Parasha Ekev

From the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet to today’s blockbuster movies, the world is in love with love. People sing about it, dream about it, and write books about this most natural of all feelings. You see, everyone has two basic emotional needs: the desire to feel loved and the desire to show love. A major malfunction in humanity occurs when these desires are mixed up, or when love is not properly received or given.

When it comes to real love the world has it all wrong.

Like a toaster in a bathtub, is how love is taken out of the correct environment and substituted falsely. People say that they “love spaghetti” and they “love the Atlanta Braves.” Boyfriends fall in and out of love with girls all through high school. Mankind is searching for true love, but as one Country music song puts it, the world is “looking for love in all the wrong places.” The truth is that true love and true fulfillment in life is NOT found in receiving love. Being the center of your mate’s attention isn’t all you need. Satisfaction and purpose in life can be found simply by tapping into the awesome power found in giving love to the Almighty. Love isn’t about getting some feeling or fix, it is about giving devotion and time. It is better to give than receive.

This week’s Torah parasha echoes the words from last week’s reading about loving YHWH and the Shema. Now, Moshe is summing up exactly what YHWH is looking for in His people – “And now Yisra’el, what does YHWH your Elohim require of you, but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to have your halacha in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your lev and all your being. To shomer the mitzvot of YHWH, and His chukim, which I commanded you this day for your tov,” Devarim 10;12,13 of the Restoration Scriptures Version. Again Moshe is saying that all YHWH wants from Yisra’el is love! He wants Yisra’el to be devoted to Him alone.

It is simply amazing that what Yahshua called the “greatest commandment” in all of the Torah is usually ignored by most teachers, preachers, and even rabbis. Think about it. Just how many sermons have you heard on the subject of “loving YHWH?” How many Bible studies have you attended when you discussed how to properly love the Creator? People will talk about tithing or church attendance but very little is studied on the issue of loving YHWH. Yet it is this commandment that is most important in YHWH’s eyes. YHWH wants His children to love Him properly. “And you shall love the Master YHWH with all your lev, and with all your being, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment,” said Messiah Yahshua in Markus 12:29-31, RSV.

How do you love YHWH? How exactly can you love someone you can’t see or touch? What does it mean to love Him with all of your heart, being, and resources? To answer these questions let’s return to the origin of the word “love” and better understand what YHWH desires.

Go back to understand

First, take to mind that Yahshua never told us to “love YHWH.” This is because He never spoke English. The Jewish Messiah spoke Hebrew and said to “ahavta YHWH.” The puppy love of today’s English is much different than the devotion Yahshua called for when He spoke in Hebrew. In modern thought love is an emotion that can be turned on and off like a light switch. The Hebrew concept of love is very different. So, clear your mind of what it means to “love.” What you already know isn’t exactly what the original intention of the word was. “Therefore ahavta YHWH your Elohim and shomer His charge, and His chukim, and His mishpatim, and His mitzvot always,” Devarim 11:1. Love or “ahava” in the Hebraic mind is very different than love in today’s culture. In the Hebrew, love is connected directly with action and obedience.

The primitive root word “ahav” means to “have affection, sexually or otherwise, love, like, to befriend, to be intimate.” It brings to mind the idea of longing for or breathing for the Creator. Hebraically ahava is a verb, it is an act of doing something. It is not just a feeling. Ahava is also connected to appetite. To ahava YHWH is to crave Him and His Word. All throughout the Bible ahava is related directly to Torah. Obediance to what the Torah commands is the way mankind loves YHWH. “If you love me, obey my mitzvot. If a man loves Me, he will guard My words, and My Abba will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our stay with Him,” said Moshiach Yahshua in Yochanan 14:15,23. To ahavta YHWH, you must walk in submission to YHWH’s will and crave that your life is pleasing unto Him.

When you love YHWH then your deepest desire is to connect with Him. “Torah study is the way to discover this path of meaning. Torah Chaim – literally the book of “instructions of living” is YHWH’s communication to the world. It’s the ultimate repository for wisdom on how to succeed at marriage, parenting, community building, and fixing the world. That’s because Torah is the mind of Elohim. The sign of successful Torah study is when it becomes an insatiable addiction. If something doesn’t make sense, you will rack your brains to figure it out. And every time you succeed in working it out, the pleasure makes you want more and more. This level is called ‘ahavat torah’ – true love of Torah. You become so overwhelmed that Torah study becomes your very essence and you want to absorb as much as you can. Torah study ingrains in us the idea that Elohim is the infinite source of all wisdom and defines the ultimate in “meaning.” Therefore personal goals and desires cannot compare, and you’ll drop anything which is not consistent with the will of YHWH,” wrote Rabbi Wein.

Not emotions but actions

Sefer Devarim says, “you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your possessions.” When you love YHWH with all of your heart or “lev,” you are basically loosing self to Torah. This is when your will is totally compliant to Divine will in all areas of life. “To love Elohim is not an emotional feeling. To love Elohim the way He desires us to love Him, means to totally give ourselves over to Him – to surrender, to relinquish and to abandon ourselves to Him, regardless of how we feel, what we think or what we desire. It means to set aside our life, so that His Life can come forth from our hearts. A perfect Scripture that sums up what it means to ahava YHWH is Mattitiyahu 16:24, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his execution stake and follow me,” wrote Chuck Missler in The Way of Agape book.

Yahshua spoke clearly about love and Torah when He said, “He that has My mitzvot, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he who loves Me, shall be loved by My Abba, and I will love him, and will reveal Myself to him,” Yochanan 14:21.

When you love YHWH with all of your soul or “nephesh,” you are reconnecting to the original intention of Torah. YHWH created man to be in direct communication and following the mitzvot restores this fellowship. To love YHWH is to obey Torah and therefore bridge the gap between man and the Almighty. When your actions line up with YHWH’s word it is like your nephesh is returning to the Gan Eden. Compliance with the mitzvot creates an attachment to the eternal. In fact, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Dictionary the root word to the term “mitzvot” or “commandments” is “tsavah” which literally means to “constitute or enjoin.” The mitzvot of Torah enjoin Yisra’el back to YHWH.

Sin is a lack of love

But, if this is true, then the opposite is also true. Sin, or Torah breaking, separates humanity from the holy. Torahlessness reveals a lack of love for Elohim!” Sin is really an expression of love of self more than love for YHWH,” says one source. Loving YHWH with all of your soul is returning to the ancient paths and living the Word. It is becoming like Yahshua and being the “word made flesh.” This also means coming to grips with the issue of satisfaction.

Remember that the word “ahava” suggests craving. People have an inward craving and desire to love but they fill this void with love of stuff, or people, or self. When your nephesh is devoted to YHWH, you accept the emet that YHWH has not cheated us. The world only has an appearance of satisfaction – having money, “fitting in,” eating anything, and carefree living will never satiate your inner craving to love YHWH and receive His love.

Finally, to love YHWH with all of your resources or possessions is to serve Him with all that you have and all that you are. This type of ahava is deep. Yahshua once came in contact with a rich man who kept many of the mitzvot but did not fully devote himself to YHWH. “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Tov Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal chayim? And Yahshua said unto him, why do you call me tov? No one is tov, except one, that is YHWH. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your abba and your ima. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Yahshua heard these things, he said to him, yet you lack one thing: sell all that you have, and distribute unit to the poor, and you shall have treasure in shamayim: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich,” Luka 18:18-23, Restoration Scripture Version. The man had to do something, to sell all he had and follow Yahshua, to prove his love for YHWH. The proof is the actions, not just the words.

Let’s look again to a quote from Devarim - “Therefore ahavta YHWH your Elohim and shomer His charge, and His chukim, and His mishpatim, and His mitzvot always,” Devarim 11:1. Here the emet, the truth is very clear. To ahata YHWH you will obey His mitzvot always. No matter what it costs. No matter what it calls for? If you really love YHWH you will obey Him.

Have you accepted a counterfeit in place of loving YHWH? Are there areas in your chayim that you need to fully turn over to Elohim? Do you wish to really love Him, to really obey Him?

Take it to heart

Focus in your lev to follow the Torah as you pray this prayer:

“O Elohim, you are my El; early will I seek You: my being thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where no mayim is; to see Your power and Your tiferet, so as I have seen You in the Set-Apart Place. Because your loving chesed is better than chayim, my lips shall hallel you. So I will bless You while I live: I will lift up my hands to Your Name. My being shall be satisfied as with marrow and abundance; and my mouth shall hallel you with joyful lips: When I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the night watches,” Tehillim 63:1-7.

Selah.