart and the mind are one. So to love God is to love with the heart-and-mind, which I would loosely translate as your conscience and/or your consciousness.
Nefesh is broadly translated as soul or life energy, but it’s rooted in the word for neck or throat. In Kabbalah, the nefesh is the soul connected to our physicality. It’s what animates our physicality. It’s our vitality.
Meod is a fun word. It means exceedingly, very, muchness or perhaps abundance. In this context, we could say the fullness of being.
So we are to love God with our consciousness, that which animates us organically, and our fullness of being.
That probably doesn’t clear things up, does it?
We love God through:
- Connecting our consciousness to the Divine (lev)
- By organizing our vitality toward holy purposes (nefesh)
- And in doing these things, giving over the fullness of ourselves toward the relationships we have with God (meod)
I get it, this is a lofty goal. No one said it would be easy. But then again, difficult things are often worth doing for their own sake.
- Rabbi Patrick
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