Loving God in Deuteronomy, My Gentile’s Defense of Judaism, Part 2

How can Deuteronomy be both a Book of the Law,
and also a book that repeatedly exhorts us to Love
God with all our heart and soul?
What can we learn from the commentaries by the
famous medieval rabbis Rashi, Rambam or
Maimonides, and Ramban or Nachmanides?
How did the Iliad and the Old Testament both
celebrate and challenge the predominant warrior
ethos of the ancient world?

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
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script we uploaded to SlideShare, which includes
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Deuteronomy, Book of Law, Book of Love of God

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In our first reflection, we introduced you to the
medieval rabbinical commentators, Rashi, Rambam,
and Ramban. We also discussed Jewish exegesis, the
interpretation of Scripture, comparing it to Christian
methods of interpretation. In this reflection, we will
study the many verses in Deuteronomy that exhort
us to Love God in the spirit of the Law, which means
that the medieval rabbis agree with St Paul.

We emphasized in this introductory reflection that
both the Greek Iliad and the Jewish Old Testament
were compiled for ancient Greek and ancient Jewish
city-states were ancient warrior cultures. Unlike
today when we look forward to a retirement funded
by Social Security, in the ancient world you worried
that a hostile enemy might plunder your city-state,
rob you of all your possessions, execute all military-
age men, and enslave the women and children.

https://youtu.be/DpmuhZJUJn0
https://youtu.be/7lI2ZQ50wRc
https://youtu.be/bGHHD7XTvr0
https://youtu.be/ynIx-AVI2f8

What we did not emphasize in our introduction was that the
Greek Iliad and the Jewish Old Testament also challenged aspects
of the warrior ethos in their philosophical and moral worldview.
The Iliad challenged the wisdom of a pure warrior ethos, with the
hero Achilles questioning the blind pursuit of glory in endless
wars. Our hero Achilles in both the Iliad and the Odyssey states
he would rather live a long life in obscurity as a peasant farmer
than live a short life as a glorious Greek hero, although in the end
he chooses not so much glory, but revenge for the Trojan prince
Hector killing his best friend Patroclus in battle.

https://youtu.be/7QAZ_s6zw4E https://youtu.be/9xKxqAbJ2qY
https://youtu.be/vl8KGL5Yx2w https://youtu.be/9hgSbcgbCJw

In contrast, the Old Testament celebrates social justice, the
ancient version of black lives matter, by blaming Israel for God’s
abandoning his people to pagan invasions on the poor treatment
by the Jews of the widows and orphans and sojourners, and the
disadvantaged poor and less fortunate immigrants.
A modern corollary is that FDR and the New Deal spread the
Democratic ideal of the Four Freedoms, that a man who worked
a forty-hour week is entitled to wages sufficient to provide his
family with decent food, decent clothing, and decent housing, so
they can live in dignity, no matter how menial his job is.

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship Freedom From Fear
Freedom From Want
The Four Freedoms

In these commandments, Adonoy is the Hebrew rendition of the
merciful aspect of God, while Elohim is the judgmental aspect of
God. It is Jewish tradition is to render the generic God as G_d (G
underline d). I am not following this tradition because I
remember my ex-military dad using the colloquial English GD as a
shorthand for a curse of God. The devious deceiver seeks to spoil
everything, as CS Lewis reminds us.
We are quoting Deuteronomy from the English translation of the
Jewish Metsudah Chumash. Let us begin our study of the Love of
God in Deuteronomy!

Moses and
Israel Crossing
the Red Sea,
by Henri
Frédéric
Schopin, 1855

Rashi and Ramban: Deuteronomy: Love God

Two Jews Study the Talmud, Adolf Behrman, early 1900's
Adonoy has destroyed
your adversaries
Deuteronomy 4:4.
“But you who cling to
Adonoy, all of you are
alive today.”
Deuteronomy 4:29.
“You will seek Adonoy,
your God,
and you will find Him.
when you seek Him
wholeheartedly,
and with your whole
being.”

Deuteronomy 5:9-10.
“I am Adonoy, your God,
jealous Almighty,
Who reckons the sin of
parents for children
and for the third
generation, and for the
fourth generation of my
enemies, and performs
kindliness for thousands
of generations for those
who Love Me and for
those who guard My
commandments.”

Moses shows the Tables of the Law,
Exodus, Marc Chagall, 1966
Deuteronomy 5:26. “I wish they would retain
their present attitude to fear Me
and to preserve all My commandments always.”
Ramban: Notes this is similar to Job 28:28:
“Behold, the Fear of the Eternal, that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.”
Adonoy gives Israel his Laws
Deuteronomy 6:2. “In order that you will fear
Adonoy, your God,
to preserve all His statues and commandments
that I am commanding you,
you and your son and your grandson,
all the days of your life,
and in order that you live long.”

You see this style often in the Jewish translation into
English, where key words are repeated, as in, “to
preserve all His statues and commandments
that I am commanding you.”
Ramban does not interpret this as saying that a long
life is a reward for obeying the commandments, but
rather that you and your descendants should keep
the commandments for all time.

The
Finding of
Moses, by
Lawrence
Alma-
Tadema,
1904

Jew with Torah, Marc Chagall, 1925
Deuteronomy 6:5-6.
“You are to Love Adonoy, your God,
with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your possessions.
And these words that I command you today
shall be upon your heart.”
Rashi: YOU ARE TO LOVE ADONOY, YOUR GOD
“You are to obey His words and commands,
because of your Love for Him.
There is no comparison between
one who obeys out of love
and one who obeys out of fear.
He who serves his master out of fear,
should the master overburden him,
he will leave and go away.”

YOU ARE TO LOVE WITH ALL YOUR HEART
Rashi: “With your two inclinations, (good and
evil).” Another interpretation, “with all your
heart,” your heart should not be fragmented with
God.
YOU ARE TO LOVE WITH ALL YOUR POSSESSIONS
“With all your wealth.
There are men whose wealth is dearer to them
than their bodies. It is therefore said, ‘With all
your possessions.’”
Another interpretation, “With all your measures,”
“with whatever measure he apportions you,
whether it is a measure of goodness or a
measure of punishment, you must Love Him.”

THESE WORDS THAT I COMMAND YOU TODAY
Rashi: “These words shall not be in your eyes
like an outdated decree
which no one takes seriously,
but rather like a newly given one,
which is read eagerly by all.”
The footnotes to Rashi’s footnotes observe that in
Jewish tradition, all commandments should be
performed with love, both Love for God and love for
our neighbor. The implied sacrifice of wealth is
obligatory. “Scripture has already obligated you to
sacrifice your soul. In addition, you must Love and
extol Him for the very act of taking your soul or
measuring other punishment.” All the commandments
teach us how to Love God and our neighbor.

Ramban says that the opinion of
the Midrash is that when you Love
God with your heart, that this is a
deep desire of the soul. When you
Love God with your soul, that is
from the intellectual capacity of the
soul. When you Love God with all
your heart, you “Love Him as your
very life, giving up your life with
love.”

This is similar to Jesus’
exhortation in Matthew:
“’You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all
your mind.’ This is the greatest
and first commandment. And
a second is like it: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as
yourself.’ On these two
commandments hang all the
law and the prophets.”

Victory of Joshua over Amalekites, by Nicolas Poussin, 1625
Perhaps this was the verse
that Jesus drew from:
Joshua 22:5
“Take diligent heed to do the
commandment and the
Torah, which Moses the
servant of the Lord
commanded you, to love the
Lord your God, and to walk in
all His ways, and to keep His
commandments, and to cling
to Him, and to serve Him with
all your heart and with all
your soul.”

Deuteronomy 6:13.
“Fear Adonoy, your God, and serve Him, and
swear by His name.”
Rashi: “If you fear all these qualities
(mentioned in Scripture):
You fear His Name and you serve Him,
then you may swear by His Name;
for since you fear His Name
you will be prudent with your oath;
otherwise, you should not swear.”
Ramban: How do you serve God? “You serve
Him by studying his Torah, and in His
Sanctuary.”
Punishment of Korah, by Sandro Botticelli, 1482

Joy of the Torah, Radość Tory, painted 1890's
Deuteronomy 6:24.
“Adonoy commanded us
to perform all these statutes
to show that we fear Adonoy, our God;
to benefit us for all time,
to keep us alive like this day.”

Monument of Rambam in Cordoba, Spain
Deuteronomy 7:9.
“You will know that Adonoy, your God,
is the God, the trusted Almighty,
who keeps the covenant and the kindliness
for those who Love Him
and for those who keep His commandments,
for a thousand generations.”
Rashi: “Perhaps thousands of generations.”
Ramban: “He who is chosen to be loved, is known
to be ready to suffer whatever comes upon him
from his lover.” This conflicts with the current
notion that God should deliver us from our
sufferings, that suffering is a proof that God does
not exist for some people.

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom
Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878
Deuteronomy 7:13.
“Adonoy will love you,
and bless you, and multiply you: and
He will bless the fruit of your belly
and the fruit of your soul,
your grain, your wine, & your olive oil,
the offspring of your cattle,
and the herds of your sheep,
upon the soil that He swore to your
forefathers, to give you.”

Just prior to this next verse, while waiting forty days
for Moses to come down from the mountain where
he was meeting with the Lord, the people of Israel
lost patience and crafted the golden calf, which they
were dancing around and worshiping.

Dance
around the
Golden Calf,
by Giuseppe
Gambarini,
before 1725

Deuteronomy 10:12.
“And now, Israel,
what is Adonoy, your God, asking of you,
other than to Fear Adonoy, your God,
to go in all His ways and to Love Him,
and to serve Adonoy, your God,
wholeheartedly and with your whole being.”
Rashi: “Although you have perpetrated all this,
He is still compassionate and affectionate towards
you,
“so that, despite all your transgressions before Him,
He requires of you nothing other to Fear God.”
Ramban: “God does not require anything of you for
His sake, only for your sake.”
Bar Mitzvah in a Synagogue,
by Oscar Rex, before 1929

Deuteronomy 10:20.
“You are to fear Adonoy, your God,
serve Him, cling to Him,
and swear by His name.”
Deuteronomy 11:1.
“You are to Love Adonoy, your God,
and you are to guard His watch,
and His statues, and His laws,
and His commandments, all the
years.”
Moses with Ten Commandments, by Philippe de Champaigne, 1648

Deuteronomy 11:13. “The Lord says:
Should you thoroughly heed My commandments,
I am commanding you today,
to Love Adonoy, your God,
and to serve Him with all your desires,
and with your entire being.”
Rashi: TO LOVE ADONOY, YOUR GOD
“You must not say, ‘I shall study so that I may
become wealthy, or so that I may be called Rabbi,
or so that I may be rewarded.’
Rather, all that you fulfill, fulfill with love,
and the glory will eventually follow.”
TO SERVE HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEARTS
“The service of the heart refers to prayer.”
Landscape and Moses and the Burning
Bush, by Domenichino, 1616

Jesus Unrolls the Book in the
Synagogue, by James Tissot, 1894
Deuteronomy 11:22-23. “For if you
truly guard this entire mitzvah
that I am commanding you to perform,
to Love Adonoy, your God,
to walk in His ways and to cling to Him,
Adonoy will expel all these nations
before you,
and you will inherit nations
greater and more powerful than you.”

Rashi: TRULY GUARD THIS ENTIRE MITZVAH
“One must be diligent in learning,
so that it will never be forgotten.”
TO WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS
“As God is merciful, you should be merciful.
As God acts kindly, you should act kindly.”
TO CLING TO HIM
“Is it possible to say this?
Is He not a consuming fire?
Rather, cling to the disciples and sages,
and I will credit you as if you had clung to
Him.”
Jesus Unrolls the Book in the
Synagogue, by James Tissot, 1894

Deuteronomy 13:5.
“After Adonoy, your God, are you to go,
Fear Him, keep His commandments,
heed His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”
Rashi: KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS,
“The Torah was given through Moses.”
HEED HIS VOICE,
“The voice of the prophets.”
CLEAVE TO HIM,
“Embrace His ways, engage in kindness,
bury the dead, and visit the sick,
just as the Holy One, may He be blessed, did.”
Moses and the Golden Calf, by Domenico Beccafumi, 1537

This is another style used by the Jewish translators,
that whenever they refer to the Holy One, they add,
“may He be blessed.”

Deuteronomy 18:13.
“Walk in perfect trust with
Adonoy, your God.”
Rashi: “Walk with Him in utter
trust,
in anticipation of Him.
Do not explore the future,
rather, whatever befalls you,
accept with perfect trust.
Then, you will be with Him.”
Hillel once said, “If you find
yourself in a country where
there are no men, Be a man!”
Moses' mother, by Alexey Tyranov, 1842

Deuteronomy 19:9.
“When you will be
guarding this entire
mitzvah to fulfill it,
that I am
commanding you
today,
to Love Adonoy,
your God,
and to go in His
ways for all time.”
Moses and the Golden Calf, by Domenico Beccafumi, 1537

This encouragement for us to guard
the commandments, avoiding the
spiritual dangers of envy,
covetousness, slander, bearing false
witness or feeling angry towards our
neighbor, or adultery or not loving
our neighbor, is also referred to in the
Mitzvah forbidding us to build a roof
on a house without a parapet, or wall
on the roof of our soul:
Negative Mitzvah 298.
“When you build a new home,
You are to make a fence for your roof;
And do not place blood liability in
your house,
For someone who should fall
May fall from it.”
Deuteronomy 22:8-9
David sees BathSheba bathing, peering over his parapet, by James Tissot

Rambam’s Positive Commands to Love God

Rather than commenting on the Torah verse by verse, Rambam separates the
commandments in the Torah into positive and negative commandments.
Constantly in the Old Testament the Lord reminds the Jews that “I am the Lord thy
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Rambam argues that without a firm
conviction of the existence of God, that understanding and observing the
Commandments are impossible.
The second positive Commandment, that we should uphold the Unity of God, may be
the only place where the tensions between Christianity and Judaism are addressed by
Rambam. But in our introductory reflections, we included St Augustine’s explanation
of the Trinity, affirming that Christianity also upholds that there is only one God.
This is followed by the Love of God, Fear of God, Worshipping God, and Cleaving to
God, which are differing forms of the Love of God, followed by positive
commandments to live a holy life honoring and respecting God.

Rambam or Maimonides
Positive Commandments
1. Believing in God
2. Unity of God
May be the only Mitzvah that
addresses the tensions between
Christianity and Judaism.
3. Love of God
4. Fear of God
5. Worshipping God
6. Cleaving to God
7. Taking an oath by God’s Name
8. Walking in God’s Ways
9. Sanctifying God’s Name
10. Reading the Shema
11. Studying the Torah
12+. Phylacteries, Fringes, Door Posts,
Remembering God Rambam teaching students about the 'measure of man', 1347

Rambam asks us: “What is the right kind
of love? One is to entertain towards the
Lord an exceedingly great and mighty
Love, so that his very soul shall be bound
by his Love of God, being ever
enraptured by it, as is the mind of one
who, being lovesick, does not cease to
languish after his beloved, with whom
he is ever enraptured, whether sitting or
rising, eating or drinking: nay, great than
this should be the Love for the Lord in
the hearts of His lovers, who are ever to
be enraptured with this Love.”
Moses with Tables of Law, by Guido Reni, 1624

https://youtu.be/DgL7Y5pIFAU https://youtu.be/6VffPIzfT-o
https://youtu.be/wlr55ddb-lc
In the Christian tradition, we see these
sentiments in the writings of the
Christian Neo-Platonists such as Dionysus
the Areopagite and of the Christian
mystics such as St John of the Cross, and
also the Song of Songs in the Old
Testament.

We are fond of the teachings of St John of the Cross because he
teaches us in his Dark Night of the Soul that we should only have
close friends who increase in our heart our Love for God.
Is the Fear of God an immature Love of God? Some verses in both
testaments support this interpretation, but many other verses in
both the Old and New Testaments exhort us that we never leave
our Fear of God behind. Rambam teaches that we should never
be at ease or self-confident before the Almighty God, and that we
should always be in awe of God’s majesty. Sublime awe is akin to
our Love for God.

Moses
Striking the
Rock, by
Jacopo
Tintoretto,
1570

On Worshipping God, Rambam teaches us that
“prayer without devotion is no prayer at all.”
What is devotion? “One must free his heart
from all other thoughts and regard himself as
standing in the presence of God.” When we
cleave to God we also cleave to wise men and
their disciples, so we may learn from them.
One of the fundamental teachings of Judaism
is when we walk in God’s ways, we fulfill our
duty of imitating God. Since we are made in
the image of God, we must walk in the ways of
God. Victory O Lord, Aaron and Hur with Moses,
battle of Amaleks, by John Everett Millais, 1871

How can we sanctify God’s name?
This commandment is expressed in
Leviticus 12:32, with God
exhorting us, “I will be hallowed
among the children of Israel.” We
sanctify the Lord by living a godly
life. People should not form their
opinions of Judaism and
Christianity by how we of the faith
live our lives, but they do.
Statue of Rambam in Cordoba, Spain

The compiler of this mitzvah quotes the Mishneh
Torah: “The scholar who is scrupulous in his own
conduct, speaking gently to his fellow-men,
showing concern for their welfare, receiving them
with a cheerful countenance, accepting
humiliation at their hands without humiliating
them, showing honor even to those who slight
him, being faithful in his dealings, not passing his
time unduly in the company of ignorant men and
their affairs, being ever seen engaged in the study
of the Law,” openly showing his faith to his
neighbors, “avoiding extremes and strange
conduct, so that all may be disposed to praise him
and love him, and to be desirous of emulating his
deeds, such a one sanctifies the Lord.”
Moses Defends Jethro's Daughters, by
Rosso Fiorentino, 1524

The observant Jew prays the Shema in the morning
and the evening, this is a lengthy prayer composed of
many of the verses we recited from Deuteronomy in
this Reflection, plus some verses from Numbers. We
will include the full Shema prayer in our blog if you
are interested. Likewise, many observant Orthodox
Christians have a habit of daily prayers. Also, many
Catholics attend a short morning mass each weekday.

The Finding of
Moses, by
Jacques Stella

The Jews who encourage us to study the Torah and
the Christians who seek to read the entire Bible in a
year in daily selections both seek to make God a
greater part of their lives. Christians can replace
“Law” with “Bible” in this quote by Rabbi Meir:

Moses
leading the
children of
Israel out of
Egypt, by
Vincent
Malo,
1600's

Rabbi Meir, “He who occupies himself in
the study of the Law for its own sake
merits many things, nay more, he is
deserving of the whole world. He is
called friend, beloved of God, lover of
God, lover of mankind; and it clothes him
with humility and reverence and fits him
to become righteous, saintly, upright,
and faithful; and it keeps him far from sin
and brings him near to virtue, and from
him, men enjoy counsel and sound
knowledge and understanding.”
Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh, by Benjamin West

The next four mitzvoth command the Jews to wear
reminders of their faith in phylacteries, or small cases
containing key Scriptures, attached to his head and
his arm, fringes on their clothing, and passages
written on his doorposts.

The Finding of Moses, by Gioachino Assereto, 1640 / The Death of Moses, Lithograph, 1907

We have another video reflecting on the commentaries of the medieval
rabbis, Rashi, Rambam, and Ramban, plus many modern summaries of
the modern collections of the moral teachings from the Talmud and
Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.
What other scholars have noted the similarities between the style of the
Torah and the Synoptic Gospels? We have noted that Professor Peter van
’t Riet has written a book on this topic, Reading Torah, the Key to the
Gospels. Plus, we have viewed an excellent DVD series of short movies on
the Decalogue recommended by Robert Ebert, the late movie critic, plus
have several more books on the Decalogue and the Torah. We plan videos
on these topics sometime in 2024.

Possible sources for future videos 2024
YouTube Channel (please subscribe):
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In the future, we will be reflecting on the beginning
chapters of the theologically influential book by
Anders Nygren on how the Love of God and neighbor
was expressed in the New Testament. We have
already reflected on his chapters where he pondered
the four Platonic dialogues on love.

We are also planning reflections on CS Lewis’ book
on the Four Loves, as well as Erich Fromm’s book on
The Art of Loving, in part to understand the origins of
the modern belief that before you can love your
neighbor, you have to love yourself, which seems to
conflict with the teachings of some of the Church
Fathers.

https://www.meetup.com/Reflections/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLqDkfFbWhXOnzdjp__YZtg/

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