Page 74 - Eclipse of God

The Love of God and the Idea of Deity 47

without devoting all my force to this God in His correlation
with man.”
At this point I wish to introduce an objection related, ad-
mittedly, not to these sentences of Cohen’s, but to another
that has a connection with them. Cohen speaks of the paradox
“that I have to love man.” “Worm that I am,” he continues,
“consumed by passions, cast as bait for egoism, I must never-
theless love man. If I am able to do so, and so far as I am able to
do so, I shall be able to love God.” Strong words these, yet the
lives of many important persons controvert the last sentence.
The teaching of the Bible overcomes the paradox in a precisely
contrary fashion. The Bible knows that it is impossible to com-
mand the love of man. I am incapable of feeling love toward
every man, though God himself command me. The Bible does
not directly enjoin the love of man, but by using the dative puts
it rather in the form of an act of love (Lev. 19:18, 34). I must
act lovingly toward my rea, my “companion” (usually translated
“my neighbour”), that is toward every man with whom I deal
in the course of my life, including the ger, the “stranger” or
“sojourner”; I must bestow the favours of love on him, I must
treat him with love as one who is “like unto me.” (I must love
“to him”; a construction only found in these two verses in the
Bible.) Of course I must love him not merely with superficial
gestures but with an essential relationship. It lies within my
power to will it, and so I can accept the commandment. It is
not my will which gives me the emotion of love toward my
“neighbour” aroused within me by my behaviour.
On the other hand, the Torah commands one to love God
(Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 11:1); only in that connection does it enjoin
heartfelt love of the sojourner who is one’s “neighbour” (Deut.
10:19)— because God loves the sojourner. If I love God, in the
course of loving Him I come to love the one whom God loves,
too. I can love God as God from the moment I know Him;