“Who loves you, baby?”

Rabbi Howard S. Herman DD

During February, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. In America, it is characterized as a day of cards, gifts and romance. It is the day that celebrates “love” in its variety of iterations. Some argue that Valentine’s Day should not be celebrated by Jews, but I disagree. There is nothing incompatible with Judaism in the celebration of love.

For Jews, love is the embodiment of being Jewish. Love your neighbor (Lev. 19:18), love the stranger, loving God, God loving us, love of self, love of spouse, love of children, love of parents and siblings, love of animals, and love of Israel, are all key elements to the Jewish narrative.

One key prayer in Judaism, the Shema, entreats us to “love God with all our heart, soul and might.” Psalms 34 asks us, “Who is the one with a passion for life, loving every day and seeing the good?” Learning how to love and how to be loved is one of the most definitive of spiritual paths.

In the Torah, love is an active command. Even in our love of God, the Talmud says we should behave divinely toward others, “making God beloved through our actions.” In Judaism, we visualize a loving relationship only when each partner acknowledges, values and recognizes that relationship as holy.

Look at Kabbalah, it teaches us that God created the world because “love” needs another to love. As Jews, we are taught that love has enormous power. The bible teaches us that love is so powerful, it is “stronger than death.” The Baal Shem Tov, the great 18th-century master in whose name the Hasidic movement was created, taught that there is only one single love in the world; that is the love of God for all creatures. That love flows through all existence and penetrates every creature. It is the life force of each of us.

Learning how to love and how to be loved is one of the most definitive of spiritual paths.

There is a unique stone sculpture by Robert Indiana in the garden of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Made of four large blocks, each a letter of the Hebrew word for “love,” the sculpture reminds us love is the A, B, C of life. The sculpture is set on a hill overlooking a Jerusalem landscape, and through the letters, your heart leaps, looking at the buildings and clear sky of the holy city. Love is the foundation of this city, the perspective of its people and the basis of its Torah.

In Chapter 19 of Leviticus, we find the commandment to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Rabbi Akiba called this ‘the great principle’ of Torah. Every one of these commandments is a gift of God, who reaches out to Jews and all other people in love and whose loving instruction guides us in loving our neighbors.

It will probably surprise you to learn that the walls of the holy city of Jerusalem historically have been a wellspring of inspiration for romance and love. Long before Valentine’s or Sadie Hawkins Day, the Jewish people created a Jerusalem centered love fest for couples. In the light of the summer moon, young women robed in white would dance in the fields outside the walls of Jerusalem. The eligible men of the city would follow in hopes of finding a bride. The festival was called Tu’B Av as it was celebrated on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av. You might think of this as the original Valentine’s Day, coming long before it was ever named as such today.

So, Judaism celebrates love in all forms. You don’t have to wait for Valentine’s Day once a year. By Jewish standards you can do it all year long. It is a very Jewish thing to do.

Rabbi Howard S. Herman DD serves at Naples Jewish Congregation.