Good day, Chaim Bentorah here.  We appreciate all comments and  impute for what is art if it cannot invoke some emotional response from a reader whether it be anger or joy.

Here is a response from the post on 3/25 https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2014/03/word-study-ahav-preterite-form/ by someone called Ash. I love this, and I hope you will Ahav it as well.

What a thought provoking devotion. Your point about loving God even if I could find no reason to love Him in return certainly hit home for me. Now that is what faith is all about. Thank you.
There were two thoughts that came to mind when you compared ahav to agape and then clarified the meaning of the preterite form – something I can’t find in my Hebrew textbook which teaches perfect and imperfect rather than preterite and future.
First thought, why did Moses include the clause “with all your heart and all your soul and all your might”? Doesn’t this type of love imply that it must be done with all the heart, soul and might – every ounce of our being? I know that there are many words for love but are there varying degrees of ahav? Can I only half-heartedly ahav?
The ahav of a new believer may well express itself differently from the ahav of an older believer. Nevertheless, they can both ahav God with all their heart, soul and might at the level of their faith. However, there is a perfect standard of love that only God can express. Yet I was wondering if the verb tense as you have pointed out could help me reach a better understanding of this requirement to love God with all my heart, soul and might.
If, in Hebrew, the verb tense is meant to be more of a linear mode (action without any indication of completion) as you describe preterite, then why hasn’t the Septuagint translated it into the present continuous? The Septuagint translates this verb in the future active “agapeseis” “you shall love”. Is this implying that a person must come to a time when he/she starts to “ahav” God but is not doing it now? Maybe this is so with a non-believer coming into faith but Moses is addressing those who had already entered into a covenant with the Lord and experienced His providence after many years in the wilderness. Also, I do not think that it is meant to be an imperative because as you pointed out in an earlier devotion, you cannot instruct someone to love you.
In my opinion, I think this scripture is more about developing a true love for God rather than the concern of cessation and/or continuation of giving love. We may well have every good intention to love (ahav) God and we may feel that we are doing just that but our love is still imperfect. It falls short of God’s standard of love.
If I relate to this scripture as prophetic as well as exhortative, the future tense fits well. It is a goal that God will achieve in me. I can not possibly comply with this very high standard of love that the Lord holds in His heart for me. Something has to happen to change (upgrade?) my heart so that it can love like His. This may well mean facing those faith-challenging experiences that you mentioned. It is a progressive work that God will do in my life. My role is to trust God in this process.
By reciting the shema, am I not simply reminding myself that I must out of my free will, consciously and genuinely ahav God to the level that God has enabled me to do – in the way that I have come to understand it to be. At the same time, am I not also asking God to continue with His work in me so that my ahav for God will progressively become more and more like God’s ahav for me. I love God now in the way that I believe He has taught me to love and there will come a time when I shall love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my might”.