What does it mean to be connected to God? To love Him, to learn His Torah, and to follow His instructions.
What does it mean to be connected to a tzadik (a Rebbe)? To love him, to learn his teachings, and to follow his instructions.
There are 3 levels of love: with all your heart, all your soul, all your might. When you feel a negative emotion in your heart – love God.
In all situations, objective and subjective, one can arouse love in his heart, for God, for one's fellow man, and the tzadik in particular.
Loving with all one's soul refers to situations that demand self-sacrifice. This level of love requires that one's mind rules his heart.
Loving with all one's might is interpreted by the sages to mean with all one's wealth, all of the resources acquired over one's life.
The sages say that for some people it is harder to give up their wealth than to give up their lives. Rather die rich than live poor.
To love is to give. We must be ready to give all we have, our hearts, souls, and might, to our beloved. If we really love, it's easy.
Only mitzvot (good deeds) accompany one to the grave. In Hebrew, "grave" is "womb." Do a mitzvah, bury your ego, and be reborn.
Mitzvah means "together." When we do a mitzvah we are together with God. Only with Him can we fulfill His will. He fulfills our will as well.
To love with all our heart means to love with both sides of our heart, right and left. Today, right means conservative and left liberal.
Conservative love is to love as my fathers loved, to be taught to love. Liberal love is spontaneous love at first sight, without being told.
Loving because it's a mitzvah to love is conservative love. Loving just because I love is liberal love. Love with all your heart.
Loving with all our soul is devoting our lives to our beloved. It's as though we're donating the very limbs of our body to save his life.
By devoting our lives to God we save His life as it were. His life means the revelation of His presence on earth – His life amongst us.
If God's presence disappears it's as though He has passed away. It depends on us to keep Him here with us, in our consciousness.
Loving God with all our might reveals His very essence, not just His life-force. First we become nothing and then part of His absolute being.
1 comment
Dear Rabbi Ginsburgh:
Could you clarify how in Hebrew "grave" means "womb"? My searches show only "beten" and "racham" for womb, but "qeber" for grave.
Thank you!
John Bergsma