What’s Love Got To Do With It - Acharei Mot Kedoshim

 This afternoon’s class opened with a striking question:how can a parashah that begins with death—אַחֲרֵי מוֹת, the tragic loss ofNadav and Avihu—lead directly into one of the most beautiful and demandingmitzvot in the Torah, וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ? We explored a powerfulidea from my rabbis: that true closeness to HaShem is not built on passionalone, but on the capacity to love—deeply, patiently, and without condition.The Kohen Gadol, who enters the Kodesh HaKodashim on Yom Kippur, cannot do so alone—hemust have a wife, a bayit, because only someone who has learned to live withanother soul can stand before HaShem on behalf of a nation.     From there, the shiur unfolded into a profound rethinkingof love itself—not as a feeling, but as the foundation of Torah life. We tracedhow the Torah builds אהבה step by step: first removing hatred, then revenge,then grudges, until a person becomes capable of real connection. ThroughChazal, the story of Rabbi Aryeh Levin, and the tragedy of Rabbi Akiva’sstudents, we saw that Torah without love cannot endure. This is not a sidemitzvah—it is the structure that holds everything together. A powerful and practicalclass on marriage, middot, and what it truly means to be קָדוֹשׁ.