This is another lovely essay on this week's Torah portion from Rabbi Sacks.
"Love unites but it also divides. It leaves the unloved, even the
less-loved, feeling rejected, abandoned, forsaken, alone. That is why
you cannot build a society, a community or even a family on love alone.
There must be justice-as-fairness also."
"If we look at the eleven times the word “love,” ahavah,
is mentioned in the book of Genesis we make an extraordinary discovery.
Every time love is mentioned, it generates conflict. Isaac loved Esau
but Rebekah loved Jacob. Jacob loved Joseph, Rachel’s firstborn, more
than his other sons. From this came two of the most fateful sibling
rivalries in Jewish history."
"We are accidents of matter, the result of blind chance and natural
selection. Judaism’s approach is the most beautiful I know. We are here
because God created us in love and forgiveness asking us to love and
forgive others. Love, God’s love, is implicit in our very being."
"If you want to live well, love. If you seek to be close to God,
love. If you want your home to be filled with the light of the Divine
presence, love.
"Love is where God lives."
