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Psalm 116 – Conditional Or Unconditional Love Of PSALM 116: CONDITIONAL OR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD? RAYMOND APPLE Psalm 116 is part of Hallel, the psalms of praise said on Rosh Hodesh and festivals. This psalm has nineteen verses, the first eleven of which are omit- ted on occasions when only “half” Hallel is said.1 The subject of “Half” Hal- lel is addressed in a previous article in the Jewish Bible Quarterly and is not reconsidered here.2 The current article focusses on the first two verses of the psalm and asks what the psalmist means when he says he loves God, and what kind of love it is. Verse 1 – ahavti ki yishma Ado-nai et koli tahannunai - looks simple, but the syntax is difficult. Key words are “I”, “The Lord”, “love” and “hear”. Most translators link them along the lines of I love the Lord; He hears my voice. KJV says: I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice; NEB: I love the Lord because He has heard me; NIV: I love the Lord for He heard my voice. Jewish commentators, e.g. Rashi and Ibn Ezra, think the psalmist is not so much speaking of love of God per se, but saying that he loves it when God hears his voice. Brenton’s LXX translation has I am well pleased, be- cause the Lord will hearken to the voice of my supplication. Most versions make The Lord the object of the verb love. The JPSA says, I love the Lord for He hears my voice, my plea; the margin says, “Heb. transposed for clarity”. This version says two things, 1. I love the Lord, 2. He hears my voice. They are linked by the word ki, for, because, when, suggesting that God’s listening to man’s voice is why man loves Him. The idea is continued when verse 2 says, Ki hittah ozno li uv’yamai ekra, which the JPSA 1962 version renders, For He turns His ear to me whenever I call, and the JPSA 1917 version says, Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him all my days. Both confirm the statement in verse 1 that the psalmist loves God for a particular reason, seeing his love as t’luyyah b’davar, dependent on something (M. Avot 5:19). It is not a “pure” feeling existing in a vacuum. The “something” is that God hears man’s voice. For the purposes of this article “pure” love is described as unconditional (in- Dr. Raymond Apple is emeritus rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, and a former president of the Australian and New Zealand orthodox rabbinate. 100 RAYMOND APPLE dependent of a visible cause) and “dependent” love as conditional (i.e. linked to a visible cause). The foundation of love of God is Deuteronomy 6:5 (v’ahavta et Ado-nai E- lohekha). Love is not defined there but it involves heart, soul (mind, being) and strength (M. Berakhot 9:5; Rashi on Deut. 6:5). This could be “pure” love but it is more likely to be t’luyyah b’davar; Franz Rosenzweig sees God’s self-revelation as a loving act of grace, to which man responds loving- ly; the grace and the response constitute conditional love.3 Similarly, Aryeh Kaplan finds God’s love in how “He constantly watches and sustains all crea- tion”; man responds by praising Him.4 Again grace and response constitute conditional love. Leo Baeck doubts whether love is ever a “pure” feeling existing in a vacuum. He says, “In Judaism, love towards God… belongs to the sphere of ethical activity.”5 This too is a form of love which is t’luyyah b’davar. In one sense every form of love has an external motivation; the love is a feeling for its object. Maybe the psalmist merely loves God because He is there, not for anything He does. We see “pure” love in such verses as Like a hind crying for water, my soul cries for You, O God; my soul thirsts for God, the living God (Psalm 42:2); God, You are my God; I thirst for You, my soul thirsts for You, my body yearns for You, as a parched and thirsty land that has no water (63:2). Loving God simply because one is in His presence, ech- oes Psalm 16:8, which says shivviti Ado-nai l’negdi tamid, which the JPSA Bible renders I am ever aware of the Lord’s presence. This kind of love is emotional, suffusing man’s heart with wondrous joy: in God’s presence, the heart is raised to a supreme level of feeling. In contrast, love that is t’luyyah b’davar has a more specific cause. Man loves God as the Legislator who gave the Torah. Psalm 119:97 says, Mah ahavti toratekha, O how I love Your teaching. Obeying God’s word is done out of love, but it requires study of His will. Maimonides says, “Man’s love of God is identical with his knowledge of Him” (Guide to the Perplexed 3:51). A Jew is ob- sessed with God; he ponders who and what God is, and what motivates His concern for man. A Jew meditates on God and his mind seeks to come closer to the Divine (Maimonides, Hil’khot Yesodei HaTorah 2:2). Intellectual or not, love of God inspires loving deeds. The Shema commands us to speak of Him at all times, in all ways, in all places, and to place symbols of Him on one’s doors and gates, on one’s head and arm. JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY PSALM 116: CONDITIONAL OR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD 101 Psalm 116 – whatever way we translate the first verse – says that God hears the writer’s voice. What did God hear? From verse 2 onwards, we see the psalmist in danger, crying for help and salvation. Such crises are common in the Psalter. Psalm 118:21 says Odekha ki anitani - I praise You for You have answered me. The danger depicted in Psalm 116 is not specified, but it must have been serious because verse 3 says (cf. Psalm 18:6-7), The bonds of death encompassed me; the torments of Sheol overtook me. The Psalter’s themes are universal, though behind many are actual experi- ences of fear, danger and survival. There are ruminations on suffering and salvation, equity and evil, the righteous and the wicked. Time after time (as in the body of Psalm 116) the psalmist appeals for God’s help and wonders why He does not step in and act earlier. Psalm 116 is a philosophical poem in which a sensitive soul, pondering his experience, reflects on ultimate issues. The psalm traces the progress of the human psyche moving from fear when one feels low and frightened to relief when his voice is heard and the weight is lifted from his shoulders. Thus, as Basil de Pinto states, “The psalms un- derstand the Torah from within, as love, and not merely from without, as law.”6 The psalmist’s soul has been elevated by his relationship with God. Why does he not simply say, “God, I love You,” but seems to reduce the grandeur of the moment by adding that God hears his voice? Because it is hard to envi- sion love of a God who is essentially unknowable. No matter how much I try to come closer to God, He will remain a mystery. The deeds include hearing the believer’s plea. Knowing God has heard him assures the psalmist of God’s existence and concern. The believer sees God as a metaphorical parent or partner. We do not always understand Him but we apprehend His presence. We say, as it were, “God: I love what You do for me. I see Your deeds and I know You must be there.” Unpleasant experienc- es can be borne (M. Berakhot 9:5) because we can say, “Since I know You are there I do not feel alone, overwhelmed and defeated by my anguish.” When the psalmist speaks of God hearing his plea this may be a moment of yearning (literally “supplication” – koli tahanunai). This is not a penitent seeking forgiveness since sin and atonement do not figure in the psalm, but (as the Midrash says, quoting Shir HaShirim 2:5) the voice of a lovesick soul seeking oneness with God. The psalm is a lovers’ conversation: God and the psalmist muse like spouses whose love is unconditional. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto says, “One who truly loves his Creator needs no motivation of in- Vol. 48, No. 2, 2020 102 RAYMOND APPLE ducement to serve Him; it goes without saying that this love should not de- pend upon any extraneous factor.”7 Ideally the psalmist would say, “I love the Lord whether He hears my voice or not.” NOTES 1. The LXX divides the psalm into two – verses 1-9 and 10-19. Some versions number the two sections separately, calling verses 1-9 “Psalm 114” and verses 10-19 “Psalm 115”. 2. Raymond Apple, “Understanding the ‘Split’ and ‘Half’ Hallel,” JBQ vol. 45:4 (issue 180, 2017). 3. Franz Rosenzweig, The Star of Redemption (NY: Hart, Rhinehart & Winston, 1970), Book 2. 4. Aryeh Kaplan, Love and the Commandments, Collegiate Hashkafa Series (NY: Massorah, 1973). 5. Leo Baeck, The Essence of Judaism (NY: Schocken, 1948), p. 127. 6. W.O.E. Oesterley, The Psalms (London: SPCK, 1962), p. 476. 7. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto, The Path of the Just (Mesillat Yesharim), trans. Shraga Silverstein (Jerusalem/NY: Feldheim, 1987), esp. pp.
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