One of the most demanding mitzvos is to love Hashem with all your heart. Love is an emotion. How can one be commanded to love? The Torah itself intimates the answer, when it commands a person to think and teach Torah. When one studies Torah, he is granted a tiny window into Hashem’s Infinite wisdom. When one absorbs this, he revels in Hashem’s wisdom, praise and love for the Author. Horav Yosef Zundel Hutner, zl (Rav of Alshishok, author of Ulam HaMishpat), wonders why we, sadly, find Torah scholars who, albeit proficient in Torah, have not reached the level of true ahavas Hashem. It is the reality. Individuals whose scholarship is undeniable, but whose love for Hashem, the burning passion that the world expects, is not present. Should not erudition go hand-in-hand with love?
He explains this, based upon an unrelated halachah, concerning chalitzah. The Torah requires the shoe to be removed from the foot. If one is wearing two shoes, but he only removes one shoe, allowing for the foot to be still covered, the chalitzah is invalid. The flesh must be exposed. Any barrier, any additional covering, serves as a barrier to its validity. So, too, it is with Torah. If one learns Torah while “wearing another shoe” – if his motivation is honor, distinction, or personal aggrandizement – then a barrier exists between himself and the Torah. The Torah does not penetrate; it does not emerge from within. It remains external, layered over ulterior motives. Such learning, no matter how brilliant, is encased, obstructed, and ultimately unable to give birth to genuine ahavas Hashem.
When one learns Torah lishmah, for the sake of Torah itself, however, something entirely different occurs. The “shoe” is removed. We experience no separation, no intervening layer. The Torah flows directly from the heart, and the heart cleaves to the Torah. In that unfiltered, direct connection, the individual encounters the Divine wisdom in its purest form. It is then, and only then that love can flourish. This love is not the product of knowledge, but the product of unguarded ahavas Hashem, which is the consequence of one’s exposure to the profundities of Torah. When the heart is exposed – free of ulterior motives, free of vested interests – the Torah kindles a flame of love that is real, enduring and transformative.
