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The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism
The love of God is perhaps the most essential element in Judaism—but also one of the most confounding. In biblical and rabbinic literature, the obligation to love God appears as a formal commandment. Yet most people today think of love as a feeling. How can an emotion be commanded? How could one ever fulfill such a requirement? The Love of God places these scholarly and existential questions in a new light.
Jon Levenson traces the origins of the concept to the ancient institution of covenant, showing how covenantal love is a matter neither of sentiment nor of dry legalism. The love of God is instead a deeply personal two-way relationship that finds expression in God’s mysterious love for the people of Israel, who in turn observe God’s laws out of profound gratitude for his acts of deliverance. Levenson explores how this bond has survived episodes in which God’s love appears to be painfully absent—as in the brutal persecutions of Talmudic times—and describes the intensely erotic portrayals of the relationship by biblical prophets and rabbinic interpreters of the Song of Songs. He examines the love of God as a spiritual discipline in the Middle Ages as well as efforts by two influential modern Jewish thinkers—Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig—to recover this vital but endangered aspect of their tradition.
A breathtaking work of scholarship and spirituality alike that is certain to provoke debate, The Love of God develops fascinating insights into the foundations of religious life in the classical Jewish tradition.
Jon Levenson traces the origins of the concept to the ancient institution of covenant, showing how covenantal love is a matter neither of sentiment nor of dry legalism. The love of God is instead a deeply personal two-way relationship that finds expression in God’s mysterious love for the people of Israel, who in turn observe God’s laws out of profound gratitude for his acts of deliverance. Levenson explores how this bond has survived episodes in which God’s love appears to be painfully absent—as in the brutal persecutions of Talmudic times—and describes the intensely erotic portrayals of the relationship by biblical prophets and rabbinic interpreters of the Song of Songs. He examines the love of God as a spiritual discipline in the Middle Ages as well as efforts by two influential modern Jewish thinkers—Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig—to recover this vital but endangered aspect of their tradition.
A breathtaking work of scholarship and spirituality alike that is certain to provoke debate, The Love of God develops fascinating insights into the foundations of religious life in the classical Jewish tradition.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2015
23 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Jon D. Levenson
21 books20 followersJon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at the Harvard Divinity School.
He is a scholar of the Bible and of the rabbinic midrash, with an interest in the philosophical and theological issues involved in biblical studies. He studies the relationship between traditional modes of Biblical interpretation and modern historical criticism. He also studies the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
Levenson's foci include: Theological traditions in ancient Israel (biblical and rabbinic periods); Literary Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible; Midrash; History of Jewish biblical interpretation; Modern Jewish theology; Jewish-Christian relations.
He is a scholar of the Bible and of the rabbinic midrash, with an interest in the philosophical and theological issues involved in biblical studies. He studies the relationship between traditional modes of Biblical interpretation and modern historical criticism. He also studies the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
Levenson's foci include: Theological traditions in ancient Israel (biblical and rabbinic periods); Literary Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible; Midrash; History of Jewish biblical interpretation; Modern Jewish theology; Jewish-Christian relations.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 27, 2021
Love Me
What is the nature of the love of God in Judaism? Does the love flow in both directions or does it flow only from humans to God? Jon Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University. explores a multitude of related understandings of the love of God in his new book "The Love of God: Divine, Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism". (2015) The book is relatively short, but it is learned and densely written. It is a book that must be pondered and studied. The book is scholarly, but Levenson writes to convince. He wants to show the reader that there is deep value to the Jewish understanding of the love of God and to encourage a sense of religious awareness.
Levenson argues that the love of God is perhaps the most essential part of Judaism but that it remains little studied and understood. The commandment to love God is at the heart of the Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism, with a text that derives from the Torah. Levenson explores love of God in Judaism in five distinct periods: 1. the Torah; 2. the Talmudic commentators; 3. the Prophets; 4. the medieval Jewish philosophers; 5. the modern day, with an emphasis on Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, two twentieth century Jewish philosophers who knew one another and who engaged in discussion about Jewish life. It is worth noting that chronologically nos. 2 and 3 in Levenson's presentation are reversed. Levenson finds a great deal of difference in the understanding of the love of God as developed over the centuries. He also finds a strong degree of continuity.
Perhaps the most important of Levenson's insights occurs early in the book when he emphasizes that the modern concept of love, which focuses on individuality, free choice, and feeling is not the understanding of the early Jewish Bible. The critical locus of love in the Torah is between God and the people Israel. The love is mutual but asymmetrical and not based upon a relationship of equals. Levenson uses as a model documents setting forth the relationship between vassals and their human lords in the time period roughly contemporaneous with the writing of the Torah. The parties assumed duties to one another and pledged love and faithfulness. The Torah projects and radically expands this early, earthly feudal relationship into the relationship between God and Israel. This is a love that can be commanded, unlike the current human variety of love. And in the Torah covenant, it was everlasting. Besides drawing on ancient middle-Eastern texts, Levenson examines closely passages in the Book of Deuteronomy on the Covenant and the reciprocal obligations of love.
In the second chapter, Levenson shows how the Rabbis during the Talmudic period expanded and subtly changed their understanding of the Covenant and of love, in part under the influence of Greek philosophy. The Rabbis tended to separate the soul and the body more explicitly than did the Torah and to emphasize a teaching of eternal life. The duty to love God with all one's heart, all one's soul, and all one's might became the most central of Jewish duties and was linked to the Resurrection.
Levenson turns to the Biblical Prophets for an expansion of the Torah's concept of love of God to include a strong and growing erotic element. He offers a close reading of the Book of Hosea which I found most insightful. This is followed by a discussion of other writings in which love of God is analogized in different ways to human loves, including the Books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Song of Songs.
The fourth chapter of the book examines Jewish understanding of the love of God in the middle ages, under the influence of both Greek and Islamic philosophy. For me the most compelling section of this book was the discussion of the Sufi-Neo-platonically influenced "Duties of the Heart" by Bahya ibn Paquda. This was an early spiritual manual that taught how to become close to and how to love God. Levenson discusses this work in detail and, if I am not mistaken, leaves much of his own heart with it. Subsequent portions of this chapter discuss whether God can be said to love, or whether love is exclusively directed to God by people. The competing views of Moses Maimonides and Hasdai Crescas are discussed. Levenson's sympathies lean toward the latter thinker, who argued that God could properly show passion and love.
The final section of the book is somewhat short and rushed, with its focus on only Buber and Rosenzweig. Levenson argues that while they differ about the role of Law, Buber and Rosenzweig agree that "ideally, what lies behind any valid observance is the voice of a personal loving God, and not simply a moral ideal, a natural process, a human need to identify ethnically, or any other modernistic substitute for the living and loving God of the ancient sources". Levenson finds inadequacies in both Buber and Rosenzweig. He encourages readers to engage with the sources he has discussed and to recognize that "[t]o acknowledge and respond to that highest reality does not require one to deny the lover ones; it requires only that one recognize they are all rendering something more, something that can be apprehended even if never grasped." This conclusion may be found in the Jewish sources Levenson considers, but it goes beyond them as well to other religions and approaches to God. The reader is encouraged to explore the ancient Torah commandment: "Love Me".
It is valuable to see both the continuity and the differences in the understanding of the love of God that has been developed in Judaism. Levenson's book has an excellent historical sense as he repeatedly and insightfully warns his readers not to confuse contemporary individualisms or facile answers with the highly different concepts found in earlier sources. This thoughtful book can be read with benefit by serious readers interested in the religious life, regardless of whether the reader is Jewish, a practitioner of another religion, or non-religious.
Robin Friedman
What is the nature of the love of God in Judaism? Does the love flow in both directions or does it flow only from humans to God? Jon Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University. explores a multitude of related understandings of the love of God in his new book "The Love of God: Divine, Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism". (2015) The book is relatively short, but it is learned and densely written. It is a book that must be pondered and studied. The book is scholarly, but Levenson writes to convince. He wants to show the reader that there is deep value to the Jewish understanding of the love of God and to encourage a sense of religious awareness.
Levenson argues that the love of God is perhaps the most essential part of Judaism but that it remains little studied and understood. The commandment to love God is at the heart of the Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism, with a text that derives from the Torah. Levenson explores love of God in Judaism in five distinct periods: 1. the Torah; 2. the Talmudic commentators; 3. the Prophets; 4. the medieval Jewish philosophers; 5. the modern day, with an emphasis on Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, two twentieth century Jewish philosophers who knew one another and who engaged in discussion about Jewish life. It is worth noting that chronologically nos. 2 and 3 in Levenson's presentation are reversed. Levenson finds a great deal of difference in the understanding of the love of God as developed over the centuries. He also finds a strong degree of continuity.
Perhaps the most important of Levenson's insights occurs early in the book when he emphasizes that the modern concept of love, which focuses on individuality, free choice, and feeling is not the understanding of the early Jewish Bible. The critical locus of love in the Torah is between God and the people Israel. The love is mutual but asymmetrical and not based upon a relationship of equals. Levenson uses as a model documents setting forth the relationship between vassals and their human lords in the time period roughly contemporaneous with the writing of the Torah. The parties assumed duties to one another and pledged love and faithfulness. The Torah projects and radically expands this early, earthly feudal relationship into the relationship between God and Israel. This is a love that can be commanded, unlike the current human variety of love. And in the Torah covenant, it was everlasting. Besides drawing on ancient middle-Eastern texts, Levenson examines closely passages in the Book of Deuteronomy on the Covenant and the reciprocal obligations of love.
In the second chapter, Levenson shows how the Rabbis during the Talmudic period expanded and subtly changed their understanding of the Covenant and of love, in part under the influence of Greek philosophy. The Rabbis tended to separate the soul and the body more explicitly than did the Torah and to emphasize a teaching of eternal life. The duty to love God with all one's heart, all one's soul, and all one's might became the most central of Jewish duties and was linked to the Resurrection.
Levenson turns to the Biblical Prophets for an expansion of the Torah's concept of love of God to include a strong and growing erotic element. He offers a close reading of the Book of Hosea which I found most insightful. This is followed by a discussion of other writings in which love of God is analogized in different ways to human loves, including the Books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Song of Songs.
The fourth chapter of the book examines Jewish understanding of the love of God in the middle ages, under the influence of both Greek and Islamic philosophy. For me the most compelling section of this book was the discussion of the Sufi-Neo-platonically influenced "Duties of the Heart" by Bahya ibn Paquda. This was an early spiritual manual that taught how to become close to and how to love God. Levenson discusses this work in detail and, if I am not mistaken, leaves much of his own heart with it. Subsequent portions of this chapter discuss whether God can be said to love, or whether love is exclusively directed to God by people. The competing views of Moses Maimonides and Hasdai Crescas are discussed. Levenson's sympathies lean toward the latter thinker, who argued that God could properly show passion and love.
The final section of the book is somewhat short and rushed, with its focus on only Buber and Rosenzweig. Levenson argues that while they differ about the role of Law, Buber and Rosenzweig agree that "ideally, what lies behind any valid observance is the voice of a personal loving God, and not simply a moral ideal, a natural process, a human need to identify ethnically, or any other modernistic substitute for the living and loving God of the ancient sources". Levenson finds inadequacies in both Buber and Rosenzweig. He encourages readers to engage with the sources he has discussed and to recognize that "[t]o acknowledge and respond to that highest reality does not require one to deny the lover ones; it requires only that one recognize they are all rendering something more, something that can be apprehended even if never grasped." This conclusion may be found in the Jewish sources Levenson considers, but it goes beyond them as well to other religions and approaches to God. The reader is encouraged to explore the ancient Torah commandment: "Love Me".
It is valuable to see both the continuity and the differences in the understanding of the love of God that has been developed in Judaism. Levenson's book has an excellent historical sense as he repeatedly and insightfully warns his readers not to confuse contemporary individualisms or facile answers with the highly different concepts found in earlier sources. This thoughtful book can be read with benefit by serious readers interested in the religious life, regardless of whether the reader is Jewish, a practitioner of another religion, or non-religious.
Robin Friedman
November 20, 2024
I'm too tired to write a real review, but man, what a feast. And beautifully, achingly, tragically, Christ haunts every page.
May 27, 2019
Very enjoyable. Levenson deals with the concept of the love of God and its relation to Torah. He investigates this idea in the ANE suzerainty treaties that are the cultural background of the Biblical language of covenant; in the idea of mitzvah and martyrdom as articulated by the Tannaim and Amoraim; in the erotic imagery of the prophets Hosea and Ezekiel, and in the Song of Songs; in the thought of medieval Jewish thinkers like Bahya and Maimonides; and in the debate between Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. There are many splendid explanations and delightful clarifications. At times, I wished that Levenson had devoted his entire book to discussing features of language about love in the Hebrew Bible that have been lost to readers of English translations.
Levenson has little patience with Maimonides’ Hellenic embrace of impassibility and accompanying denial that God has emotions. I agree with Levenson on this point, against those who continue to worship Aristotle’s idol and falsely call it the God of Abraham.
I only wish Levenson could have brought himself to confront the love of God as it is manifested in Jesus of Nazareth and experienced, lived, and explained by Saul of Tarsus. But that would have been difficult for him.
Levenson has little patience with Maimonides’ Hellenic embrace of impassibility and accompanying denial that God has emotions. I agree with Levenson on this point, against those who continue to worship Aristotle’s idol and falsely call it the God of Abraham.
I only wish Levenson could have brought himself to confront the love of God as it is manifested in Jesus of Nazareth and experienced, lived, and explained by Saul of Tarsus. But that would have been difficult for him.
March 16, 2025
Chapter 1 and 3 are worth reading
December 10, 2019
Levenson is one of the greats!
February 7, 2025
It’ll be tempting to start a review on a surprisingly easy to digest academic theological book on the meaning of “love” in both scripture and Jewish thought by referencing many a modern pop song about it. In fact, that’s almost how the author begins when noting how most moderns see love as: something romantic, physical, and yes—unconditional.
Some shade may be thrown on mainstream Christian thought that God is always there and always cares, that He is always ready to cheer one up on a rainy day. This, as is noted especially in the later chapters that focus less on the Tanakh/OT itself and more on Jewish philosophy throughout the ages does still exist: God is there, God does care, but both the plain meaning of the text and how “love” is seen both within it and surrounding Near Eastern societies shows that back then at least, it was less romantic and more convenental.
The Shema (Deut 6:4) makes this clear more than anything else and yes, a large part of the first half of the book can be said to be focused on it. A misunderstanding is the perceived robotic nature of it: if we do X and do X with the right amount of passion and commitment, do we receive love the way a robot does from a caring master? No, says many a Jewish philosopher such as Bahya ibn Paquda and of course the Rambam himself.
For those who already have a pretty sound understanding of what is written above, this may not be the book for you. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t—and sorry, but give me at least once freebie in this review—love it. There also was many a time where it felt like I was simply re-reading things already I had a decent amount of familiarity with. The Song of Songs, in particular, a book about plain and simple love marks the centerpiece of The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism though if one has already read an academic-leaning commentary of it, you will probably be less enlightened than you may feel when reading a surprisingly easy to digest breakdown of what love means to Rabbeinu Behaye.
---Notable Highlights---
A question is raised:
“As a Hindu student once asked me, “Why is God so jealous?”
The answer is that God’s jealousy is a response to baseless and fraudulent claims by others upon things that belong to him alone.”
Thinking cap needed:
“The greatness of Israel is thus their recognition that their greatness comes from God, not themselves. The merit of Israel is, paradoxically, that they do not ascribe their success to their merit.”
Some of that previously noted shade:
“To adopt the terminology of Christian theology, love as conceived here may seem a matter of both grace and works. But efforts, like those found in some streams of Christianity, to render one or the other of these absolute, and the other only a consequence, fail to do the relationship justice.”
The Song of Songs is first and foremost a book about physical love between two people:
“The trouble,” Marvin Pope writes in his massive and amazingly learned commentary on the book, “has been that interpreters who dared to acknowledge the plain sense of the Song were assaulted as enemies of truth and decency. The allegorical charade thus persisted for centuries with only sporadic protests.”
Some shade may be thrown on mainstream Christian thought that God is always there and always cares, that He is always ready to cheer one up on a rainy day. This, as is noted especially in the later chapters that focus less on the Tanakh/OT itself and more on Jewish philosophy throughout the ages does still exist: God is there, God does care, but both the plain meaning of the text and how “love” is seen both within it and surrounding Near Eastern societies shows that back then at least, it was less romantic and more convenental.
The Shema (Deut 6:4) makes this clear more than anything else and yes, a large part of the first half of the book can be said to be focused on it. A misunderstanding is the perceived robotic nature of it: if we do X and do X with the right amount of passion and commitment, do we receive love the way a robot does from a caring master? No, says many a Jewish philosopher such as Bahya ibn Paquda and of course the Rambam himself.
For those who already have a pretty sound understanding of what is written above, this may not be the book for you. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t—and sorry, but give me at least once freebie in this review—love it. There also was many a time where it felt like I was simply re-reading things already I had a decent amount of familiarity with. The Song of Songs, in particular, a book about plain and simple love marks the centerpiece of The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism though if one has already read an academic-leaning commentary of it, you will probably be less enlightened than you may feel when reading a surprisingly easy to digest breakdown of what love means to Rabbeinu Behaye.
---Notable Highlights---
A question is raised:
“As a Hindu student once asked me, “Why is God so jealous?”
The answer is that God’s jealousy is a response to baseless and fraudulent claims by others upon things that belong to him alone.”
Thinking cap needed:
“The greatness of Israel is thus their recognition that their greatness comes from God, not themselves. The merit of Israel is, paradoxically, that they do not ascribe their success to their merit.”
Some of that previously noted shade:
“To adopt the terminology of Christian theology, love as conceived here may seem a matter of both grace and works. But efforts, like those found in some streams of Christianity, to render one or the other of these absolute, and the other only a consequence, fail to do the relationship justice.”
The Song of Songs is first and foremost a book about physical love between two people:
“The trouble,” Marvin Pope writes in his massive and amazingly learned commentary on the book, “has been that interpreters who dared to acknowledge the plain sense of the Song were assaulted as enemies of truth and decency. The allegorical charade thus persisted for centuries with only sporadic protests.”
February 4, 2018
This book analyzes the Love of God in both of its literal directions-- love of God by Israel and love of Israel by God. Jon Levenson examines the commandment ," You will love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might," from the point of view of what it means to command love. Ancient sources describe relationships between suzerainty and vassals. Biblical, Rabbinic, and modern writings (Buber and Rosenzweig) are discussed. The idea of closely following ritual observances as means to attain closeness to God is the main theme as to what love of God means. The writing is clear and easy to follow.
July 30, 2018
Ironically, this helped me better understand love between people, but that also helped me better understand love for God and the love of God. Parts of the book were dry, but I found it strangely compelling.
April 18, 2022
This book is amazing and essential to understand the love of god in the context of a covenant. What the expression "Love of God" really means. Levenson has been a important theologian in my theological reflection.
September 6, 2020
Levenson offers some interesting insights on complex ideas such as love of God/fear of God. Worthwhile reading!
November 19, 2020
Marvelously profound, sometimes abstruse. Beautiful
August 9, 2021
4.5 stars
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November 24, 2015Review by Bob Goldfarb for the Jewish Book Council.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews