[Avodah] "There's Hope for Everyone"

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Cantor Wolberg <cantorwolberg at cox.net>
wrote:

> Reb Micha wrote the following:
> Truth is, universal love with no differentiation is the same as
> non-love. Picture this marriage proposal:
> Tom: Cindy, will you marry me?
> Cindy: But Tom, do you love me?
> Tom: Of course, I love everyone!
>
> Here's the weakness of the argument (as I see it).
>
> The Torah talks about love FOLLOWING marriage.  So when Tom says he loves
> everyone, that's ONE kind of love. But the love that follows marriage is the
> special kind as alluded to in the Torah.
> "...Yitzchok married Rivka, she became his wife, and [THEN] he loved
> her..." Bereshis 24:67  So when Tom says he loves everyone, that's the kind
> of love the Torah refers to in *Kedoshim*. There are all different kinds
> of love, so the above mashul doesn't mean that universal love has no
> differentiation. Of course, there is differentiation. But that
> differentiation should not preclude universal love.
>
> (By the way, with the names Tom and Cindy, I was wondering if it was an
> intermarriage). :-)
>
> Kol tuv,
> ri
>

The problem is at leat partially one of semantics  The greeks have a term
for "universal uncondtional love" called Agape. it is not romantic love but
different.

Ideall, v'ahata lere'ach kamocha is this kind of agape, a love for others
because of their inherent humanity. Or the ideal of "Tzelem Elokim" that we
should have agape for all of humanity because we are all in the image of
HKBH. But it is not the love of romance.

And perhaps the love of parents-children is even different than both of the
above.

-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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