Loving God Without Limits: The Story of Rabbi Akiva and the Meaning of “You Shall Love the Lord Your God”

The Torah commands (Deuteronomy 6:5): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Our sages explain:

• “With all your heart” — let your heart not be divided; serve God with both your inclinations.

• “With all your soul” — even if He takes your life.

• “With all your might” — in every measure He deals you, whether good or painful (Rashi).

Rabbi Akiva’s Ultimate Love

The Talmud (Berakhot 61b) tells the stirring story of Rabbi Akiva, one of the Ten Martyrs killed by the Romans. As they tore his flesh with iron combs, the time came to recite the Shema. Rabbi Akiva accepted upon himself the yoke of Heaven and began to say, “Hear O Israel…”

His students cried, “Rabbi, even now?!”
He replied: “All my life I was troubled by this verse — ‘with all your soul,’ even if He takes your life. I asked, When will I have the chance to fulfill it? Now that the moment has come, shall I not fulfill it?”

He prolonged the word “Echad” (“One”) until his soul departed.
A heavenly voice proclaimed: “Fortunate are you, Rabbi Akiva, whose soul left your body with the word One!”

Loving God Amid Suffering

Song of Songs (5:7–8) expresses this boundless love: “The watchmen who patrol the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me… Yet if you find my Beloved, tell Him that I am lovesick.”

The Chofetz Chaim would reflect deeply on this verse: “The Jewish people are beaten and scorned — even by the so-called ‘watchmen.’ Still, they never abandon their love for their Creator. They bless God for the bad just as they bless Him for the good. Though struck and wounded, they cry out: ‘Tell Him that I am lovesick!’ — my love for Him has not lessened by even a hair’s breadth.” (Ma’aseh Lamelech)

The Chofetz Chaim’s Personal Test

This was no mere teaching — the Chofetz Chaim lived it. When his beloved son Avraham died at 23, on Shabbat the 20th of Kislev 5652 (1891), he was away from home. Returning the next day, he saw the mourners leaving the cemetery. Calmly entering his home, he sat for shiva and said: “A great light has been lost. At sixteen, he was already innovating Torah like a great scholar. But — ‘The Lord gave, the Lord has taken; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Now I know what it means to be a Jew.”

He then shared a story from Toldot Adam: During the Spanish Inquisition, a righteous mother saw her two children slain before her eyes. Lifting her gaze heavenward, she prayed: “Master of the Universe, I have always loved You. Yet as long as my children lived, part of my heart belonged to them. Now that they are gone, my heart is wholly Yours. Now I can truly fulfill, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’”

The Chofetz Chaim ended tearfully: “Master of the Universe, the love I bore for my son — I now give entirely to You.” (Chofetz Chaim: His Life and Deeds, vol. 1, p. 248)

Rabbi Ezriel Tauber: God’s Hidden Test

Rabbi Ezriel Tauber taught: “At times it seems as though God Himself is fighting against us. We strive to serve Him, to do good, to keep His commandments — yet everything feels like it’s going wrong. Still, we must never despair. God is testing us, shaping us, inviting us to discover the lesson within.”

Ultimately, no power in the world can ever take from us the ability to love God.