DEUT171 You know, my son, that the Creator did not specify a recompense for any of the Ten Commandments except for honoring parents. Length of days and happiness were the appointed reward of obedience. For the Torah says (this verse) and in the Prophecies, God asks of Israel: "If I then be a father, where is My honor?" (Malachi 1:6). ... Judah ibn Tibbon "Ethical Will"

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DEUT212 For the rabbis, love of God was not to be a rare emotion, restricted to a spiritual elite in fleeting moments of rapture, but a perpetual opportunity, an everyday activity. By Ioving God through one's normal behavior, one causes God to be loved by others; one sets an example for others. In the words of a midrash, "'You shall love the Lord your God' can be taken to mean that you should cause God to be loved by others – that is, you are to cause God to be loved by humankind. Hence you are to be loving in the give-and-take of every day life and in your goings about in the marketplace and in dealing with others." Seder Eliyahu Rabbah, chap. 26, p. 140. In other words, a lover is delighted with the opportunity to carry out the wishes of his or her beloved. The commandments of the Torah express the will of God and consequently the command to love means that we behave toward God as a lover behaves towards his or her beloved. Performing the commandments is not a means toward love of God, it is love of God. In this view, loving is doing. Love is not a prelude to action, but action itself. Love is not an ethereal emotion, but concrete deeds. Love is expressed as deed.

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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.

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DEUT246 Defining the nature of God or of human beings was not a preoccupation of the talmudic rabbis. Their major concern was how to fulfill the will of God. For them, the divine will was conveyed by God through revelation. The commandments of the Torah articulate the will of God. One of those commandments is "You shall love the Lord your God." "How does one love God?," asks the Sifre, an early rabbinic midrash. The answer: "Perform [God's commandments] out of love." The text continues: "And these words which I [God] command you this day shall be upon your heart" [this verse] Rabbi [Judah the Prince] asked: Why did Moses say this? Because Scripture says, "You shall love the Lord your God" [Deuteronomy 6:5]. [From this verse alone] I do not know just how to love God. Therefore, Scripture goes on to say, "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart," meaning, take these words to heart, for thereby you will recognize Him who spoke in the world came into being, and you will cleave to His ways. Sifre on Deuteronomy, Louis Finkelstein, Ed., paras. 32-33, pp. 54-59.

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DEUT254 See [[EXOD181]]Exodus 13:8 tell HTBAJ 178

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DEUT391 "Let not a rich man say,' My power and the might of my right hand has gotten me this wealth' (this verse)," Yehiel ben Yekutiel, Sefer Ma'alot ha-Middot. Improvement of the Moral Virtues. Trans. Seymour Cohen, Jerusalem, Eshkol, 1968. "Let the rich person understand that it is God who gives the power to acquire wealth." Ibid, p. 252. The rich person may declare, "I am a self-made man." But, as Mark Twain said, "A self-made man is about as likely as a self-laid egg."

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DEUT395 Let not a rich man say, "My power and the might of my right hand has gotten me this wealth" (this verse). This type of talk is typical of the wicked, who flaunt their wealth which they will ultimately lose to others. Let the rich person understand that it is God who gives the power to get wealth [A paraphrase of Deuteronomy 18:8]. Therefore, let him take to heart what God has graciously given in wealth, and let him consider it as a deposit from the Creator, for this money has wings. One day a man is wealthy, possessing everything good and tomorrow he has nothing, as it is said, "Will you set your eyes upon it?" It is said, "For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward heaven" (Proverbs 23:5). Yehiel ben Yekutiel, Sefer Ma'alot ha-Middot. Improvement of the Moral Virtues Trans. Seymour Cohen, Jerusalem, Eshkol, 1968.

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DEUT536 See [[EXOD181]] Exodus 13:8 tell HTBAJ 178

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DEUT544 According to [Judah] Loew [of Prague], human love for God differs from all other types of love. In love of God, one's love originally derives from God, the source of all. In other types of loves, love derives originally from the lover. Only in love of God does one love with the love which God has given us to love. In this regard, Loew wrote: "The love one has for God is not one's own but derives from God. It comes from God and one returns it to God. ... Love of God is more fitting than love of anything or of anyone else. For an every kind of love that exist between two lovers, though they may cleave one to the other, nevertheless, each retains their own individuality. However, in the love of human beings for God, one completely returns one's soul to God to the extent that one loses one's individuality and completely cleaves to God, as it is written, "to love the Lord your God and to cleave to Him" (this verse). This is complete love." Judah Loew, Netivot Olom, 2 vols. (New York: Judaica Press, 1969), "Netiv Ahavat ha-Shem," chap. 1, p. 39.

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DEUT613 The sixth category of flattery is he who is in a position to protest against an evil and does not protest, nor does he pay any attention to the deeds of the sinners. This thing comes close to flattery, for the sinners think, "As long as they do not protest and do not reproach us, all of our deeds must be good. But we have been commanded to root out the evil from our midst, as it is said, "So shall you put away the evil from your midst" (this verse). Sefer Orhot Zaddikim -- The Ways of the Righteous. (Continued at [[LEV1132]] Leviticus 26:37 stumble HTBAJ 203-4)

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