Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 6:6/אור החיים על דברים ו׳:ו׳

1 והיו הדברים האלה…על לבבך, "And these words…shall be upon your heart." In accordance with our commentary on the previous verse, we must view this verse as sort of a band-aid for a person who suffers from the dearth of one of the three basic values in this life described in Moed Katan 28. The Torah recommends that anyone who suffers from any of these three deprivations should take our commentary to heart. He should remember that these values (blessings) which he lacks are grossly overrated in the overall scheme of G'd's universe in which the life in the hereafter is the real objective.

2Another lesson our verse wishes to teach the Israelite is that love is not something a person is able to force upon his will to carry out as he can subjugate his will to that of his king and carry out the king's orders. Love is something that is not subservient to willpower but to one's heart. As long as the heart itself does not feel an impulse which causes it to develop a liking for someone or something the owner (of this heart) cannot force it to respond to his urgings. In light of this our verse advises that if you keep all these afore-mentioned considerations "on your heart"-your heart will begin to develop a desire of a spiritual nature for affinity with G'd, and this will in turn develop into love for G'd. We ourselves, who are but spiritual orphans when compared to earlier generations, and who are certainly full of תאוה, burning desires for the sensual things in life, must develop a corresponding desire for closeness to G'd. It must surpass the intensity of our desire for transient values such as women, food, honour, etc.. Hail to us if we can develop such feelings.

3Another idea conveyed by our verse may refer to the three levels of love described here. The Torah acknowledges that the heart loves certain basic phenomena of this world. It is in order to desire food inasmuch as food is what sustains us, keeps us alive. However, we are not to love food with all our heart. This kind of intense love is to be reserved for our feelings vis-a-vis G'd. This is what the Torah meant when it demanded that we "love G'd with all your heart." Similar considerations apply to our love for material wealth or our love for a woman we want to marry. The intensity of such love-relationships is to be subordinate to the love relationship we are to develop vis-a vis G'd. The Torah is also aware that it is relatively harder to deny one's love (lust) for a woman than one's love for food, for instance. Even the righteous Joseph succeeded only with great difficulty in suppressing his urge to consummate his desire for the wife of Potiphar. The Torah therefore demands that in order to properly love G'd we must develop at least as intense a desire for affinity with G'd as we would develop for the woman of our choice.

4The words "love your G'd with all your heart" mean that one must endeavour to become as enthused about loving G'd as one is about loving a woman. It is assumed that the average man feels drawn to any woman, especially if the woman in question is pretty. The word "with all" refers to the more intense desire one displays for a beautiful woman. In one's relationship to G'd one must apply the yardstick one applies to the love for a pretty woman; one has only fulfilled the Torah's commandment if one can honestly say that one loves Him more intensely than any woman. Only one's personal experience can really tell one if one has met the Torah's requirements in this regard. There are no objective yardsticks by which to measure if one has fulfilled one's duty. The reason the Torah adds the words: "with all your soul," is that according to the psychology revealed by Bamidbar Rabbah 10,2, עין רואה ולב חומד, "the eye merely observes but the heart desires." The author of that statement means that the eye by itself does not generate feelings of desire unless prompted by the heart (based on Numbers 15,39). When the Torah writes בכל נפשך, it urges your basic soul (your physical life-force) to provide this impetus to your heart to love G'd. Just as this physical life-force prompts the heart to desire that which is essential for the body's survival such as food and drink, so your physical life-force should prompt your heart to love G'd. Love for G'd should become as natural a phenomenon as love for things which ensure one's physical survival in this world. Both the love for a woman and the love for food and drink, though natural and each intense in its own way, have certain drawbacks which on occasion even cause the owner pain. When one has indulged one's desire for a woman or for food or drink there comes a time when no desire is felt for either of these attractions. This is not the case, however, when one has indulged one's greed for money, and other worldly possessions. It is in the nature of man to be insatiable in this regard. The Torah writes that you should love G'd בכל מאדך, with all your material assets, i.e. just as your love for material possessions is insatiable so your love for G'd should be insatiable; you should never feel that you have come close enough to G'd, etc. Do not impose voluntary limits on your love-relationship with G'd. But, here too, different people relate with different degrees of intensity to the amassing of wealth, some can do without it altogether. The Torah therefore has to write the word בכל, "with all" to tell us that the yardstick we must apply to the degree of love we develop for G'd is not one that corresponds to our individual greed for material possessions. It is not measured by how much we have amassed but by how much we would like to amass. Moreover, it must be equal to the greed displayed for material possessions by someone who is insatiable in that respect.