As Close To Eternity

"Yitzchak loved Eisav for game was in his mouth; but Rivka loves Yaakov." (25:28)

Not far from where I lived as a child there was a particularly fascinating shop. On the sides of the entrance doors, two mirrors faced each other. As you extended your leg over the threshold, millions of legs in perfect synchronization also extended themselves to your right and left.

It seemed that the reflections went on forever. And indeed they did. There was no beginning and no end.

To my young mind, this was as close to eternity as you could get.

Of all the misrepresented words in the English language, "love" must be up there with the top scorers.

Love is unique because it’s like those mirrors. In love, the cause and the effect are indistinguishable. Any love that depends on a reason will evaporate when the reason is no longer valid. If you love someone because they are young, their old age will not appeal to you; because they’re beautiful – they better watch the lines round their eyes, the chins under their chins and the escalating battle of the bulge. Love that depends on something else isn’t really love. It’s love of… Love of this; love of that.

Real love is defined as zero distance between cause and effect.

G-d chose Noach because he was a righteous person. In Parshat Lech Lecha, however, the Torah describes how G-d chose Avraham without mentioning anything about his prototypical kindness or his hospitality or any of his other merits. The reason is that G-d chose Avraham for no other reason than that He loved him. Why did He love him? Because He loved him! The cause was the effect, and the effect was the cause, like an infinite unceasing reflection.

"Yitzchak loved Eisav for game was in his mouth; but Rivka loves Yaakov."

The grammar of this verse is strange: The love of Yitzchak for Eisav is described in the past tense "Yitzchak loved Eisav." The love of Rivka for Yaakov, however, is portrayed in the present: "Rivkaloves Yaakov." The love of Yitzchak was a love that depended on an outside factor. He loved Eisav because "game was in his mouth." When that external reason turned out to be misplaced, the love ceased. Rivka’s love, on the other hand, was a love that was self-sustaining, it needed no cause, and thus the Torah describes it in the present tense since it never came to an end.

• Based on the Ramban and the Sh’lah HaKadosh