Giving in Love: Part Eight: Marc Gafni

Love is as Love Does

Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.

-Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven

Loving and giving are inextricably bound up. The great medieval philosopher Maimonides teaches that to love God is to know the divine in both world and self. Maimonides understands well that to know and not to love is not to know. But he goes one step further; to love and not to do is not to love. Love is as love does.

So when Maimonides lists what it might mean to love God, he talks about a broad range of simple acts of goodness that we do for other people. Helping the poor, rejoicing with the bride and groom, escorting the dead at a funeral, and the list goes on and on. Small deeds, simple acts of kindness — that is what makes me a lover of God.

People are God incarnate in this world. Each person is a different face of God. To love people by being a giver is to love God. There is no great deed of loving God. There are only small deeds of giving to people — done with great love!

marc gafni
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