Ahavah (אהבה) — Love

Core definition

Ahavah is the soul's drawing-near to Divinity — its essential matter is kiruv (closeness): "The ahavah's matter — kiruv: in the spiritual avodah — the nefesh's ascent and deveikus in Divinity" [15966/maamar_024 :: §778–783]. In the soul's ratzu v'shov rhythm, "ahavah in the ratzu level; yirah — the shov level": love is the soul's running forth and ascending to cleave in Divinity; fear/awe is its return and self-nullification [15966/maamar_024 :: §769–775]. Chassidus treats love not as a feeling about Havayah but as the soul's essential bond to its life-source, "as the lover's ahavah to the beloved — in the kiruv level" and "as the son's ahavah to the father" [15966/maamar_024 :: §792–801].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The cause of love: Divinity's kiruv. "The ahavah's cause — from the kiruv of Divinity to the worlds' side" [15966/maamar_024 :: §949]. The contemplative path is the hisbonenus on "l'ahavah es Havayah Elokecha ki hu chayecha" — "to love Havayah your Elokim, for He is your life" (Devarim 30:20): contemplating how the Ohr Ein Sof, the life of lives, clothes itself in all worlds and creatures, even the lowest — as man's soul enlivens his body — the contemplator is "moved in ahavah and deveikus — cleaving in the Divinity's light," disconnected from the world's physicality [15966/maamar_024 :: §1537]. As a man loves his own life, feeling the life that enlivens him, so contemplating "v'atah m'chayeh es kulam" — "and You give life to them all" (Nechemiah 9:6) — births love for the Divine vitality [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 193–194]. The condition: the kiruv must be "from one in value" — revelation not in proportion causes yirah and bitul instead, "as the king revealed in his loftiness in kiruv — working bittul and yirah in the servant, who cannot receive" [15966/maamar_024 :: §940].

The two loves: tiv'is and rabbah. The maamar on "b'zos yavo Aharon" unfolds the two levels of "v'ahavta." V'ahavta has two explanations — tzivuy (command) and havtachah (promise). The command is possible because the first love is ahavah tiv'is, natural love, inherited from Yackov ("Yackov ohavi") who drew it in the souls of Israel: through hisbonenus on Havayah's greatness — "m'male kol almin v'sovev kol almin, v'leis asar panuy minei" — love for Divinity is born, "not wanting the physical, all desire to love Havayah and cleave to Him." Since it is already hidden in the soul and can be revealed through contemplation, it can be commanded [58845/maamar_017 :: §433]. The promise refers to the second love — ahavah rabbah, the great love, which is "above ta'am v'da'as" and therefore "not in man's ability through hisbonenus — only when given from above" [58845/maamar_017 :: §433, §1702]. The metaphysics: "is chesed v'is chesed" — there is the chesed of Zeir Anpin ("ki gadol ad shamayim chasdecha" — limited, since born of Chochmah and Binah which are gevul of hishtalshelut), source of the natural love; and there is Arich Anpin's rav chesed ("ki gadol me'al shamayim chasdecha" — b'li gevul, "d'leis smala b'hai atika"), source of ahavah rabbah [58845/maamar_017 :: §433]. In the other maamar's terms: the love from the kiruv-feeling is "this ahavah in the ahavah's chitzoniyus's level"; "but the ahavah's pnimiyus — from the richuk's level" — from distance, longing in thirst that the Divine light shine [15966/maamar_024 :: §1542–1651].

Love without feeling. When the light is not felt — when the world's physicality conceals it — the love takes the form of "bitterness's level and thirst's level": like the afflicted longing that his soul's light shine in revelation, the contemplator longs "in strong thirst that the Divinity's light shine in revelation," and this bitterness brings "a strong agreement — leaving the physical and material matters... giving himself to Divinity's matters — the Torah's occupation and mitzvos's fulfillment" — through which the light then shines felt [15966/maamar_024 :: §1537].

Key distinctions

Ahavah vs. yirah. Ahavah is ratzu (the soul's running forth to cleave); yirah is shov (return and bitul). "Chessed and Gevurah — the ahavah and yirah level" [15966/maamar_024 :: §769–775].

Ahavah tiv'is vs. ahavah rabbah. Natural love: from Zeir Anpin's chesed, limited (born of Chochmah/Binah), arousable through hisbonenus — hence commanded ("v'ahavta" as tzivuy). Great love: from Arich Anpin's rav chesed, without limit, above ta'am v'da'as — hence promised ("v'ahavta" as havtachah), given from above [58845/maamar_017 :: §433].

Chitzoniyus vs. pnimiyus of love. The external level of love comes from feeling Divinity's kiruv; the inner level comes from richuk — distance, thirst, longing [15966/maamar_024 :: §1548–1651].

Love from knowledge vs. love without knowledge. Genuine love requires daas — feeling, not mere apprehension: love born of contemplation without daas-feeling is "not true love and fear, but vain imaginings," for "daas is the very endurance of the midos and their vitality" [31695/maamar_012 :: עב׳ 183].

Related concepts

Yirah (awe — love's counterpart); Deveikus (cleaving); Chesed (the sefirah of love); Ratzu v'shov (running and returning); Hisbonenus (the contemplation that births love); Daas (the feeling that sustains love); Aharon (whose level is ahavah rabbah); Yackov (who drew the natural love in Israel).

Sources