The Greatest Love of All

אהבתי אתכם אמר ה'

מלאכי--

"I have loved you," saith the Lord.

--Malachi 

...הנך יפה רעייתי, הנך יפה

עד שיפוח היום, ונסו הצללים-אלך לי אל הר המור, ואל גבעת הלבונה

כולך יפה רעייתי, ומום אין בך

איתי מלבנון כלה...ממעונות אריות, מהררי נמרים

ליבבתיני, אחותי כלה; ליבבתיני באחת מעינייך

מה-יפו דודייך, אחותי כלה; מה-טובו דודייך מיין, וריח שמנייך מכל-בשמים

נופת תיטופנה שפתותייך, כלה; דבש וחלב תחת לשונך

שיר השירים-- 

How beautiful you are, my darling!
    Oh, how beautiful...
    Until the day breaks
    and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
    and to the hill of incense.
You are altogether beautiful, my darling;
    there is no flaw in you.

Come with me, my bride….from the lions’ dens
    and the mountain haunts of leopards.
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
    you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes…
 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
    How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
    more than any spice!  Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
    milk and honey are under your tongue.

--Song of Songs

                                               

For so many people, so many holy, broken, badly hurt people, this is the hardest, most frustratingly elusive faith to achieve. To actually feel or even believe that God loves us with a passionate fiery love seems like a painfully distant, dreamy Arcadian island of fantasy. Long after the mind has reached a level of comfort in believing in God's existence, either by way of realizing that the intellectual proofs positing His being, though far from utterly conclusive, comfortably outweigh the arguments against; or through allowing the pure, stronger, innate faith of the soul to outshine the precious cognitive faculties because of the realization that "one does not kindle a candle in order to see the sun" (Petrus Damiani)- there are still miles to go before one can sleep and snuggle comfortably in the loving embrace of the Shade of the Wings of the Omnipresent, in the greatest love of all. Like a lonely, melancholy bud that cannot succeed to open its petals and receive the warming rays that are always tenderly hovering around it, the person who must struggle to escape the dungeon of terrestrial solitude and trust God's assurances that He is enamored with us suffocates within his inability to face the Infinite Love that shines with overpowering discreetness. 

While His existence can be logically exhibited, His love never can.

When Christianity (Judaism and Islam say the same-S.B.) says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes.
                         --C.S. Lewis

If only we loved Him as He loves us...Let us believe Him when He declares that He does...

A...good way for a man… to arouse and kindle the light of the love that is implanted and concealed in his heart, that it may shine forth with its intense light, like a burning fire, in the consciousness of the heart and mind, to surrender his soul to God, together with his body and [material] possessions, with all his heart, and all his soul and all his might, from the depth of the heart, in absolute truth, is… to take to heart the meaning of the verse: "As in water, face answereth to face, so does the heart of man to man." This means that as [in the case of] the likeness and features of the face which a man presents to the water, the same identical face is reflected back to him from the water, so indeed is also the heart of a man who is loyal in his affection for another person, for this love awakens a loving response for him in the heart of his friend also, cementing their mutual love and loyalty for each other, especially as each sees his friend's love for him.

Such is the common nature in the character of every man even when they are equal in status. How much more so when a great and mighty king shows his great and intense love for a commoner who is despised and lowly among men, a disgraceful creature cast on the dunghill, yet he [the king] comes down to him from the place of his glory, together with all his retinue, and raises him and exalts him from his dunghill and brings him into his palace, the royal palace, in the innermost chamber, a place such as no servant nor lord ever enters, and there shares with him the closest companionship with embraces and kisses and spiritual attachment with all heart and soul— how much more will, of itself, be aroused a doubled and redoubled love in the heart of this most common and humble individual for the person of the king, with a true attachment of spirit, heart and soul, and with infinite heartfelt sincerity. Even if his heart be like a heart of stone, it will surely melt and become water, and his soul will pour itself out like water, with soulful longing for the love of the king.

In a manner corresponding in every detail to the said figure and image but to an infinitely greater degree, has the Lord our God dealt with us. For His greatness is beyond comprehension, and He pervades all worlds and transcends all worlds… it is known of the infinite multitude of worlds, and of the countless myriads of angels in each world …[and] before Him, all of them are accounted as nothing at all and are nullified in their very existence…All these [angels] ask: "Where is the place of His glory?" And they answer: "The whole earth is full of His glory," that is, His people… to bring them near to Him in true closeness and unity, with a truly soulful attachment on the level of "kisses" of mouth to mouth, by means of uttering the word of God…also with a form of "embrace," namely, the fulfillment of the positive precepts…of the King…

Like one who betrothes a wife that she may be united with him with a perfect bond, as is written: "And he shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Exactly so, and even infinitely surpassing, is the union of the divine soul…with the light of the blessed En Sof (Infinite).

Therefore did Solomon, peace unto him, in the Song of Songs compare this union with the union of bridegroom and bride in attachment, desire, and pleasure, embrace and kissing…For through the union of the soul with, and its absorption into, the light of the blessed En Sof, it attains the quality and degree of the holiness of the blessed En Sof Himself, since it unites itself with, and is integrated into, Him, may He be blessed, and they become One in reality…for the corporeality of the body does not prevent the union of the soul with the light of the blessed En Sof, Who fills all worlds, and as is written: "Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee."

      --Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya Ch. 46

Looking at God in the Eyes

No wings have ever carried a greater weight of intrigue than those of the cherubs. Situated atop the Holy Ark in the Holy of Holies, the cherubs' winged embrace has fascinated millions.

In the Talmud, a classic discussion is recorded regarding the cherubs' stance:


The Torah (Exodus 25) dictates that the cherubs were to face each other, "The cherubs are to have their wings spread upward....the cherubs are to face each other," whereas Chronicles II 3:13 states, "And their faces were to the house" (i.e. the walls of the sanctuary)- implying that the cherubs stood back to back. The Talmud resolves the apparent contradiction by explaining that when the people fulfilled the will of God, the cherubs faced each other, reflecting the sacred intimacy between God and His devoted followers. But when men disobeyed God's will, the statues of the cherubs mimicked the worsened relationship by miraculously turning their backs to each other.  

Serious relationships have the frightening capacity to make our hearts soar to the zenith of ecstasy in one instance, and then fling our souls to the abyss of despair in the next. Toward the object of our love, we can at times feel love, hate, craving, disgust, and the plethora of ranges in between. While constant, drastic shifts of feeling can sour a relationship, any healthy attachment will at some point, in some form, experience the wide scope of varying human emotions.

In general- but especially when it involves a lover- no one likes to feel disappointed. No one likes to feel hated. No one likes to feel ignored. And yet, worse than all those things combined would be the ultimate rejection: indifference. After all, it is far better to be sick than to be dead. It is far better to fail than to not attempt. It is far better to receive negative emotions from a lover than to feel the biting iciness of none at all.

This is the inner symbolism of the cherubs' back-to-back pose. When the people would please God, the cherubs would face each other, gazing at each other like two lovers living the most intimate of moments. When they would sin, the cherubs reflected the tragedy by turning their backs to each other.

But there is a far deeper interpretation by the famed mystic, Rabbi Loew of Prague, the Maharal.

He resolves the contradiction between the verses (and rereads the words of the Talmud) differently and more profoundly. He says that the cherubs would not turn their backs to each other. They would always face one another.

And yet the verse in Chronicles states that "their faces were to the house (i.e. the walls of the sanctuary)."

The miracle was much, much deeper. The statues of the cherubs would not turn around. They'd always face each other.

But if sin occurred, their gazes changed.

Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

            --Song of Songs 1:15

Why does God liken our eyes to those of a dove?

Doves only focus on one thing at a time, and usually, it is their mate. Because of this, they have the nickname "love birds." They are always watching each other, staring into each other's eyes like lovers who see all of life in their mate's eyes, and hence cannot stop staring. That is the gaze of love, with which we are wont to stare at the Divine when we are in love with Him.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west?

       --John Donne

But when the people shunned God, the cherubs' gaze changed. Whilst standing face to face as well, now the gaze would be blank, empty, and indifferent. They'd see through each other. They would be like lovers who could not summon enough care for each other to even show hurt or disapproval. Just blank stares...

The most hurtful thing is to be looked at....yet not seen....


And this is our true situation, our choice, with God, our Beloved. He is everywhere; we always face Him.

But are we seeing Him? When you see all the beauty and grandeur in the world around you-do you see His Light in it all? Do you see Him staring at you through the eyes of those that love you?

Or do you not see Him in all that surrounds you, though you face Him always?

The Hebrew word for "repentance" is Teshuva--Return.

Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return'?
     --Malachi 3:7

Is He not everywhere? Why does one need to "return" to Him?

Returning to Him means....seeing the Divine in all and looking back at Him as He's always looking and seeing you.

The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy and the hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch to the glory of God.
                   --Thomas Merton