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The Meaning of Love

By Yanki Tauber

Chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once said: I learned the meaning of love from a drunk. I once passed two drunks drinking in a gutter and overheard the following conversation between them:

Drunk #1: "I love you!"

Drunk #2: "No you don't."

Drunk #1: "Yes, yes, I do. I love you with all my heart."

Drunk #2: "No you don't. If you love me, why don't you know what hurts me?"

3 Comments Posted

By Yanki Tauber More articles... |

Yanki Tauber is content editor of Chabad.org.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:

Posted: Mar 15, 2009

true story wrong tzadik

This famous tale is actually about Rav Moshe Leib os Sassov

Posted By Anonymous

Posted: July 14, 2005

Ah, but the drunkard whose love is challenged DOES know what hurts his fellow drunkard. The first one is in pain, and demands that the second knows what hurts him. So, why doesn't the first one simply tell the second what hurts? The reason is that his pain is ineffable, a combination of the shame of drunkenness, the humiliation of his self-degradation, and not excluding the physical effects of years of alcohol abuse and exposure to the elements. How can the first drunkard ever express his misery, make it comprehendible? Only another person who has experienced the same suffering can no that pain. That is precisely what the second drunkard knows. Levi Yitzchok feels that the tzaddik has to experience the suffering of his people along with them to properly lead them and pray for them. He exemplifies the etymology of the English word "compassion," which means "to suffer with."

Posted By Yechiel Mendel, Youngstown, OH

Posted: Oct 28, 2004

First class

G-d sent Chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev an excellent teacher. But then again, what G-d sends is always first class. Regardless of the 'packaging.'

Hope I remember my own words the next time I look at the 'packaging' and cry.....or scream.....or burn up with anger.....or --

Posted By Anonymous

Love: an Anthology


	Love Yourself


	The Grammar of Love


	Man and Woman


	Mikvah Time


	The Jealous Lover


	Do We Love Too Much?


	Trust


	How to Criticize and Other Thoughts On Love


	The Rebbe's Love Laboratory


	Love According to the Rebbe


	Love in a Heartbeat


	The Calling


	Uncle Irv


	Mirrors


	Sitting in a Café


	The Gift


	Two Against One


	The Meaning of Love


	The Man Who Mistook His Wife's Foot for His Own


	Kabbalah of Love


	Why Do We Fall in Love?


	Alienation and Faith


	The Loving Friends


	Love at First Sight: Five Biblical Examples


	A History of Love


	24,000 Plus One


	Partner


	Are You Happily Ever After?


	Ramblings about Stress and Love


	The Cry of the Holy Sparks


	The Morality of Weakness: Defining Sexual Harassment


	Why Is Torah Law So Restrictive of Contact Between the Genders?


	What If You Mess Up?


	Tanya Chapter 32


	The Baal Shem Tov on Love


	A Joyous Divorce

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