DEUT237 This verse, which is part of the Shema, is one of the first biblical and liturgical passages learned by each Jewish child. While belief in God is not explicitly commanded by Scripture, love is. Love is a primal emotion binding us to God and God to us. In the order of the Jewish liturgy, God's love for us is affirmed before our love for God. The paragraph before the Shema in the morning liturgy declares, "With an everlasting love you have loved us, Lord our God." The fundamental premise of Jewish theology is the affirmation of a permanent covenantal relationship between God and the people of Israel. An essential feature of that relationship is love. In the evening liturgy, the recitation of the Shema, in which the Jew reaffirms his or her love for God, is preceded by the affirmation of God's Love for the people of Israel: "With an everlasting love You have loved the house of Israel.… Praised are You, Lord, who loves Your people Israel." The popular description of Judaism as a religion of law devoid of love, and of Christianity as their religion of love that one often encounters in Christian polemic literature, is simply an unsubstantiated claim. Love is an essential ingredient of Jewish faith and life.