What does the Hebrew word for love, ahava, teach about love?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains that the Hebrew word for love, ahava, “comes from hav, which means to give. So love is not a feeling, it’s a flow.”
That reverses the usual order. “Most people think, I give to those I love. But the Torah says, you love those you give to.” When you invest your energy, your patience, and your effort, “you are planting yourself into that person.”
So love is not something that simply happens to you. It is something you keep doing. As long as the giving flows, the love lives.
Related concepts: Relationships · Generosity that cannot be taken back
In A Soul at Peace: Love Means Giving
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Ahava comes from hav, to give: love is a flow, not a feeling.
Underlying need or longing
Through giving energy, patience, and effort, a person plants himself in another.
Deepest human truth
You love those you give to. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that our hearts follow our actions.
More questions from this teaching
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