In this video, Multimedia artist Hanan Harchol asks the following questions: “What is love really all about? Are there different kinds of love? How much does giving have to do with love? How much of love is about yourself, how much is about others and, what do fish have to do with it?!”
This and other thought provoking videos appear on Hanan’s Web site, Jewish Food For Thought, each accompanied by a study guide in PDF format. The one for this love-related video contains the following passage:
Beginning with the earliest stories in the Torah, Judaism emphasizes the importance of finding someone to love and holding on to that relationship. In later biblical writings, a romantic notion of love and relationship is highlighted, even used allegorically to symbolize the relationship between the Jewish people and God. In this episode, Hanan and his parents discuss the meaning of real love and how to find it. Together they begin a conversation which ultimately leads Hanan to the realization that real love has to do with the act of giving rather than a calculation of what one can get out of the relationship.
My question is, is their really such a thing as selflessness and altruism in a relationship? When we treat our lovers selflessly, aren’t we doing so because it makes us feel good?
Cross posted from Jewrotica.
