LOVING WITH THE HEART, THE BREATH, AND ONE’S POSSESSIONS

The listening to which the Shema invites us leads not only to the profession of faith but also to love. We can therefore affirm fides ex auditu, certainly, but also amor ex auditu; love is born of listening. Erri De Luca writes: “Only if you are capable of listening can you come to read, repeat, and understand the next verse: ‘And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your breath, and with all your strength’ (Deut. 6:5). Only after listening to the proclamation will you be able to draw upon the immense energy of the verb ‘to love.’ To love the solitary master builder of the world with every fiber of your living body. Here, in this brief pair of intimate and stirring verses, lies the formula for the relationship between the divine and the creature: listening that unleashes the pure warmth of love.” This love, moreover, has one defining characteristic: totality: “And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your breath, and with all your possessions” (Deut. 4:5, trans. based on the reading). A totality that encompasses man in his being (heart and soul) and in his possessions (material goods), in what he is and in what he has. The heart (leb) is a fundamental term in Old Testament anthropology and represents man in his entirety as well as that part of his being “in which God manifests himself” (J. Behm). If this is true—and it is true—it is with the heart that a person listens to God and his word (cf. Isa 40:2). Certainly, the heart is unfathomable and incurable, according to Jeremiah (cf. Jer 17:9), but this is not so for God, who created it and knows it deeply (cf. Ps 33:15; Prov 21:1–2), and searches it out (cf. Jer 11:20). For the Sages of Israel, loving God with all one’s heart means loving him with both one’s good and one’s evil inclinations. This dichotomy is present in human beings. Human beings aspire to the good but are also drawn to evil. Evil, too, exerts a fascination on his heart. Hence the need to watch over one’s inclinations, strengthening the positive ones until the negative ones are fully absorbed. In any case, this instruction from the Shemà is important because man is called to stand before God in his truth, and in God’s light to walk the path of purification until he reaches a total response in love. The second instruction concerns the breath (nefeshnefesh) or soul (CEI). The breath refers to life. Thus, we move from the heart to life. But the term nefesh refers to human beings in their needs and desires. God must therefore be loved starting from one’s own needs—not apart from them—as well as from one’s own desires and the deep aspirations that give dynamism to human existence. Need is therefore not something to be ashamed of; it does not humiliate but opens one to the gift of the other and, at the same time, benefits the one who gives. Desire, on the other hand, goes beyond need and expresses the radical thirst of the human heart. The Talmud also states: “You shall love God even if He takes your soul (nefesh)” (b. Berakhot 54a). Since the soul is a gift, the believer must be ready to return it when the Giver requests it. In this interpretation, there is a clear reference to the supreme testimony of love: martyrdom for God. For God’s sake, one must be willing even to lose one’s life. The Shemà also teaches that God is to be loved not only with one’s heart and breath but also through the possessions each person has. And this “ ” is achieved through the practice of charity toward one’s neighbor, as we read, for example, in Deut. 15:7–8, 10–11. Behold, the entire Law and the Prophets depend on love for God and for one’s neighbor.

Commentary by d. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italia)