Judaism Is About Love - Project Zug Kickoff

I give thanks to You living and everlasting King for You have restored my soul with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.

You are not to take-vengeance, you are not to retain-anger against the sons of your kinspeople— but be loving to your neighbor [as one] like yourself; I am YHWH!

ואהבת לרעך כמוך THOU SHALT LOVE THY FELLOW MAN AS THYSELF —Rabbi Akiba said: “This is a fundamental principle of the Torah” (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 4 12; Talmud Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:3).

(5) You shall love your God יהוה with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Rebbi Meir used to say, ‘It says [in the Torah], “And you should love Hashem, your God, with all of your heart …” (Deuteronomy 6:5) [That means that you should love God] with both of your inclinations, with the good inclination and with the evil inclination.

He used to say: Beloved is man for he was created in the image [of God]. Especially beloved is he for it was made known to him that he had been created in the image [of God], as it is said: “for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6). Beloved are Israel in that they were called children to the All-Present. Especially beloved are they for it was made known to them that they are called children of the All-Present, as it is said: “you are children to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1). Beloved are Israel in that a precious vessel was given to them. Especially beloved are they for it was made known to them that the desirable instrument, with which the world had been created, was given to them, as it is said: “for I give you good instruction; forsake not my teaching” (Proverbs 4:2).

The Gemara relates that Rav Huna found a fragrant date. He took it and wrapped it in his shawl. Rabba, his son, came and said to him: I smell the aroma of a fragrant date. Rav Huna said to him: My son, there is clearly purity in you, as you were able to notice the fragrance. He gave it to him. Meanwhile, Abba, Rabba’s son, arrived. Rabba took the date and gave it to him. Rav Huna said to Rabba: My son, you have made my heart rejoice with your purity, and you have blunted my teeth, by showing your preference for your own son. The Gemara comments: This explains the folk saying that people say: The love of a father is for the sons; the love of the sons is for their own sons, more than for their father.

Love is of three kinds: The love of the good, the love of the useful, and the love of the agreeable. To love the good is to love a thing solely because it is good, without the element of the usefulness or pleasure of the object entering into the feeling. To love the useful is to love a thing solely because of the utility one may derive from it. To love the agreeable is to love a thing because of the pleasure one derives from it, not because it is good or useful, but only because it is agreeable. The love of the useful and the love of the agreeable admit of degrees of more and less according to the degree of the utility or pleasure, and they may cease altogether. The love of the good for the sake of the good itself can not change or be destroyed, for the lover does not love the loved one because he is good to him, i. e. in relation to the lover, but because he has found that the loved one is good in himself and the loved one is known to the lover and he alone is engraved in his heart, so that the concept of love applies to both. For love is the union and complete intellectual identification of the lover and the loved; whereas in the case of the useful and the agreeable what the lover knows is not the loved one, but the benefit which he derives from him or the pleasure which he gets. Therefore the lover and the loved can not be united. And for this reason the love changes with the change in the utility or pleasure, or it may cease entirely. But the love of the good can not change, for the lover receives no benefit from the loved, but the knowledge of him alone. For this reason the love of the good because it is good is the best of the kinds of love.