Ahava – What is Love

Love in Hebrew is ‘ahava’ or ‘ahavah’ (אַהֲבָה),  which is made up of three basic Hebrew letters, אַהֲבָ. These three letters actually are broken down into two parts: a two letter base or root הֲבָ,  and the first letter אַ , which is a modifier. The meaning of the two letter base, הֲבָ is "to give". The letter ‘aleph’, אַ which precedes these two letters comes to modify the meaning of the base word, "give". The meaning of אַהֲבָה, is therefore ‘I give’, but also ‘love’ (Strongs #160). So ‘love’ is giving. Not only is love giving, but the actual process of giving develops the very connection between the giver and the receiver. The more giving that one does, the greater is the connection. As Rabbi Ari Kahn points out (http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/65938272.html), the "chosenness" of The People of Israel is a result of the chosenness of Yaakov, which is a result of Abraham's love of God. We read of this is Isaiah 41: “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend”  - Isaiah 41:8 or ‘… Abraham that loved me.’ The Hebrew normally translated ‘my friend’ is literally ‘loving me’. So how did Abraham love God? Abraham loved God by exhibiting ‘hesed’ (please see my article ‘Amazing Grace’ - https://goo.gl/4y87Kf ). Abraham recognized that to love God, was to give to God without measure, beyond expectation (this is true Grace). It is of course summed up in the central creed of Israel, the Sh’ma: "And you shall love the Almighty your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul." Given what we know of Abraham it would appear he was prepared to forfeit his life for his belief in the One God, YHVH and in his rejection of the many pagan god’s/idols of his people, that he left to go to the land of Cannan. Abraham was motivated by this love for the Almighty to also be a great giver to all he met; to the aliens and travellers in his midst, etc. So the great love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 is, I believe, just detailing the outworking of this attitude of giving – when we give our all; our lives and our entire soul to God, we will try to behave towards our neighbour as Sha’ul describes and as he also declares in Gal 5:14 quoting Lev 19:18 – if we love God, we will love our neighbour – we will give beyond measure and exhibit true grace.

May we all grow in giving, and hence grow in love, in ‘ahavah’.