“…and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.”-Deuteronomy 6:5
We are continuing on with our insanely detailed breakdown of the SHEMA…the defining creed of our faith.
Last time we discussed what it means to love the Lord our God “with all of our heart”…
…and what we learned is that it really means to love God “with all of our mind“.
Today, let’s take a look at the next part of that statement which says to love the Lord our God with all of our “being” or depending on the translation “soul” and some translations have even used the word “essence“.
The original Hebrew here is NEFESH.
We’ve encountered this word before.
Since I’ve just given you three different ways NEFESH is usually translated, you may be a bit confused.
You may be thinking, which one is it?
Is it “soul“, “being” or “essence“?
Your confusion is understandable.
Because the truth is NEFESH embodies a variety of different meanings making it a challenge when attempting to render it into another language.
The difficulty lies in the fuzzy nature of the word.
Similar to the phrase “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one”, there’s a lot more that goes into the makeup of this word than meets the eye.
The ancient Jewish sages tell us that NEFESH refers to our very life essence.
I’m talking about that mysterious breath of life God first breathed into Adam when He created the first man and that we as human beings all possess.
One’s NEFESH also refers to that unique quality that makes us BOTH human and God-like.
When I say “God-like“, don’t think I’m getting New Agey on you here.
I’m not.
I’m just talking about in terms of being created in the “image of God” which the Scriptures make it clear that we are.
Some rabbis say that NEFESH can even be referring to our deepest and innermost thoughts and feelings.
So ultimately, what does to love the Lord with all of your NEFESH mean?
I’m going to share my opinion here…and I want to stress this is just my opinion and not to be taken as a non-negotiable dogmatic point that you should accept or else.
So here’s my take.
I believe to love the Lord with all of your NEFESH means to surrender ALL of yourself to God.
And when I say “all of yourself“, I mean EVERYTHING.
All of your insecurities.
All of your deepest and darkest thoughts that you have never shared or will ever share with anybody in your life.
All of your dreams, your worries and fears…EVERYTHING!!!
Whether it has to do with money, relationships, health issues or whatever…surrender all of it to God.
If you can’t be open about yourself and your life situations with your Creator, who can you be open with?
I’m done.
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