<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Cantor Wolberg <<a href="mailto:cantorwolberg@cox.net">cantorwolberg@cox.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="">Reb Micha wrote the following:<div><br>Truth is, universal love with no differentiation is the same as<br>non-love. Picture this marriage proposal:<br>Tom: Cindy, will you marry me?<br>Cindy: But Tom, do you love me?<br>
Tom: Of course, I love everyone!</div><div><br></div><div>Here's the weakness of the argument (as I see it).</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div>"...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 <i>Kedoshim</i>. 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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>(By the way, with the names Tom and Cindy, I was wondering if it was an intermarriage). :-)</div><div><br></div><div>Kol tuv,</div><div>ri</div></div></blockquote><div><br>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. <br>
</div></div><br>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.<br>
<br>And perhaps the love of parents-children is even different than both of the above. <br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br>RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com<br>see: <a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>