A Time To Love \ Tomer Devorah
"A person should accustom himself to instill the love for his fellow human in his heart so that he loves every person as if "they were brothers." Even more, he should establish the love for all humanity in his heart. He should even love the immoral people and say, "I hope they will become righteous and perform repentance. May they all attain greatness in spirituality and be pleasing to HaShem.' As Moshe Rabenu said, 'It should only be that the entire nation becomes Prophets.'
How does he love them? He focuses his thoughts on their good points, and covers over their blemishes, and does not see their imperfections. Instead, he trains himself to see their positive character traits." (Tomer Devorah)
We strengthen our hearts' love for other people by doing the
"exercise " of covering their negative side and reflecting on their positive side. Love is like a muscle that we can strengthen through daily "exercise." The "exercise" is to train ourselves to see the positive character traits in others.
We start strengthening love for other people first with our family members, friends, and neighbors. We overlook their flaws and concentrate on their good aspects until we love everyone in our community with brotherly love. We broaden the circle of love until we love all of humanity. We even extend our love to the morally corrupt individuals because we learn "to focus on their good points, cover over their blemishes, and do not see their imperfections."
The Temple was destroyed because we were remiss in loving others. By actively instilling love in our hearts for other people, we will merit to quickly see the coming of the Messiah, rebuilding of the Temple, and the final redemption, please HaShem. May we experience the unbounded joy, light, and holiness of seeing the Return of the Shechinah!
(Based on the Tomer Devorah of Rav Moshe Cordevaro)
