Love Hashem: Loving Hashem in Every Situation!

Love!

The Torah says (Deuteronomy 6:5): "You shall love Hashem your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might"!

Our Sages explained: with all your heart - your heart should not be divided against God. You should be with Hashem with your whole heart! with all your soul - even if He takes your soul! with all your might - with every measure He measures out to you, whether good or punishing. (Rashi)

The Talmud tells a moving story (Berachot 61b): Rabbi Akiva - was one of the "Ten Martyrs" [ten great Jewish sages who were executed by the Roman Empire]. The wicked took him out to be killed through torture, as they raked his flesh with iron combs. At that time - it was time for reciting the Shema. And Rabbi Akiva, in the midst of torture, was accepting the yoke of Heaven's kingship, saying: "Hear, O Israel..."! His students said to him: "Our teacher, this far?!", is it really possible even at such a time to accept the yoke of Heaven's kingship with love?! He replied: "All my days I have been troubled by this verse - 'You shall love Hashem your God... with all your soul - even if He takes your life', I said: 'When will I have the opportunity to fulfill this?!', and now that I have the opportunity, shall I not fulfill it?!". He prolonged the word "one" until his soul departed. A heavenly voice came forth and said: "Fortunate are you, Rabbi Akiva, that your soul departed with 'one'"!

The verse in Song of Songs says (Chapter 5, verses 7-8): "The watchmen who patrol the city found me, they struck me, they wounded me, the guardians of the walls took my cloak from me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? That I am lovesick"!

The Chafetz Chaim, when reading Song of Songs, would contemplate this verse and say: The Jew always suffers blows, and even from those supposedly maintaining order he receives beatings and wounds. His name is always defamed, and he absorbs insults and curses at every turn. Nevertheless - he does not waver from his love for his Creator! He is always bound in his love, and blesses the bad just as he blesses the good! As King Solomon says in the name of the congregation of Israel: "The watchmen who patrol the city found me, they struck me, they wounded me, they took my cloak from me", and yet: when you find my beloved [Hashem], tell him that I am lovesick! Now as then, I love Him with all my heart and soul! I am lovesick for my Creator, and my love has not diminished even by a hair's breadth! (Ma'asei LaMelech)

The Chafetz Chaim himself experienced this trial and withstood it. It was when his beloved dear son Avraham passed away on the holy Shabbat, the 20th of Kislev 5652 (1892), at the age of 23. At that time, the Chafetz Chaim was away from the city. On Saturday night, he received an urgent telegram to return home. When he arrived the next day, he noticed the crowd returning from the cemetery. Everyone was crying and depressed. The Chafetz Chaim entered his house calmly and sat down for the seven days of mourning. He said: "A great genius is lost. When he was just sixteen, he already produced Torah insights like one of the great scholars". And he concluded: "Hashem gave and Hashem has taken away, blessed be the name of Hashem from now and forever! Now I know that I am a Jew".

He immediately added and told the story brought in the book Toldot Adam (Chapter 16): During the Inquisition

in Spain in the year 1492, the bloodthirsty wicked ones slaughtered two beloved and precious children before the eyes of a righteous mother. This woman of valor then lifted her eyes to heaven, and with a steeled heart whispered a prayer: "Master of the Universe, indeed I have always loved You. But as long as I had my dear and beloved children, my heart was divided in two. There was still a place reserved for loving them as well. But now, after my children are no longer here, my entire heart has become a nest for my burning love for You!... Now I can truly fulfill this commandment of 'You shall love Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul'!". When the Chafetz Chaim finished the story, he exclaimed enthusiastically: "Master of the Universe, the love that I had until now for my son, I now give over to You"! (The Chafetz Chaim His Life and Works, Volume 1, page 248)

Rabbi Azriel Tauber: Sometimes it seems to us as if Hashem is fighting against us. We want to be good Jews and serve Him truthfully. To keep His commandments and do all that is incumbent upon us. But sometimes it seems that everything is working against us. Despite this, we must never despair. It may be that Hashem is testing us, it may be that He is sending us a trial, but He does this in order to bring us to discover the lesson and the message in these things:

No power in the world can take away our ability to love Hashem!