Today is Valentine’s Day. Saint Valentine’s Day. I have some friends who don’t celebrate it because it is a saint’s day. Others who don’t celebrate it because it is a pagan holiday. I don’t care. It is fun. More than fun it is important to remember that we are loved and that we can love. There was a popular song, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Its the only thing that there is just too little of.” The words are still true. Another one says “Love is what makes the world go round.” The Jewish Holidays by Michael Strassfeld makes the point that these early spring holidays–Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, even Purim are a release. It is about giving thanks that we survived the winter. Early spring gives way to early, romantic love. In Judaism we see it consummated with Shavuot, the love story between G-d and the Jewish people who received the 10 Commandments at Sinai, the ketubah, the wedding contract, between G-d and the Israelites if you will.
Valentine himself is shrouded in mystery and there are not clear records of who he was or what he did. Some say he dates from 289CE, when he married people in secret within the church because the emperor forbade marriage, thinking that unmarried soldiers fought better. Shortly before his execution he signed his last letter, “From your Valentine.” Others dispute this, saying Geoffrey Chaucer invented many of the traditions and myths around Valentine’s Day in his Parliment of Fools. In any case, the day became connected with romantic love.
Isaac is the first person in the Bible who experiences love. Genesis tells us that “Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” I like the idea that he was comforted and that he found love.
Our prayers are filled with the idea of love as well. Ahavah Rabbah and Ahavat Olam the prayer immediately before the Sh’ma teach us that God loves us, the people of Israel and so gave us Torah. Torah is a set of rules, a way of life. Some rebel against the structure, the thou shall nots. If you think about it, however, like a parent loves a child and set limits, God shows love for us by setting limits and giving us rules. We, in turn, then love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mights–with our whole being.

We are taught that another sign of this is that the last letter of the Torah in Deuteronomy is lamed, ending the word Yisrael. The first letter is bet, beginning the word bereshit. Taken together, lamed-bet, they spell lev, heart. Torah is filled with love, with heart.
There is another word for love, chesed, which as Nelson Glueck taught in his seminal work on that word we will never fully be able to translate or understand, means something like lovingkindness. Exodus 34:6-7 which I wrote my rabbinical thesis on, teaches that there are 13 Attributes of the Divine. Chesed is mentioned twice in that list. The list says that “The Lord! The Lord! God, Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to anger and Abundant in Kindness and Truth, Preserver of kindness for thousands of generations” It continues that God forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.”
This idea that God loves us is important. And that God is full of lovingkindness. Patient. Forgiving. This is what enables romantic love to be possible. I was at a monastery recently and I was struck by the simple altar covering. “You are my beloved.” If we, imperfect humans are God’s beloved, than anything is possible. Which is exactly what Abraham and Sarah found out when God told them they would have a baby so very late in life.
Love is what makes the world go round. It makes all things possible. So however you celebrate Valentine’s Day today, whether by enjoying some chocolate, some flowers, the first hints of early spring, pause and know that you are loved. Even if you are alone and feeling lonely, know that you are loved, deeply loved.