Today we celebrate Tu B’av in addition to Shabbat. The Jewish holiday of love, mentioned in the Talmud. Today was the beginning of the grape harvest in Israel and the young women, dressed in white, would go out into the fields to find their b’shert, their destined one. It was one of the two happiest days of the year, the other being Yom Kippur. 

As you know I work in song lyrics. So “what’s love got to do with it. A second hand emotion. Oh-oh, what’s love got to do, got to do with it?
What’s love but a second-hand emotion?
What’s love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? 

One of my favorite musicals, Legally Blonde has much to teach us about love: 

How about love?
Have you ever been in love?
Cause if you have, you’ll know
That love never accepts a defeat
No challenge it can’t meet
No place it cannot go
Don’t say no to a woman in love. 

Elle goes all the way across the country, to the hallowed halls of Harvard Law to win back her love. If you haven’t seen this one you should. One thing that has always intrigued me is the real hero is named Emet, that’s right, the Hebrew word for truth.  He echos the song later in the play: 

What about love?
I never mentioned love
The timing’s bad, I know
But perhaps if I’d made it more clear
That you belong right here
You wouldn’t have to go
‘Cause you’d know that I’m so much in love 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueC6w7POKSY 

And there is truth in love.  

In Hebrew we have a two words for truth. Ahavah and Chesed. The verb form ohaiv first shows up in describing Isaac who took Rebecca to his mother Sarah’s tent and he loved her. He also drew comfort after his mother’s death. The beginning of Genesis is clear, “It is not good for Man, for individuals to be alone.”   

Our service has a blanket of love. In the evening we are told, Ahavat Olam, G-d loves us. We know this because G-d gave us Torah, Mitzvot, Chukim and mispatim to lengthen our days. G-d is like a loving parent who gives us rules. Those very rules keep us alive. Don’t touch the stove. 

Rabbi Rami Shapiro who I had the privilege of studying with, and some of you know his books, like Amazing Chesed, wrote a beautiful poem: 

We are loved by an unending love. 

We are embraced by arms that find us
even when we are hidden from ourselves.
We are touched by fingers that soothe us
even when we are too proud for soothing.
We are counseled by voices that guide us 

even when we are too embittered to hear.
We are loved by an unending love. 

We are supported by hands that uplift us
even in the midst of a fall.
We are urged on by eyes that meet us
even when we are too weak for meeting.
We are loved by an unending love. 

Embraced, touched, soothed, and counseled,
Ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices;
Ours are the hands, the eyes, the smiles;
We are loved by an unending love. 

https://shiryaakov.bandcamp.com/track/we-are-loved  

In the morning  our prayer changes to Ahavah Rabba. Similar themes. Still aware that G-d deeply loves us by giving us the Torah and by gathering us from the four corners. That’s why we gather the four corners of the tallit together. 

Then we find the Sh’ma. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d. The Lord is One. Six words. The watchword of our faith. There is only one G-d. G-d alone, unique. One.  

After the Sh’ma, the other side of the blanket is V’ahavta. Also in today’s Torah portion. We know these so well. But sometimes we don’t stop to reflect on the English.  

V’ahavta et Adonai elohecha, b’chol levavcha, b’chol nashecha, b’chol m’odecha. 

You shall love the Lord, your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, your being, with all your everything.  

Joel Hoffman, My People’s Prayer Book (Vol. 1, pg. 102)
…nefesh and levav together form an idiom in biblical Hebrew…probably used to represent the entirety of human existence, much the way we use “mind and body,”or sometimes “body and soul” depending on the context, but always in order to mean “the whole person.”
 

Siddur Lev Shalem for Shabbat and Festivals, pg. 42
“You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all that is yours.” You shall love- what a paradox this embraces! Can love then be commanded?…Yes of course, love cannot be commanded. No third party can command it or extort it. No third party can, but the One can. The commandment to love can only proceed from the mouth of the lover.
— Franz Rosenzweig 

Debbie Friedman, z’l composed two settings in English: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDTNL4I7Aw&t=50s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHjFEAMptvc 

I can still see one of my first classes dancing to this version that they composed. Yes, we taught them diligently.  

Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day.
Teach them diligently to your children. Impress them. Sharpen their teeth with them,
Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away,
when you lie down and when you get up.
Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your before your eyes.
inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

Siddur Lev Shalem for Shabbat and Festivals, pg. 41
You shall love – Repeatedly the Torah instructs us to love: to love God, to love our neighbor, and to love the stranger. We might well take the word “love” to imply an intense inner emotion, but the ancient rabbis frequently understood the biblical injunction to “love” in a more concrete and behavioral sense: love consists of acts of empathy, care, and kindness as well as behavior toward others that is just and righteous. To love God is certainly to recognize our conscious relationship to God. Equally, it may mean that we behave in ways that are pleasing to God – acting morally and fulfilling what God desires of us, to walk through life lovingly. 

This fits with the last paragraph that the rabbis added a paragraph to what we call the full V’ahavta. It does not follow in order. It ends with the quote from Numbers that we should remember that we were slaves in Egypt and that we  

“Thus you shall remember to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God.
I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God:
I am Adonai your God. 

Like our ancestors, we are all on a journey. Perhaps my highlight of services has been little Robert mastering this very prayer. Whether he is at home or away. That is because his parents have “taught him diligently.” Being able to recite this prayer at home or away can bring comfort, solace, reassurance. If we love G-d, if we recite these very words, and put them on our doorposts, like the Israelites, wandering in the desert, G-d will go with us.  

And there is one more step, pun intended. Like this blanket of love, ahavah rabbah, sh’ma, v’ahavta, we are told to love G-d, love our neighbor, love the stranger.  

 This week many of our students go back to school. That is a journey too.
My hope is that they are taught diligently. That they know that they are loved by their parents and their teachers. That they have everything they need, crayons, pencils, books, notebooks, paper and digital. That they ask good questions and embrace creativity and curiosity, That they are kind—to their fellow students and their staff. That they have fun and find laughter.  

 

The prayer that I wrote for this moment. 

A Prayer for Going Back to School
“Who is wise? One who learns from all people.” (Pirke Avot 4:1)
New lunch box, multi-colored sharpies, a notebook
Tucked in a new backpack.
A new outfit. 

You are ready.
Off to school you go.  

We hope
That this school year is great.
That you ask good questions 
From anyone and everyone.
That you learn much
From your teachers, your parents, your friends.
That you are kind and compassionate.
That you are safe.
That you make friends.
That you become wise. 

May this be a great year.