[Avodah] "There's Hope for Everyone"

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 11:58:39AM -0400, Cantor Wolberg 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.

That's not a flaw in my argument, it's a gap between ahavas rei'im and
ahavah for the entire world - love and agape. That doesn't change the
fact that one should love one's own more than others. Otherwise, it
isn't really love.

If anyone would have followed up on my request that they check out RSS,
they would have seen/remembered that he doesn't make them different
in kind.

Rather, all love is "kamokha". The trick of being a baal chessed is not
submerging that self-love, but realizing that one is part of a greater
whole. One loves one's family as an extension of oneself. One's extended
family more than strangers. One's /am/ more than other amim, etc... Thus,
love is properly supposed to include everyone, but in ever diminushing
amounts as one gets further from oneself.

This balances universalism and particularism quite beautifully. Im ein
ani li, mi li? Ukeshe'ani le'atzmi -- in a constricted sense of "I" --
mah ani?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 22nd day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        3 weeks and 1 day in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Chesed sheb'Netzach: Do I take control of the
Fax: (270) 514-1507                 situation for the benefit of others?