Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
Genesis 1:26-31
(26) And God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our
likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle,
the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth." (27) And
God created humankind in God’s image, in God’s image God created it;
male and female God created them. (28) God blessed them and God said
to them, "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the
fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on
earth."
Midrash Rabbah 8:1
Bereishit Rabbah 8:1
(1) And God said: Let us make Adam in our image, in our shape: R'
Yirmiyah ben Elazar said, when Hashem created Adam HaRishon, Adam
was created as both genders; thus is it written, "male and female did God
create them." R' Shmuel bar Nachman said, when Hashem created Adam
HaRishon, God created Adam with two faces, one on each side, and [when
Gd made Chavah,] God split him along the middle, forming two backs.
They challenged him: but it is written, "And God took one of his ribs!" God
said to them, ["mitzalosav" doesn't mean rib, it means] one of his sides,
similar to that which is said, "and to the 'tzela' of the Mishkan," which is
translated "the side of the Mishkan."
What’s love got to do with it?
The LORD God said, “It is not good for adam to be alone. I will
make a helper suitable for him.”
19
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild
animals and all the birds in the sky. God brought them to adam to
see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each
living creature, that was its name. 20 So adam gave names to all the
livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
18
Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
But for adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God
caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was
sleeping, God took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the
place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib
he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to
his wife, and they become one flesh.
25
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
1. "And God said to Abraham: 'Go from your land, your birthplace, and
your father's house...'" (Genesis12:2) -- To what may this be compared?
To a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a palace
in flames. He wondered: "Is it possible that the palace has no owner?"
The owner of the palace looked out and said, "I am the owner of the
palace." So Abraham our father said, "Is it possible that the world lacks
a ruler?" God looked out and said to him, "I am the ruler, the Sovereign
of the universe."
 Being a Jew is being woke to the world – seeing the dissonance
between the world as it should be and the world as it is and being
called to work on shrinking that gap – work we call tikkun olam.
2. Yayshev Yaakov – Jacob wanted to settle, to have a tranquil life – Rashi
“Are the righteous not satisfied with what awaits them in the world to
come that they expect to live at ease in this world too?” R’Gedaliah
Schorr – There is too much to accomplish and too few capable of doing
it. Knowing that, the righteous are more willing to sacrifice a bit of
temporary peace for the sake of eternal elevation for their offspring.
3. Isaac and Rebecca: Genesis 24: 62 Now Isaac had come from Beer
Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one
evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.
64
Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel
Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet
us?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and
covered herself. 66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac
brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah.
So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted
after his mother’s death.
65
Genesis is about the evolution from love of self to love of family.
Exodus 12: 48 “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the
LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised;
then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male
may eat it. 49 The same law applies both to the native-born and to the
foreigner residing among you.”
Exodus 22:21-22
You (plural) shall not oppress any widow or orphan. If you (singular) do
oppress them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and
My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you (plural) the sword, and your
own wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, Shorter Commentary to Exodus 22
The status of those who witness oppression and remain silent is the same
as the status of the oppressors themselves.
Exodus is about love extending to the entire community.
Leviticus
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your
people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
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Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
(Leviticus 19:18) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Rabbi Akiva says: This is
the great principal of the Torah. Ben Azzai says: (Genesis 5:1) "This is the book of
the generations of Adam" is the great principal of the Torah.
Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 30b:1
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Who do we naturally love?
Who are we commanded to love?
How does love obligate us to one another?
Looking at reading from the Jerusalem Talmud, what is the lesson of
“love your neighbor as yourself”?
 Why is “This is the book of generations of man” a greater lesson?
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Looking at Lev. 19:33-34, how is this an
extension of and a departure from love your
neighbor as yourself?
“When a stranger
(ger) resides with you
in your land, you shall
not wrong him. The
stranger who resides
with you shall be to
you as one of your
citizens; you shall love
him as yourself, for
you were strangers in
the land of Egypt. I the
Lord am your God.”
Leviticus 19:33-34
Hebrew University Bible scholar
Abraham Malamat argues that “The Bible is
not commanding us to feel something—
love—but to do something—to be useful or
beneficial to help your neighbor.”
Leviticus extends love to the strangers
and non-Jews in our midst.
Numbers
14:18-19; The Lord is longsuffering, and
great in love, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, but by no means clearing the
guilty, punishing the iniquity of the fathers
Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I pray thee,
the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy love, and as
thou hast forgiven this people, from Miżrayim until now.
23:20-21: (Balaam failing to curse the Israelites) Behold, [a fiat] to bless
[them] have I received [from Him], and He has blessed [them], and I will not
reverse it. God does not scrutinize [exactingly] the iniquity [that is] in Jacob,
and God does not see the toil [i.e., the toilsome transgression] [that is] in
Israel. Adonia, his God, is with him, [not leaving them even when they are
rebellious], and the King's love is in him.
Numbers is about learning to love God, the source of unconditional
love, who we cannot see nor fully know.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 6:5
:‫ָל־מאֹ ֶֽדָך‬
ְ ‫וְ ָ ָ֣אהַ בְ תָָּ֔ ֵ֖את יְ הוָ ָ֣ה אֱֹלהֶ֑יָך בְּ כָל־לְ בָ בְ ָךָ֥ וּבְ כָל־נַפְ ְשָׁךֵ֖ וּבְ כ‬
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
18
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner
residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those
who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 30:16: For I command you this day, to love the LORD your
God, to walk in God’s ways, and to keep God’s commandments, laws, and
rules, that you may thrive and increase, and that the LORD your God may
bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
Deuteronomy extends our love for God to doing justice in the world.
How do we show love to ourselves?
To our partners?
To our family?
To our community?
To our country?
To the foreigner?
Evolution of Love
Rabbi Rachel Greengrass
To those within our borders who are different? Who believe
differently?
How do we show love to God?
How does that love for a higher power manifest itself through actions
towards people we do not know?
10. R. Isaiah Horowitz, Shelah ( Shenei Luhot Ha-Berit )
“God’s hesed the entire day” (Psalm 52:3). A person should see to it that
there is never a day on which she does not perform an act of hesed, either
with her body or with her money.
 Rank yourself on a scale of 1-10, how have I been actively and
productively responding to this moment?