Does Hashem Love Us Unconditionally? (Part 1)

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hourSynopsis: Tonight (1/1/24), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we took up a question that was sparked by a debate I had on Facebook about whether Hashem loves us unconditionally which, itself, was sparked by the popular Israeli song "Tamid Ohev Oti." We began with a surface-level analysis of the two berachos before krias Shema in which we talk about God's love for Israel, raising some basic and powerful questions. We then quickly familiarized ourselves with the source-pesukim cited by three Rishonic commentaries on tefilah. We concluded with a quick run-through of R' Hasdai Crescas's analysis of what it means to say that Hashem has "joy," "pleasure," and "love." Although we emerged with a working definition of Hashem's love, our REAL analysis will have to wait until next time, when we delve into the pesukim that form the basis of the berachos.-----מקורות:תמיד אוהב אותי – ששון איפרם שאולובאהבה רבה (נוסח אשכנז)אהבת עולם (נוסח אשכנז)אבודרהםראב"ןר"י בר יקרר' חסדאי קרשקש אור ה' ב:ה -----The Torah content through the end of Chanukah is sponsored by Feiga W., with the following dedication: "With deep gratitude to my parents, who taught me to seek out opportunities for growth—and to Rabbi Schneeweiss, whose shiurim are exactly that."-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/Patreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel