Rabbi Shmuel of Slonim zt"l relates: In the city of Slonim, the water drawer married his daughter to a young man. A simple young man who spent his entire life working in agriculture and beyond that knew nothing, not even literacy. After the wedding, his father-in-law decided to teach him A-B, at least so that he could pray from a siddur. Slowly, he taught him letters and even began to read entire sentences. The devoted father-in-law began to teach him the verse Shema Yisrael and explained to him the meaning of the eternal sentence: The Creator was and will be, the ruler of the upper and lower worlds, He revolves around everything that happens in the world, etc.
Afterwards, they continued to study Parashat Va'ahavat Hashem your G-d, with his father-in-law explaining to him the meaning of the words, G-d commanding us to love Him with all our hearts, out of devotion, etc. Here, the groom stops and demands an explanation of the puzzling sentence: How is it possible that the great Creator who rules all the worlds? Is it possible that the great Creator who rules over all the worlds? Who is directly responsible for everything that exists and happens in all worlds and in all infinite spaces? He cares at any given moment for the existence and livelihood of billions of people and animals. He will ask me for the small and simple person that I will love him? And that he needs me to love him???
The father-in-law tries to explain that yes, this is what the Creator commands us. But the groom thinks, "I can't understand that the great and mighty Creator needs my love; there can be no such thing." They decided to go to the Rebbe of Slonim to ask him the weighty question.
Indeed, they both came to the Rebbe with the nagging question about the young groom and the argument between them. When the Rebbe heard their words, he clearly ruled that the father-in-law was right, but indeed the Creator commanded us to love him. When the groom heard this, he answered and said with great emotion, 'If so, the Creator really wants us to love him, then it must be because He loves us very, very much, and therefore He wants us to love Him and return His love.' Here he could no longer resist and cried out with excitement, 'If the Great Creator loves me so much, then I really love Him too... What a wonderful and uplifting feeling...' When the Rebbe heard the groom's moving words, he answered and said, "Indeed, this is the true level of love of God."
The Chassidic books thus explain the blessing of "Ahava Rabba," which is adjacent to the Shema Yisrael, which we recite every morning in the morning prayer. Throughout the blessing, we detail at length how much God loves us and has mercy on us, and we conclude with the magnitude of His love for us, "He who chooses His people Israel with love." All of this is a prelude to the Shema. Only when we internalize how great His love for us is will a great and immense renewed love arise within us. Only then can we accept upon ourselves the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven by reciting the Shema. And to continue, "And you shall love the Lord with all your heart." This is the connection between the blessing of great love and the Shema Yisrael.
Levels of Love of God
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev z"a, in his book Kedushat Levi, explains that there are two levels of love of God. There are those who love God when they look at how much He gives them of His full and generous hand, giving them a good life, a healthy body, a home to live in, a wife and children, a livelihood, etc. In everything, you can expand in detail how much He gives and gives. Even those who do not have everything they would like will check and discover that what they receive is a great deal. After all, every drop of oxygen we can breathe on our own is a miracle and a great wonder for which we must be thankful with all our hearts. As the midrash says in the verse, "All the soul shall praise the Lord" – for every breath you shall praise the Lord. Not to mention that He chose only us to be with His virtue, and that He gave us the opportunity to live eternal life, to fulfill the commandments in this world, and to receive great reward for the next world in the Garden of Eden. When we understand how much the Creator gives and gives, it is clear that a strong love for Him will awaken in our hearts. But there is a higher level, when a person loves the Creator even if He would not give us anything, but only because of the very fact that He loves us, it causes a person to re-emote a strong love for Him. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that the love of God is a level that is greater than us, suitable only for spiritual people who are elevated from the people. Absolutely not, love of God is a trait that every Jew can attain. As it is brought in the book Sefat Emet: In the inner point of every Jew lies a spark of love for God, he must only expose it and nurture the point, by thinking and contemplating all the goodness and abundance that the Creator bestows, out of love that He loves us. Then, naturally, a flame of holy fire will break out that will ignite in his heart a great and immense love for the Creator of all souls, the Sovereign of all actions.
Hunting for life: Every Jew can reach true love of God. When we observe and internalize the great love that God loves us, and the abundance that He bestows upon us, we will also awaken a renewed love for Him.
