4. Toldot 5778: True Love ~When Love And Fear Work As A Team

Written Class: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7cu2c67qkdyhvh1/4.%20Toldot%205778%20-True%20Love%20--When%20Love%20and%20Fear%20Work%20As%20A%20Team.pdf?dl=0 There are two modern day issues that we are going to deal with: (a) Our distaste for the emotion of fear, especially in a relationship, and especially in our relationship with G-d. (b) Our challenge with finding true and fulfilling love, with G-d, with our family, and with our fellow. Our generation yearns for an impractical love. Fiddler on The Roof, has an interesting scene, in which Tevya was introduced to the New Age type of love, from his modern son-in-law to be. Tevya comes home and asks his wife Golde, “Do you love me?” Golde responds with partial shock and partial disgust, for Golde was educated in the old ways of love, in which love is to be a practical feeling, practical enough to drive a relationship and the duties it entails. Our generation feels starved with that love of old, and any such relationship leaves us feeling imprisoned and suffocated. Thus, there is this deep sense of abandonment and loneliness in the love of old. Love, today, needs to be an overwhelming overflowing feeling of having wings, flying, and walking on clouds, or the question, “Why am I in this relationship, anyway,” begins to nag. On the same note, our generation despises any sense of fear, in any relationship, whether it be with G-d, parents, teachers, or any sort of authority, and how much more so with a spouse. “There is nothing to fear, but fear itself!” is our perception of fear. What we are going to learn in this lecture, based on the relationship between Abraham and Isaac, is that without fear, true and intense love is impossible. If you have any questions or comments on this lecture please email Rabbi Avrohom Lipszyc at [email protected].