Love: Between giving and sacrifice, between God and man

Source: When love faces the ultimate test

"And He said: Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering."

(Genesis 22:2; The Binding of Isaac mosaic from the Beit Alpha synagogue)

Explanation: Love as a moral challenge: Between father and son, and faith

The first time the root for love appears in the Torah in the context of parent and child is in the command to kill him. God emphasizes the love ("whom you love") to heighten both the agony and the test. Kierkegaard, in his book Fear and Trembling, argues that true love for God requires the "suspension of ethics." Abraham is asked to choose between being a loving, moral father and being a "knight of faith." One love, for God, overrides the other.

Perspective: Understanding love: The essence of giving at its core

More than almost any other concept, the word love seems the hardest to define. We love other people and we love ourselves; we love cheese or steak; we love our children; we love going on vacation or even, at times, working. Yet each love is different. Loving pizza means consuming the object of love. Loving my children also involves consumption, but for their sake, not of them. Loving a vacation requires expending resources to recharge, meaning gathering other resources. The common denominator of all loves is hinted at in the Hebrew word itself, ahavah, at the heart of which sit the letters hav—meaning to give. Hate can dwell quietly in the heart, as can anger or pity; only love requires an outward expression to truly exist.

Going Deeper: Love for its own sake: The ideal and human reality

The Mishnah (Avot 5:16) makes a bold philosophical claim: "Any love that is dependent on something—when that thing ceases, love ceases." Looking closely at this profound argument, it is not demanding love with no expectation of return. Rather, it suggests that if someone seeks an eternal love, it must rise above every need, anger, or opinion—pure and unconditional, something possible only toward God, not toward fellow human beings. After all, no one expects a woman to love an abusive husband, or a man to love an unfaithful wife. Jewish law permitted divorce, of course, out of the realistic understanding that all human love depends on something—and sometimes, that 'something' runs out.

Culture: Little Pinkas: A portrait of love pushed to the brink

Inspired by an American story, Dan Almagor wrote the ballad "Little Pinkas" (1970). The song describes an elevator boy's devotion to a glamorous dancer who becomes disabled; he cares for her every need until the day she dies. Moments before her death, "Her Highness" crowns Little Pinkas "His Highness"—a title for which he is later ready to face death, after killing the man who had crippled her in her youth. Was this love for its own sake, or a convergence of interests? No one ever knew.