Jewish Love

'There were no better days for Israel than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur,' said our Sages. On this day the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards, and out of it homes were built in Israel. It is no coincidence that the day most bound up with love is bound specifically to building. Love is not merely a private emotion between two people. It is the way in which a person goes out of himself, ceases to live as a closed unit, and discovers that he is part of a family, a society, a nation, and an entire creation. The whole person understands that his life is bound up with the lives of others, and that one cannot truly love without responsibility, faithfulness, boundaries, and commitment. For true love is not an ornament to life – it is its very purpose.