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Jewish World Review May 30, 2008 / 15 Iyar 5768, The Divine's eternal, unconditional love By Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz
“And the Divine spoke to Moshe in the desert of Sinai …”
The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:2) tells us
that the Jews in the time of the prophet Jeremiah
had sinned greatly. The people felt that they had created such
a wide chasm between themselves
and the Divine that it was impossible
for them ever to ever repent. Jeremiah
prophetically gave the Divine's answer: "Have I been a desert
to the Jewish Nation? A land of darkness? Why do My people say, 'We
have been separated from You, we will come no more to You'?"
(Jeremiah 2:31).
The Midrash explains the Divine's response. He
was telling the Jewish people that they are still beloved. By using
the example of a desert, the Divine was reminding them that when
they had been a fledgling people in the Wilderness of Sinai they
could not even tell that they were actually in a forbidding desert.
The Divine provided them with manna to eat; the Clouds of Glory
shaded them, killed the snakes and scorpions, and smoothed out
the path before them by flattening the mountains and raising up
the valleys. The Divine was in essence telling Jeremiah's generation,
"I have shown you how much I love you — you are close to
Me and repenting is certainly possible."
The miracles the Divine performed for Jewry in the desert
were outstanding indicators of the Divine's love for the generation
He saved from slavery in Egypt. How, though, did those wonders
prove that the Divine's love and closeness would still exist so
many years and a myriad of sins later?
The Jews of Jeremiah's
time knew quite well the story of the Exodus from Egypt, yet they
felt that their generation was far less worthy than the generation
that stood at Sinai. Jeremiah's contemporaries despaired that
the closeness The Divine once felt for them had disappeared due to
their sins. How did The Divine's statement convince them that His
love would still allow them to return to Him?
The people of Jeremiah's generation originally
felt that the Divine's love for the Jewish people was dependent upon
our national level of religiosity and righteousness.
They metaphorically looked in
their mirror, saw their low spiritual state of
affairs, and became despondent.
When the Divine reminded them
of His kindness to our forefathers in the desert, He was showing
them that His abundant kindness far surpassed even that which
these great people deserved. The message is that the Divine's love
for the Jewish people is unconditional — like that of a father to
a son. His love for us never wanes and is not dependent on our
spiritual level. Just as a father loves his child under any circumstances,
so too, the Divine loves us beyond what we deserve, even
when we are mired in the depths of sin.
As the Chovos HaLevavos
states in Shaar HaBitachon (Chap. 3, First Principle): "The sixth
[condition to have trust in the Divine] is that one should be aware of the Divine's overwhelming goodness to him, and that due to His
great kindness and beneficence, the Divine bestowed good upon
him from the very beginning, not because the person deserved
it, and not because the Divine had any need to do so, but rather out
of generosity, goodness and kindness …."
Often we find ourselves in a time of difficulty, perhaps faced with an illness, the loss of a job, or any type of suffering.
A caring friend reminds us to trust in the Divine, to have
bitachon (faith) that the Divine will save us in any circumstance. When we
try to focus on that message of hope, our vision often becomes
blurred by feelings of despair.
"What if I don't deserve the Divine's kindness? I have committed so many sins, why would He want to save me?"
At these times of hopelessness we must remind ourselves
of the Divine's unconditional love. It would be very shortsighted
and even naïve to believe that the kindness the Divine has
shown us throughout our lives extends only to what we deserve
and not well beyond.
No one can look into himself and honestly
think that he has been so righteous that the Divine owes him health
and happiness. Rather, just as our parents' love for us is unqualified
and constant, so too, the Divine's love is absolute, and we can
rely on His salvation under any circumstances.
At the same time we can apply Jeremiah's
pasuk, and his message, to ourselves. We shouldn't let our past
mistakes discourage us from
attempting to change and improve
ourselves. We are never
separated from the Divine. No matter how far or how low we have
fallen, He is always waiting for us, like a patient, loving father, to
turn back to Him in sincere teshuvah. If we internalize this message
of the Divine's eternal, unconditional love, we will feel, in turn,
feelings of love towards the Divine, which will provide a powerful
motivation to begin the first steps of genuine repentance.
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One of America's senior Torah sages, Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz has been the dean of the Rabbinical Seminary of America, in Queens, New York for more than 50 years. The institution has branches and affiliates all across North America and Israel.
This article was prepared by two of the sage's disciples, Rabbi Aryeh Striks and Rabbi Shimon Zehnwirth, and excerpted from the just released book, "Pinnacle of Creation: Torah insights into human nature".
Perverting sincerity 
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