The involvement in worldly matters cannot extinguish one’s love for G-d:[1]
The verse states that “the great waters are unable to extinguish the love.” The “great waters” in the verse refer to one’s preoccupation with making a livelihood, and his involvement in all other matters of the physical world. The verse then continues and says that despite the strength of this preoccupation, it does not have the power to extinguish the inner love of G-d that is found within a Jew’s heart. Every single Jew contains a dormant love for G-d within his soul. This is a natural love which derives from the G-dly soul, which has a natural inclination to desire G-d and be incorporated within Him, like a flame desires to leave the wick. This is because before the soul descended into the body it was involved in basking in the Ray of the divine presence and was united with the infinite light of G-d in a complete unity. Therefore, even after its descent down here into the body, and its involvement in physical matters which are called “great waters,” nonetheless, it still retains its eternal love and desire to be with G-d, and on the contrary through being involved in these great waters it is able to reach a much higher level than prior to its descent in this world.
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A Parable: Chazal state that a woman only makes a covenant with the person who made her into a vessel. This is referring to a first marriage, and that a couples first marriage has an eternal effect on their hearts and emotions, and their feelings and longing for their spouse remains with them forever. If G-d forbid the spouse passes away, they will forever remain in their memory, which may cause them difficulty in moving on and re-marrying, and even after remarrying it may never be the same. This is because a first love remains etched in the heart forever, and even if one finds a replacement love, it will never extinguish and subdue the dormant feelings that one has for his first love. This is a parable for understanding the emotions of the soul of a Jew and his love for G-d. The G-dly soul’s first and eternal love is G-d, and this love remains with him forever even if he moves on to another reality, and “marries” the physical pleasures of the world and becomes involved in all of its dealings. While on a conscious level it may seem that this new love has managed to extinguish his first and old love for G-d, in truth it remains dormant in his heart, and his love for G-d will never cease. |
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The Divine lesson: Even if one is a sinner and has committed the gravest of sins he should never think that he is now incapable and unable to love G-d as he is too far and distanced from Him. In truth, every Jew has the ability to fall back in love with his original first love which is G-d, and this applies even if he is vastly preoccupied with worldly matters, nonetheless, he must be aware that he contains a dormant fire in his heart that can be revealed whenever he chooses to exert the effort to do so.
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[1] Torah Or 8c
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