After Tisha B'Av: All you need is love!

All you need is love…

Today is a day of love in the Jewish calendar.  

Tu B’av, the 15^thday of Av,  a day of matchmaking in the Jewish calendar, a Sadie Hawkins day, a day of dancing and celebration, a day of love.

It’s an uncanny coincidence we’re celebrating Tu B’Av today and then reading from our  weekly parsha Va’etchanan tomorrow that includes the Shema and V’eahavta, you shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul and might.

It’s an uncanny coincidence that this Shabbat is Shabbat Nachamu, the first Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, the day of remembering the tragedies of Jewish history, now, we turn toward hopefulness, toward a New Year on the way, and this first Shabbat is Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort – a Shabbat of love between God and us, as tomorrow’s special Haftarah tells us, “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem -- God will gather the lambs and lead them gently.”

We celebrate a time of love and hope, a time of moving toward renewal.

The Torah tells us 3 times “You shall love”

First, Ve’ahavta lireacha kamocha – love your neighbor, your fellow human being.

Next, love the stranger, the ger, who lives among you.

Finally, in our portion this week, Ve’ahavta et Ado-nai, love God.

There is a wisdom in this order, a progression.

It’s easiest to love the people who are closest to us, who we see most often, who we know best.  If they are good people, kind and caring, of course, they are the easiest to love.

The stranger though is more difficult.  They are outside our immediate lives, also created in God’s image but not as familiar to us, and we rightly need to establish trust first before we are closer with them.

And finally, love God – God is in our hearts, is everywhere all at once, but unlike the previous two categories of people, God is invisible, eternal, energy without form, intangible, and so possibly the most difficult to love.

Ben Yair Ha’kohen explains we can’t love God unless we first love our fellow community members.  

Why not?

If we only love God, we may not pay much attention to the people around us except as necessary for life.

But if we love people first, and we see them as God’s image, as part of the masterwork of God’s creation, then we have tangible evidence of God’s Presence, and God becomes easier to relate to.

Think of someone you care about, what about that person is holy, special, and an amazing gift in our world.  Think for a moment.

These qualities are all qualities our tradition teaches us are essential qualities of God – and so at this moment in our calendar, 7 weeks until Rosh Hashanah, let’s take inspiration from Ve’ahavta and focus on caring for and nurturing the people we care about and also nurturing and nourishing ourselves and our spirits, so that when we come to Rosh Hashanah, we’re ready to share our love and care with so many others and knit our community together into a wonderful whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

One way to do this is to say each morning as Rabbi Isaac Luria recommends, “I accept upon myself the mitzvah of loving my fellow human beings as myself.”