27 May
Rabbinic Thoughts on Agape
Norman Lamm, the Chancellor of Yeshiva University, expresses an interesting but mystical thought that resonates with Heschel’s insight regarding the nature of Divine love, which Christians commonly refer to as “agape.”
Lamm explains this concept in light of the Shema prayer:
“The LORD is one” implies that God is, as it were, a lonely God. This loneliness and sadness are reflected in the divine image, humans, of whom He said, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18). Both God and human beings deserve rachmones, pity—we, for our failure and pain and suffering, and God, for being abandoned by this creature created in God’s very own image and endowed with the gift of free will that we misuse and abuse. And so each waits and longs for the other. The way to bridge the brooding cosmic loneliness, to find our way to each other, is through love.
It is this sense of mutual sympathy that gives rise to love. God reaches out for us with love—as affirmed in the blessing immediately preceding the Shema: “Blessed are You, O LORD, who chooses His people Israel in love”—and we, recognizing that “the LORD is One,” [Deut. 6:4] that the Creator is lonely, yearning for our companionship, respond with love immediately after proclaiming God’s utter oneness: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart . . .” [Deut. 6:5]. Those thinkers whose interpretations of the Love of God we discussed in chapters 10 to 14 all worked on the premise that God is transcendent and perfect: we need God, but God does not need anyone or anything. He is utterly self-sufficient. But here we are speaking of God in a different way. Conceived of in poetic and psychologically human terms, the divine-human relationship takes on a different dimension, best understood through distinction between two types of love usually referred to in theological writings by their Greek names, eros and agape. Agape is the love that a protective parent feels for his or her child. It is a selfless love: the parent asks nothing in return, not even to be loved by the child. Eros, in contrast, is romantic love, such as that felt by husband and wife for each other. Such love is expected to be not only reciprocal, but also mutually pleasurable. The love we feel for and from God is agape, not eros.[1]
I would just like to add a few contemplative thoughts on this subject because I think it is a good example of how Jewish scholars can and ought to learn new theological ideas from their Christian neighbors. In an open society, nobody corners the market on spiritual truth. We can all learn from one another.
The term agape indicates a love that is unconquerable and determined to outlast any opposition; it always seeks the occasion to express the highest goodness and benevolence whenever the opportunity presents itself. This love remains steadfast even in the face of ill-treatment and insults; it seeks nothing but the highest good and welfare in others at all times—even in the face of rejection and humiliation.
Talmudic wisdom bears this out. R. Yochanan states: “Wherever you find mentioned in the Scriptures the power of the Blessed Holy One, you will also find His humility.”[2]
By God limiting His power, humanity has the ability to do what angelic beings would find impossible—the denial of their Creator’s existence. This becomes possible because God’s Divine Love allows for the Other to exist with a sense of total freedom.
An important distinction between eros and agape is missing in Lamm’s otherwise fine exposition. No romantic theology concerning God’s love for Creation can be based on anything other than agape love. Analogically speaking, most human beings spend a lifetime searching for the perfect Other to possess and experience personal fulfillment and satisfaction.
However, true agape love—whether it flows from a human or divine source—transcends the boundaries of eros because it risks complete vulnerability and faces the possibility of rejection. In contrast, eros seeks in others the realization of its own desire, but agape love does not focus solely upon the beloved for its own personal enrichment or fulfillment.[3]
Agape love is concerned with the good and welfare of the Other, while revealing a different kind of love that is oppositional to any kind of self-love. For these reasons, agape is the apt metaphor when expressing Divine Love. In the prophetic literature of the seventh century, the prophets invariably express God’s love for Israel in terms of agape and not eros.
Granted, this theological exposition certainly runs contrary to the stoic and rational thought expressed by Maimonides, but in today’s world of faith, it is vital we see faith in more experiential terms that speak to the yearnings of the human heart.
Notes:
[1] Norman Lamm, The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism (Philadelphia, PA: JPS, 1998), 122.
[2] BT Megillah 31a.
[3] There is a well-known and oft quoted NT passage that captures this concept well, “Love (ἀγάπη) is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends . . .” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Posted by Smithson on 27.05.10 at 6:03 am
In love you do things for others putting them before yourself. This creates a feeling of self worth which sustains an identity. When my marriage ended, I lost all self worth because I could no longer give or accept love. Having no identity, I turned to G*d. In G*d is the chance to live what Rebbe Jungweiss calls ‘The Committed Life’. The commitment is to increased contemplation and observance of the commandments which put nothing before G*d and puts others before the self.
Posted by Yochanan Lavie on 27.05.10 at 6:03 am
Christianity is a mixture of Hellenistic and Judaic sources. But Jesus himself was probably an Aramaic speaking rabbinic Jew. So agape may be a Jewish concept after all, but I could be mistaken.