Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 6:5

That is that He commanded us about loving Him, may He be exalted. And that is that we think about and contemplate His commandments, His statements and His actions until we comprehend Him and derive the greatest pleasure from that comprehension. And that is the love that is obligated. And the language of the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 33:1) is, "Since it is stated, 'And you shall love,' I would not know how a man is to love the Omnipresent. [Hence] we learn to say, 'And these things that I command you today shall be upon your heart' (Deuteronomy 6:6) - that through this, you will recognize the One that spoke and the world [came into being]." Behold we have explained to you that comprehension will come to you through contemplation and you will [then] come to pleasure, and perforce the love will come. And we have already clarified that this commandment also includes that we call all people to His service, may He be exalted, and to believe in Him. And that is since when you love a person, you will recount his praises and magnify him, and call on other people to love him. And this is, by way of analogy, the same with true love of Him, may He be exalted: When comprehension of His truth comes to you, you without a doubt call out to the fools and silly ones to know the true knowledge that you know. And the language of the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 32:2) is, "'And you shall love the Lord, your God' - cause Him to be loved by the creatures, like your father Avraham (did); as it is stated (Genesis 12:5), 'and the souls that they had made in Charan.'" And it means to say: Like Avraham who loved [God] - as Scripture testifies, "Avraham, who loves me" (Isaiah 41:8), and this was from his great comprehension - to the point that he called people to Him. (See Parashat Vaetchanan; Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 2.)

ואהבת AND THOU SHALT LOVE [THE LORD] — Fulfil His commands out of love, for one who acts out of love is not like him (is on a higher plane than one) who acts out of fear. He who serves his master out of fear, if he (the master) troubles him overmuch, leaves him and goes away (Sifrei Devarim 32:1).

WITH ALL THY HEART. In the opinion of the Midrash²²⁵Sifre, Va’ethchanan 32; Berachoth 54 a: “With all thy heart — with both your impulses, the good impulse and the evil impulse.” the heart mentioned here is the power of desire, similar to the expressions: Thou hast given him his heart’s desire;²²⁶Psalms 21:3. lust not after her beauty in thy heart.²²⁷Proverbs 6:25. If so, with all thy soul denotes the intellectual [capacity rather than the sensual capacity of the] soul. Similarly, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life²²⁸I Samuel 25:29. [refers to the rational soul which is immortal]. And according to our Rabbis, who in the Talmud²²⁹Berachoth 54 a: “And with all thy soul — even if He take away thy soul,” i.e., even at the sacrifice of your life. derived from this [phrase] that one must submit to death and not violate [the Law, the expanded expression] “with all thy soul” is supplementary,²³⁰For, since thy soul by itself indicates that you must suffer martyrdom rather than deny the Law, the question arises, what is signified by the additional word all [‘all’ thy soul], since you cannot speak of half a life? Ramban will offer two answers. for since he said with ‘all’ thy heart … and with ‘all’ thy might [where the intent is to exclude the serving of G-d with only part of the heart’s capacity, or with only part of one’s might or belongings], he also said with ‘all’ thy soul [meaning “your very life,” despite the obvious fact that the command to give “all” rather than “part” of his life is incongruous]. The meaning thereof is that you love Him as your very life, giving up your life with love [for His sake whenever the Law requires you to do so].²³¹See Vol. II, pp. 301-302. Or [another explanation of the word all may be] that suffering or [the loss of body] organs are referred to as “part of the soul,” while martyrdom [death] is termed with ‘all’ thy soul. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “thy soul means the desire, like: enough ‘k’nafshecha’ (at thine own) pleasure;²³²Further, 23:25. the full soul loatheth a honey-comb;²³³Proverbs 27:7. deliver me not over ‘b’nefesh’ (unto the desire of) mine adversaries.²³⁴Psalms 27:12. With all thy heart refers to knowledge, this being a surname for the rational spirit since [the heart] is its first resting place, and similarly it is stated, The wise in heart will receive commandments. ”²³⁵Proverbs 10:8. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s interpretation of the expression with all thy heart appears likely from that which he stated, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart.²³⁶Verse 6. This shows that with all thy ‘heart’ refers to the rational soul, for in that case it is possible to say that these words shall be upon your “heart” meaning your rational soul. But if we are to interpret with all thy ‘heart’ as referring to the desires, as explained earlier, then how can it be said that these words shall be upon your “heart” or your desires?