A Thought on Parshas Vaeschanan

"...va'ahavta es HaShem Elokecha..." "...and you shall love your Lord G-d..." (6:5) These opening words of the Shema passage are familiar to all who have ever read from the Jewish prayer book. The Torah commands us to fulfill those words, loving HaShem. The age old question is, of course, how to do that. Particularly in view of the words which follow - to love Him with all of our selves, all of our souls and all of our might - we need to know more about how that powerful love is meant to be expressed and communicated. Who or what is the object of that emotion, that one might feel the form of connection which feels like love? Rabbeinu Avigdor asserts that we accomplish this love of HaShem by loving what He loves. Namely, HaShem loves the Torah. He loves those who learn Torah. In Mishlei (8:17) we read "Ani ohavai ohev" - I love those who love me. The source for Rabbeinu Avigdor's thinking is borrowed from a drasha introduced by Chazal. When the Torah says (Devarim 6:13 and 10:20) "es HaShem tira" - you shall fear HaShem, Chazal teach that you fear HaShem by having reverence for Torah scholars. Rabbeinu Avigdor then reasons that the same grammar structure which opens up that drasha appears in our verse - the prefix "es" in both verses comes to "include", within the application of both commandments, the fear, and the love, of HaShem's close ones, who are the Torah scholars. Rather than keeping this at the drasha level, Rabbeinu Avigdor the Posek rules that there is a mitzvas aseh - one of the 613 positive Torah commandments - to learn to love the Torah and to learn to love those who learn Torah.