By Rabbi Steven Bayar

This week’s Torah portion is Eikev: Deuteronomy 7:12 — 11:25

The Book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ “swan song” — Moses bequeaths his legacy to the people of Israel. One can almost feel his desperation as he is trying to ensure their survival as one people after they cross the Jordan River into the promised land.

Unfortunately, we, their descendants, know that even as Moses stresses these covenantal obligations, the future of Israel will be to stray far from the path presented to them. In a very real sense this book presents a set of values which will present them with a theological “safe place” — one that is always available to return to and recover their identity.

To facilitate this understanding, Moses asks a new question. “What does God want from you?” It is not a rhetorical question. Rather, it is “the question.” The answers we live with will guide us in good times and bad. It will provide us with answers we respond to in each generation

The answer is clearly presented:

“Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this, to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him and to serve the Lord your God with all our heart and soul, keeping the Lord’s commandments and laws” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

What does God want? At first glance, the text seems to say God wants a totally of commitment. But upon examination we find the last phrase, “keeping the Lord’s commandments and laws,” is the conclusion, a clarification (if you will) which defines how we are to “revere, love and serve God.” It is the clarification of, “How are we to do this?” The simple answer is by keeping God’s commandments and laws. We are not given an ambiguous set of instructions how to “love” and “revere” God. Instead, we are instructed that by keeping God’s mitzvot (commandments) we show “love” and “reverence.”

Within these confines there is a great deal of latitude as to what we do and how we think. Indeed, this answer gives us the freedom to explore passions and commitments as long as we keep the rubric of observance about us. It gives us the ability to explore our lives and our experiences in a different but valid fashion.

Yet how can we retain this dynamic in the face of trauma? How can we continue to “love” God when all we feel is pain? The pain of loss: when a loved one dies or is ill with recovery uncertain, we hear, “What does God want from me?” There are several different answers — but none that satisfy.

But there is an alternate interpretation available to us concerning the word “ahava,” traditionally translated as “love.” In fact, “ahava” is a covenantal term that can also mean “loyal.” For example, the original meaning of the phrase, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your might … ” meant, “You shall be loyal to your God with all your might.”

There is a significant difference between love and loyalty. I would suggest that loyalty is stronger than love: love is based on an emotional bond whereas loyalty betokens obligation regardless of feelings.

So, reexamining the text, when Moses asks, “What does the Lord our God demand?” the answer is not love but loyalty. Or put another way, you may not agree or even like all of the commandments, you might be in pain from loss — but you must be loyal — and you show this loyalty by observing the laws and commandments.

This lesson reminds me of a modern definition of faith: Faith is when doubting being loyal to the times you had faith. We see this in Maimonides’ dictum “I believe in the coming of the Messiah — and even though he may tarry, I still believe.”

Steven Bayar is the rabbi emeritus at Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, and recently served as interim rabbi at B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. He is the author of several books and curricula on tikkun olam.