The Hebrew Love Mug

The “Hebrew Love Mug” is an 11-ounce ceramic coffee mug inscribed with two of the most important verses in the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the New Testament. These verses first appear in the Torah, revealed by the Almighty to the prophet Moses about 3500 years ago. The first one appears in the 19th chapter of Leviticus (Vayikra):

וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ

Love your neighbor as yourself

Leviticus 19:18

The second verse appears in the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy (Devarim):

וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ

Love Yehovah your God

(Deuteronomy 6:5)

These two verses encapsulate in only seven Hebrew words the very essence of Scripture. The message is that our actions must be guided by love for our Creator and love for our fellow human beings. These are the two guiding principles upon which everything in Scripture stands.

In Hebrew the two verses are tied together by their opening word: ve-a-hav-ta וְאָהַבְתָּ which literally means “and you shall love”. Early on Jewish readers understood the importance of these two verses. Rabbi Akiva, the leading Sage of the early 2^nd century, was famous for saying,

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is a great principle in the Torah. (Sifra, Kedoshim §2)

This saying has been immortalized in a Jewish folk song sung by children throughout the generations. From time immemorial Jews have also recited the words “Love Yehovah your God” at least twice a day as part of the passage in Deuteronomy 6 known as the Shema.

Proclaiming these verses is one thing, but living by them is another. The prophets of ancient Israel warned the Israelites that they could not do one without the other. But many ancient Israelites believed they could be right with God by only keeping the commandments that express their love of God while ignoring those commandments that express love for their fellow man. The prophet Isaiah prophesied on this matter:

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says Yehovah; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats… remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:11–17)

The Israelites believed they could earn salvation through blood sacrifice even though they were exploiting the weak members of society. Isaiah made them understand that keeping ritual commandments without those that express the love for our fellow human beings is an offense to the Almighty. The two principles of loving God and of loving mankind are inseparable and this is why the verse in Leviticus that says “Love your neighbor as yourself” ends with the words “I am Yehovah.” God is telling us that the reason we must love our neighbors is because Yehovah has spoken it and if we love him we will keep his commandments.

The issue of showing our love for God and our fellow human beings was taken up in the sermons of Yeshua of Nazareth who preached to the Jewish multitudes in Galilee and Judea nearly two thousand years ago. Yeshua was once asked which commandment in the Torah is the most important to which he responded:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37–40)

Yeshua’s native tongue was Hebrew and in this instance Hebrew unlocks the meaning of his answer. In ancient Hebrew to say that something “hangs” on a certain biblical verse meant that it was derived from that verse. This expression also appears in the Mishnah, the teachings of the ancient Pharisees, which was written in the same dialect of Hebrew spoken by Yeshua. The Mishnah writes:

The laws of the Sabbath… are like mountains hanging by a thread because they have little Scripture and many rules. (Mishnah, Chagigah 1:8)

Whereas Yeshua spoke about the Torah and Prophets hanging on the two love commandments, the Mishnah spoke about the laws of Sabbath hanging on “little Scripture”. The Mishnah was referring to the myriads of rules and regulations in the Pharisee observance of the Sabbath which are derived from only a handful of biblical verses. One such verse appears in Exodus immediately after God commanded the Israelites to build the Tabernacle. The verse says:

But you shall keep my Sabbaths. (Exodus 31:13)

The Rabbis saw in the word “but” the guiding principle for Sabbath observance and proclaimed that anything done in the building of the Tabernacle was forbidden on the Sabbath. They then proceeded to derive thirty-nine Sabbath prohibitions all based on the word “but”, with countless secondary and tertiary sub-prohibitions derived from the first thirty-nine.

Whether or not the Rabbis were right about their observance of the Sabbath, the statement in the Mishnah reveals the meaning of the Hebrew expression used by Yeshua of Nazareth. When he said that the Torah and Prophets hang upon the two principles, to love God and to love our fellow human beings, he meant that all the specific commandments and statutes in the Torah and Prophets are derived from these two guiding principles.

If we think about the Ten Commandments we can understand what Yeshua meant. The first four commandments are an expression of our love for God. The first commandment is simply “I am Yehovah your God”. The second commandment is a prohibition to make idols, the third, not to take the name of Yehovah in vain, and the fourth, to keep the Sabbath. The guiding principle behind all these commandment is “Love Yehovah your God”. If we love him, we will worship him and not make idols, not of him or of any other deity. If we love him we will not take his name “in vain” and we will observe the Sabbath just as he has commanded us.

The next six commandments express our love for our fellow human beings. These commandments are to honor our parents and not to murder, commit adultery, steal, testify falsely, or covet our neighbor’s possessions. It is true that these commandments also express our love for God. If we murder we have sinned against God. But they primarily express love for our fellow human beings, as commanded by God. We cannot love God and hate man. If we hate one then we really hate the other as well. We must love both our fellow human beings and Yehovah by keeping the commandments he has given us. In the words of the New Testament:

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1John 5:3)