G-d is All Love

What’s the Point? 

Sometimes the most simple and obvious things are specifically the things that we need to remind ourselves about the most. They are so basic and so foundational, that we tend to forget about them, and simply take them for granted. But to forget them, is actually to forget our purpose in this world. 

There are also oftentimes things that we think we know them. Maybe we could even pass a multiple-choice test on them. But in reality, we don’t understand them to their depths, and we don’t really live them in our everyday life. 

Everyone knows that all of my teachings are about emuna, including my best-selling and most principle book, The Garden of Emuna. I am constantly quoting Rebbe Nachman in the name of the Zohar, that G-d created the world in order for us to get to know Hashem, and forge a personal relationship with Him. 

It’s very easy to know this, and even be inspired by it – and yet not truly understand the essence of this teaching. 

Nice to Meet You 

What does it mean to know G-d? Certainly, it includes to see Hashem’s Guiding Hand in our everyday lives, and recognize that everything comes from Him, and that He hints to us what we need to work on through our various experiences and interactions every day. Certainly, it includes speaking to Hashem in your own words every day. In fact, all of emuna is an aspect of getting to know Hashem.  

However, to truly know Hashem is a lot deeper than this. To know Hashem, means to know His middot, His character traits. G-d has many different traits, all of which manifest themselves through the ten sefirot, the ten emanations of G-dliness in Kabbalah. However, sometimes we get so lost in the trees, that we miss the forest… 

And we forget the most basic, the most foundational of all of G-d’s traits, which manifests itself in all of them, in every situation, at all times. The trait through which G-d created the world, which is also the primary reason why He created the world in the first place. 

Rebbe Nachman teaches that there is one trait of G-d that encompasses all the others, and is incorporated into the all of the others, gives life to all the other traits, and is the trait in which the entire world is rooted. That trait is G-d’s Infinite and unending love. 

Hence, all of Torah and mitzvot are also an outgrowth of Hashem’s love. They are totally rooted in G-d’s love for us, which is revealed through all of the different commandments. 

Therefore, until and unless you really experience Hashem’s love for you – you don’t yet know Hashem at all! 

It’s All Love 

In reality, this entire world – both physical, and spiritual – is all just a shell in order to reveal and express, and give body and shape and form, to G-d’s Infinite love for us. At the depths of all of it, lies simple, unending, and pure love.  

And if we forget this, then we are left with just an empty shell, devoid of real meaning – like a body without a soul. 

Rebbe Nachman explains that our entire purpose of being in this world is to find Hashem’s love buried and hidden deep inside everything: “Because all of the character traits (middot) are constrictions of G-dliness, in order that we should be able to grasp Him through His character traits… and since it is G-d’s will that we should cling to Him and love Him in this physical world, He clothes His G-dliness in the middot of the Torah. 

And this is the aspect of the 613 commandments, because Hashem created it to be that through performing these commandments we can grasp Him. Therefore, G-d constricted Himself specifically into these 613 commandments.” 

The Secret Key 

Therefore, we find that the essence of real emuna in Hashem, and the real essence of getting to know Hashem, is knowing this crucial element: That G-d loves you! To realize that all of it comes from His unending love for us, and to truly feel and experience G-d’s love at every moment. 

Even in the difficulties, when things get rough – if you experience suffering, then it means that you feel that Hashem is making you suffer. That means, that you don’t feel Hashem’s love for you in those moments – because someone who loves you, doesn’t make you suffer. A father never hurts his children! Hence, if you feel suffering then it means that there is a lacking in your knowledge of Hashem, which means a serious flaw in your emuna in Hashem. 

Therefore, your job, which is essentially your purpose in life, is to get to know how much Hashem loves you. To connect to G-d’s incredible and awesome love for you – at every moment, in every situation, no matter what you have done or where you are holding. And to live with that love, recognizing that no matter what, Hashem’s love for you never diminishes. It’s always there – in everything that happens in your life, and in every difficulty and test. 

Therefore, I want to remind you of something so basic, and yet so incredible: The Gematria (numerical value) of “echad” (one) is 13 – and so is the value of “ahava” (love)! 

That means – Hashem is One, G-d is all love, only love!  

G-d has absolutely no bad and no evil in Him, and nothing He does is bad. Someone who is full of love only does loving, kind things, good things. If you don’t believe that, then you don’t have emuna! 

G-d is good and does good. G-d created the world in order to reveal His mercy and His goodness, and bestow true good on His creations. This is the entire purpose of the world! And this isn’t just the purpose in the grand scheme of things – it is also the purpose in every single detail of every single that happens in this world. Everything that happens to you – it only comes out of absolute, pure love. 

The recognition of G-d’s love for us is the foundation of pure and simple emuna in Hashem. It’s our purpose in life! And it’s also the secret of how it’s possible to truly believe and trust in Hashem no matter what, and thank Him with our whole heart for absolutely everything, whether it seems good or bad.  

Hashem loves you! It’s the key to everything!