What’s love all about? Is it a feeling, an emotion, a force, a state of mind? It’s portrayed in cartoons and fairytales as fireworks and glitter, hearts bursting out of chests, butterflies, flowers, and chocolate.
In reality, it’s not so different! When you really really love someone, it feels like:
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- always being tucked in a warm and cozy, protective blanket on a freezing cold night. Safety
- being aboard a plane headed towards a dream vacation. Along the way, you may feel trapped or forced to take some detours, but you know that you’ll ultimately reach the destination. Trust
- an ache, anguishing to be close to your lover all the time. Your heart skips a beat every time you think of them and your only wish is to be with them. Longing
- having a best friend who you can count on for everything and anything without judgment. Friendship
- nothing else in the world matters. Even if you’re lacking, together you feel like you have everything. It feels like you’ve found an extension of yourself who you’ve always known your entire life. Completion
Could life get better than that?! So many people anticipate the day they’ll finally fall in love with another and live their very own dreamy fairytale. But who would have known that we could feel that same excitement, longing, trust, and friendship right now and at any given moment?
How?
מָֽה־אָהַ֥בְתִּי תוֹרָתֶ֑ךָ כָּל־הַ֝יּ֗וֹם הִ֣יא שִׂיחָתִֽי
Oh how I love Your Torah! All day long I speak of it. (1)
The entire Torah is like a love letter from Hashem to the Jewish people and its transmission is proclaimed to be their unforgettable matrimony.(2) Hashem loves us more than we could possibly imagine or intellectually comprehend and is always looking out for our good. When we take that idea into our hearts and feel His love, it’s easier to steadily reciprocate a feeling of love for Him as well. (3) The commandment to love Hashem is categorized as a “constant mitzvah,” an exceptional commandment that could and should be fulfilled at every moment.(4) Furthermore, fulfilling this mitzvah enables one to properly fulfill all the others since love is the key ingredient that enhances your entire relationship. Therefore, the commandment to love Hashem incorporates and accommodates all the mitzvot of the Torah.(5) We were created for this.
In our stream of blogs titled, “In love 24/7,” we’ll present Torah definitions of true love and instructions on how to apply them in our relationship with God, ourselves, and others so that we could feel in love 24/7! Also, discussion rooms will be open below each blog entry to allow readers to comment, add, or share their own helpful techniques and experiences.
(1) Psalms 119:97; (2) R’ Yisrael Najara, R’ Chaim ben Atar, check out our blog on this titled, “Naso-Just Married”; (3) Proverbs 27:19; (4) Biur Halacha O.C. 1; (5) Sefer HaChinuch 418, Pele Yoetz 1
#Torah is my life!