Continuing this series highlighting words of wisdom offered by our third and fourth grade Wise Elementary Students at their morning worship services, the following introduces the V’ahavta. Under the guidance of their teachers, our students unpack the layers of meaning that they find in the prayers. They seek to connect the themes with pertinent principles in their own lives. Benjamin’s words below explore what it might mean to declare love for God. Adults can have difficulty embracing this concept, but this fourth grader thinks of God as the force for good in our lives and the world. In a time of so much darkness the optimism of a young man can and should inspire us all.
I feel that to love God is to remember that good will always exist in the world, and that believing in God is how God exists as a divine entity that spurs us to do good. I believe God is there to make us do tikkun olam, or helping the world. The Ve’ahavta says, “To love God with all your soul, all your heart, and all your might.” All your soul means to believe in God, to pour your everything into Judaism. All your heart could be to love every God-blessed word of the prayers, and all your might could be to devote, in what I think is a good amount, all of your waking time to the practice of God. This is my interpretation of the Ve’ahavta.
— Rabbi Ron Stern