The musical Legally Blonde got me through rabbinical school. You may find that surprising, but it is true. One of the musical numbers says, “Love, I’m doing it for love. And love will see me through. With love you can’t lose.”

Today’s Torah portion includes some of the most known commandments. We read the Sh’ma and V’ahavta and the 10 Commandments. Wow! As part of Moses’s farewell address, he wants to make sure the Israelites get the core of Judaism. That even we today get it. This is Moses at his leadership best.

It also is 50 years since Woodstock. Perhaps some of you were there. Many claim to have been. I only know one for sure who was. Peace, love and rock and roll. Revolutionary, no? An example of leadership. Maybe yes and maybe no.

Yesterday was Tu B’av.

Tu B’av is a little holiday mentioned in the Talmud, a joyous day after the tragic day of Tisha B’av marking the beginning of the grape harvest. The unmarried girls of Jerusalem dressed in white, would go out to the vineyards to dance. (Ta’anit 30b-31a) It has become something like a modern day Israeli Valentines Day or Sadie Hawkins day. I can imagine them out in the fields singing Dodi Li:

Dodi li va-ani lo, ha-roeh
Bashoshanium dodi li

I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.

Or perhaps, in fitting with the Woodstock theme:
“Where have all the flowers gone…long time passing…gone to young girls passing…”

Or perhaps “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”…the chorus of which also comes from Song of Songs…Oh Lord, sweeter than wine.

According to the Talmud, no holiday was a joyous as Tu B’av and Yom Kippur. Yes that’s right, Tu B’av and Yom Kippur, perhaps like Woodstock, helped along a little with that grape harvest and some free love. This was also the day that the wood-offering was brought and Josephus referred to it at the Feast of Xylophory Wood bearing.

Wood offering, wood bearing, Woodstock. This pilgrimage anniversary to a dairy farm in rural New York all starts to make sense. Love…I’m doing it for love.

This morning, therefore I want to talk about love. The portion tells us, V’ahavta. You shall love the Lord your G-d. B’chol levacha, with all your heart and intellect, b’chol nafesha, with all your spirit and soul, b’chol me’odecha, with all your everything, with the most you you can muster.

What does it mean to love? (One woman answered something you cherish)

The psychologists will tell you that you can’t legislate a feeling. So how can the Torah, or G-d command us to love? Rabbi Jack Abramowitz suggests that we flip it around. Many people will say they hate Hitler. Why? Even though we have never met him, we are familiar with his evilness, his genocidal leadership. On the other hand, how can we be commanded to love G-d? This requires getting to know G-d and G-d’s actions first. Once we do, we will then love G-d.. https://www.ou.org/torah/mitzvot/taryag/mitzvah418/

It is like the Torah portion itself. After repeating the 10 Commandments, the people are reported to say “we will hear and we will do.” The classic version is “We will do and we will hear.”

This is probably why the rabbis of the Talmud set the order of the Siddur just as we have it today. There is a Sh’ma sandwich. We start with Ahavat Olam or Ahava Rabbah praising G-d for loving us and giving us Torah, like parents love their children by giving them rules and limits. Then we proclaim the Sh’ma, the watchword of our faith, this revolutionary idea that G-d is one and only one and then that is followed by the V’ahavta, the commandment to love. Once you know G-d loves us and that G-d is one, you can’t help but love G-d. Stew Levin says this is the ultimate love song.

It’s a little like the Bob Marley song, “One love, one heart. Let’s get together and feel alright.” Sing it with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g

Perhaps more relevant today that we even realized.

But what if you don’t. Last week we had a very rich discussion at Kiddush about whether G-d is a G-d of vengeance. Some of the Hebrew Bible stories of war and destruction seem at best harsh. How can we love a G-d that does these things? We talked at length about a book I recommend, G-d, a Biography which traces the development of G-d as a literary character.

Part of that question is to attempt to answer the age-old question why do bad things happen to good people. That’s a good question. Even better is when bad things happen to good people. Bad things will happen. The question becomes how do we respond when they do.

The V’ahavta prayer gives us the how to love G-d. It is a love that is active, engaging and full of commitment. Otherwise, promising to love G-d is just an empty promise, G-d tells us how to show our love by telling us, commanding us exactly HOW to love G-d. How to demonstrate it. You might call it a great honey do list.

Teach these very words to your children.
Speak of them in your homes and on your way.
When you lie down and when you rise up. Basically all the time.

Don’t forget these words, these very words. Keep them very close at hand. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Put them between your eyes.

Rabbi Scott Hausman Weiss said it well:

• Be someone whose actions teach your children of goodness and greatness by way of your deeds more than your words.
• Be someone whose family would affirm that you are as decent at home, as your colleagues think you are at work. And, vice versa.
• Be someone whose life could be worthy of being chanted, like words of Torah. (Just like we are about to do)

http://jhvonline.com/vahavta-love-is-just-the-beginning-p15438-290.htm

This is revolutionary too.

Then the V’ahavta gives us the answer to another question. Why? Why does this matter? Why should we bother? And G-d reminds us that we were slaves in the land of Egypt. And G-d remembered us and took note of us and took us out. That showed G-d’s love of us.

There is another use of the word V’ahavta in the Torah. V’ahavta l’reyacha kamocha. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18) Both Hillel and Jesus taught that this was really the central teaching of the Torah. If we could study this verse and master it, all the rest of the Torah is commentary. It too is rooted in remembering that we were slaves in Egypt and that G-d took us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Not only are we commanded to love G-d and love our neighbor as ourselves but to love the stranger. “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. There the word is V’ahavtem, in the plural you form. But that is next week’s Torah portion.

It is simple, no? On this weekend of Woodstock, of free love, we are told, commanded, Love G-d, Love your neighbor. Love the stranger. It’s what the Bible tells us to do. It’s revolutionary. Peace, love and rock and roll.