There is a love of God so universal that every single Jewish soul possesses it, regardless of spiritual level. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi locates it in a verse from Isaiah that most people read as poetry: "My soul, I desire You at night" (Isaiah 26:9).
The Zohar reads this as a declaration of existential need. "Since You, God, are my true soul and life, I desire You." Not the way a person desires a luxury. The way a person who is suffocating desires air. The way someone exhausted to the point of collapse yearns for their soul to revive them. The way a person falling asleep longs to wake up again.
This love is the inheritance of every Jewish soul from the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob implanted it so deeply that it cannot be extinguished. And it manifests as a simple, overwhelming recognition: God is the life of my life. Without God, I am not merely diminished. I do not exist.
But the Zohar describes an even deeper love: "Like a son who strives for the sake of his father and mother, whom he loves even more than his own body, soul, and spirit." The prophet Malachi grounds this: "Have we not all one Father?" (Malachi 2:10). This is not love born of what God gives you. It is love born of who God is to you.
The Tanya acknowledges that most people cannot consciously access these exalted states. But it insists that every soul carries them as a hidden inheritance. The question is not whether you possess this love. It is whether you are willing to uncover it. And the method is achingly simple: rise from sleep in the dark hours, open the Torah, and let the light of the Ein Sof (אין סוף) draw your sleeping love to the surface.
Each of the said two grades of love—the “great love” and the “eternal love”—is subdivided into many shades and gradations without limit in each individual according to his capacity. As is written in the holy Zohar1 Zohar I:103b. on the verse, “Her husband is known in the gates,”2 Proverbs 31:23. Cf. Compiler’s Foreword, note 17. that “This refers to the Holy One, blessed is He, Who makes Himself known and attaches Himself to every one according to the extent ‘which one measures in one’s heart….’” Therefore fear and love are called “The secret things known to the L–rd our G–d,”3 Deuteronomy 29:28. while the Torah and commandments are those things which are “revealed to us and to our children to do….”4 Ibid. For we have all one Torah and one law, insofar as the fulfillment of all the Torah and commandments in actual performance is concerned. It is otherwise with fear and love, which vary according to the knowledge of G–d in the mind and heart, as has been mentioned above.5 Chs. 42, 43. Yet there is one love which incorporates something of all the distinctions and gradations of both “great love” and “eternal love,” and is found equally in every Jewish soul, as our inheritance from our Patriarchs. And that is what the Zohar says on the verse, “My soul; I desire You at night…,”6 Isaiah 26:9. that “One should love the Holy One, blessed is He, with a love of the soul and the spirit, as these are attached to the body, and the body loves them,” and so forth.7 Zohar III:67a. This love of G–d is equated with the love of life itself—somewhat less altruistic than the love defined further on. This is the interpretation of the verse, “My soul, I desire You,” which means “Since You, O L–rd, are my true soul and life, therefore I desire You.” That is to say, “I long and yearn for You like a man who craves the life of his soul, and when he is weak and exhausted he longs and yearns for his soul to revive in him; and also when he goes to sleep he longs and yearns for his soul to be restored to him when he awakens from his sleep. So do I long and yearn to draw the Light of the En Sof, blessed is He, the Life of true life, within me through occupation in the Torah when I awaken during the night from my sleep,” for the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are one and the same. As the Zohar says, ibid., “Out of love for the Holy One, blessed is He, a man should rise each night and exert himself in His service until the morning….” A great and more intense love than that—one which is likewise concealed in every soul of Israel as an inheritance from our ancestors—is that which is defined in Raaya Mehemna, “Like a son who strives for the sake of his father and mother, whom he loves even more than his own body, soul, and spirit…,”8 Cf. end ch. 10 and ch. 43. for “Have we not all one Father?”9 Malachi 2:10. And although [one may ask], who is the man and where is he, who dares presume in his heart to approach and attain even a thousandth part of the degree of love of “the faithful shepherd” [Moses]? Nevertheless a minute portion and particle of his great goodness and light illumines the community of Israel in each generation, as is stated in the Tikkunim10 Tikkun 69, pp. 112a; 114a. Cf. Iggeret Hakodesh, end sect. 27. that “an emanation from him is present in every generation,” “to illumine them,”11 Cf. Zohar III:216b; 273a. and so forth. Only this glow is in a manner of great occultation and concealment in the souls of all Israel. But to bring forth this hidden love from its veil and concealment to [a state of] revelation, to be manifest in his heart and mind, is “not beyond reach nor is it afar off, but the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.”12 Cf. Deuteronomy 30:11, 14. That is to say, it should be habitual on his tongue and voice to arouse the intention of his heart and mind, so as to immerse his thought in the Life of life, the En Sof, blessed is He, for He is literally our true Father and the Source of our life, and to awaken our love for Him like the love of a son for his father. And when he accustoms himself to this continually, habit will become nature. Even if it appears to him at first sight that this is an illusion, he need not be concerned because it is intrinsically the absolute truth by virtue of the “hidden love.” But the purpose of its emergence into the open is in order to translate it into action, namely, the occupation in the Torah and commandments which he studies and performs as a result of it, with the intention to bring gratification before Him, blessed be He, like a son serving his father. Concerning this it was said that “A good thought is united by the Holy One, blessed is He, to a deed,”13 Kiddushin 40a. providing the “wings” to soar upward, as explained earlier.14 Ch. 39; cf. also ch. 16. As for the “gratification,” it is akin, by way of the illustration used earlier,15 Ch. 31. to the joy of a king whose son returns to him after liberation from captivity, or from the fact that it has been made possible for Him to have a habitation down here, as already mentioned.16 End ch. 41, and ch. 31. But even in regard to the abovementioned [love, in the] category of “My soul, I desire You,” it is readily possible to bring it out of [its] concealment into the open through constant practice, with mouth and heart in full accord. However, even if he cannot bring it into a revealed state in his heart, nevertheless he can occupy himself in the Torah and commandments “for their own sake” through portraying the idea of this love in the contemplation of his mind, and “A good thought is united by the Holy One, blessed is He….” The said two distinctions of love—though they are an inheritance for us from our Patriarchs, and like a natural instinct in our souls, and so, too, is the fear that is contained in them, which is the fear of being sundered, G–d forbid, from the Source of our life and our true Father, blessed is He—are, nevertheless, not termed “natural” fear and love unless they be in the mind and thought alone and in the latency of the heart. Then their station is in the ten sefirot of Yetzirah to where they bring up with them the Torah and commandments of which they have been the inspiration and cause. But when they are in a manifest state in the heart, they are called in the Zohar re’uta d’liba (“heart’s desire”) and they are stationed in the ten sefirot of Beriah, to where they bring up with them the Torah and commandments which have been induced by them. For their emergence from the latency and concealment of the heart into a state of “revelation” comes through the faculty of daat, i.e., through a powerful fixation of the mind and an intense concentration—touching the depth of the heart pre-eminently and continuously—on the En Sof, blessed is He, as to how He is our very life and our blessed true Father. And it is well known what is written in the Tikkunim,17 Tikkun 6. that “there in the world of Beriah nests the ‘Supernal Mother,’”18 The attribute of Binah of the world of Atzilut. which is the contemplation of the light of the En Sof, blessed is He, the Giver of life, which is in accordance with the teaching of Elijah, “Binah is the heart, and with it does the heart understand.”19 Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction 17a. Furthermore, these two distinctions of love, that have been referred to above, contain a quality of love which is greater and more sublime than the intelligent fear and love, the love termed above as ahavat olam (“eternal love”). Nonetheless a person must strain his intellect to apprehend and attain also the distinction of “eternal love” referred to above,20 Ch. 43. which stems from understanding and knowledge of the greatness of G–d, in order thereby to fan the blaze of the fiery love, with glowing coals and an intense fire and a flame that rises heavenward, so that “not even many waters can extinguish it…nor rivers quench it….”21 Song of Songs 8:7. Hebrew text should read וגו' instead of וכו' as the quotations refer to a Scriptural text. For there is a superiority and excellence in the quality of love burning like fiery coals and an intense flame, and so on, which comes from the understanding and knowledge of the greatness of the En Sof, blessed is He, over the two distinctions of love referred to above, when they are not like fiery coals and a blaze, and so forth, similar to the superiority and excellence of gold over silver, and so on, as will be explained later.22 Ch. 50. Besides, this is the whole man and his raison d’etre, that one may know the glory of the L–rd and the majestic splendor of His greatness, each according to the limit of his capacity, as is written in Raaya Mehemna, Parashat Bo, “In order that they may know Him…,”23 Zohar II:42b. and as is known.
