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Love unites the idea with the
human reality
Translated from Hebrew by S.
NAthan
l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
What is love?
In the haftara (Yehezkel 37) the prophet tells of God’s promise to
unite the kingdom of Yehuda with the kingdom of Yisrael. “Behold, I take
Yosef’s tree…and I put upon them Yehuda’s tree, and I make them one tree,
and they shall be one in My hands.”
It appears from the prophet’s vision that union is possible only through
Godly intervention. Union is not possible if the the two sides merely take
the initiative on their own. To understand this, we must investigate the
love factor, because only in this way can we understand the problems
besetting this parasha.
For example:
Why did Yosef not send his father the good news that he was alive the
moment he rose to greatness, and it was in his power to do so. For an
understanding of this issue, we must clarify a difficult question: What was
there exactly in Yehuda’s words that brought Yosef to the breaking point?
Was it Yehuda the King’s willingness to serve as a slave to Yosef in
Binyamin’s place?
How did Yosef interpret this offer? Did he see it as the realization of
his dreams? Or did he take another view of it? Was it only emotional, or
is there a conceptual explanation here, a logical continuity of conceptual
development, in keeping with the conceptual process that has been
systematically developing from the beginning of the narrative until the
present moment in our parasha.
Midat Hadin Without Love.
The Rule of the Law
Legal Dictatorship: German Brutality Disguised as “Enlightenment”
There are two approaches to the idea of truth.
Midat hadin, the measure of judgment: Long live ideas that are
never confused by facts, never bothered by human neccessity.
Midat harahamim, the measure of compassion. The human element
alone determines the borders of truth.
There is no justification for ideas that come as a substitute for human
needs. According to midat hadin, long live the idea, even at the
expense of the human factor.
Yosef represents the human approach. The brothers represent the idea,
the ideational, the ideological approach. The highest point, the apex of
the human approach, is love.
It is interesting to try to comprehend the relationship of love to
truth. On the surface it would appear that the measure of judgement
reinforces truth – and that truth reinforces the measure of judgement. The
straight and narrow and uncompromising path of the measure of judgment
reinforces truth.
However, does this “reinforced” measure of truth not partake of
brutality? Could such a truth ever be interested in attaining reciprocity?
Furthermore, does not reciprocity really partake of compromise, and of
sometimes yielding its own righteous position?
Any trace of brutality is in opposition to and is a cancellation of
truth. It replaces truth, because truth’s power lies in objectivity, in a
complete lack of vested interests in either direction.
Truth determines its own place. There lies its power.
In contrast, if we examine the relationship of truth to compassion, we
seem to find that compassion prevents truth’s expression, and weakens it –
which is not the case with the relationship of truth to love.
While compassion is to be found in love, love is not always to be found
in compassion, for compassion runs the risk of being an expression for
weakness.
“Love Covers Over all Crimes”
Love as Presence
The love object fills the lover’s entire experience of existence. It is
a presence, in all its aspects, both positive and negative. As the lover
loves every sign of the love’s one’s presence – even the mess he makes; as
the mother who is not repelled by her infant’s excrement.
“He saw an image of his father’s likeness.”
Yosef Attaches Love to Truth.
Egla Arufa – The Beheaded Calf: The ceased presence
of the host: The ba’al habayit had welcomed the wayfaring guest, but
he had not escorted hin after he left his house. It was a lack of presence,
a lack of love that had caused the wayfarer’s murder at the hands of robbers
roaming the deserted streets outside the city.
Yosef – who loves – breaks down, and decides to reveal himself to
brothers, at the moment that Yehuda the King, the proud and powerful,
demonstrates his willingness to humiliate himself and be a slave. Yosef
sees this as a sign of love’s presence. It is love’s presence that enables
Yehuda to sacrifice himself for Binyamin.
The image of the father – its presence – is what causes Yehuda to offer
himself. And thus Yosef decides that he too will reveal the presence of his
own love.
He first reveals it in the context of his father: “I am Yosef. Is my
father still alive?” Meaning, does our father’s presence yet exist for you
as it does for me?
They are alarmed, because they have never yet encountered the measure of
love in their full consciousness. Only a spark of it has glimmered in
Yehuda, and this too not yet at the level of presence, of an entity present
in one’s consciousness.
Reciprocity, empathy, and absolutely identifying with the loved one:
Yehuda experiences it in relation to his father. Yosef, in relation to his
brothers: “It is not you who sold me, but rather only God.” The
identification with the Lord’s presence covers and glides over their wicked
plot. “Love shall cover over all crimes.”
Z’donot hofchim lizchuyot. Deliberate sins turn into virtues for
one who returns to God out of love.
Dimension of Height
“And you shall love your fellow as yourself – I am God.” Only with, and
through the dimension of Godly height can love be possible, in that God
constitutes the angle of vision from which things are seen by the man
created in God’s image – as opposed to the competitive, flesh and blood
creature.
It means seeing events from the Godly view. Through the Godly plan, and
not from a narrow, base perspective of self-preservation by diminishing and
hating one’s fellow human beings.
It is important to note that our parasha contains only the very beginning
signs of a love that is as yet unaware. Love’s presence requires a
two-directional course. One direction is not enough, as the Christians have
it, in which love comes down from above. Sinful humans – as they believe –
are incapable of loving.
The reason there can be no love in one direction is that it lacks the
identifying through reciprocity. It therefore lacks presence, because
whoever cannot bestow love cannot receive love either.
The dimension of God was transformed into presence, began to be a
presence only at Sinai, at the Gift of the Torah. “And God came down on the
mountain.” This process begins in compulsion/fear and culminates in love
only at the time of Megilat Esther, when “they upheld in love what they had
received in fear.”
Love – A Process of development that includes A) reciprocating
through B) identifying. C) Through presence. D) Through the dimension of
height, values, sanctity. A positive, constructive attitude…
Practically speaking, the effort of developing midat ha’ahava is
different for every person. A simple, coarse person must actually begin
through fear. Only in this way can he begin to attach himself and belong.
The drive and the necessity must come from the outside.
For a person of finer feelings and character, the process begins through
love, specifically. Through love of God and love of the other. For some,
it is love of God specifically (for those with a tendency toward
spirituality and sanctity) and for others (for those who are more human) it
is through love of the other, specifically.
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