Musar su Cantico dei cantici 8:6

When there will be this complete love for God, may He be extolled, then there will grow forth reverence from that love, for we see that whenever a man loves another man because of good qualities that are within him, this love becomes a yoke upon his neck and compels him to seek and fulfill the will of the beloved. He will find no rest unless he exerts himself in matters pertaining to the beloved and in such case, the exertion will be sweeter to his palate more than rest. When the lover does for the beloved a thing which finds favor in the latter’s eyes, then the soul of the lover becomes more precious in his own eyes, because he is able to find favor in the eyes of his beloved by doing a thing which is good in the eyes of his beloved. If the lover should chance to do a deliberate or an unpremeditated sinful act, or anything which does not please his beloved, then the lover will be confounded and ashamed and he will steal away as an entire people will steal away when they are ashamed. This pertains to the power of love which is like an iron yoke upon him to cause the lover to yield to the beloved, as Scripture says (Song of Songs 8:6), “For love is as strong as death.” Since love causes the lover to yield to his beloved and do the will of the beloved with double willingness, we must explain why there is in love this power. We say that the love of the lover for his beloved comes about because of the good qualities which are in the beloved. The soul of the lover must also contain a portion of these good qualities. Therefore, the little that is contained of these good qualities in the lover draws him exceedingly, just as every kind is drawn to its kind. This is a sign of a generous soul, that he is drawn after every honorable thing, and this is love. The willingness on the part of the lover to yield to the beloved in order to fulfill the will of the beloved arises from the fact that the lover recognizes the superiority of the beloved over him, just as the pupil recognizes the superiority of his teacher and the servant recognizes the superiority of his master. He therefore yields to his beloved by recognizing his superiority over him. Similarly, with regard to a lover’s fear of his beloved: it is as a servant fears his master, a pupil fears his teacher, because of the latter’s superiority. More than this, he hopes to learn continually from the teachers qualities, from his wisdom, and from his instruction. These qualities impel the lover to fear his beloved. If this is so, then it has been clarified how fear proceeds from love. If we say that love such as this and the lover can be found among ordinary people, then we know that in this manner we can describe the love of man for the Creator. If it should be said that one cannot compare the love of the created to the love of the Creator, blessed be He, he would answer that although we are created beings, still the love which is customarily shown by man for the Creator—even though there is a difference between the beloved who is created and the beloved who is the Creator—is the same, for there is no difference between the power of the beloved of God and the power of the mortal lover who is created, for they are one. Therefore, the Creator, blessed be He, seeks nothing of a man but that he love Him with all his power, and this will be as important in His eyes as though he loved Him according to the love that is due to Him. Now, it is interesting to note that the righteousness which we ascribe to the Creator, blessed be He, consists in this, that we are not able to do anything for His glory save that which is within our power to help our fellow men, and the Creator receives it as though we had given Him love that is worthy of Him.

“Whenever a man loves another man because of good qualities that are within him this love becomes a yoke upon his neck and compels him to seek and fulfill the will of the beloved. He will find no rest unless he exerts himself in matters pertaining to the beloved and in such cases, the exertion will be sweeter to his palate more than rest. When the lover does for the beloved a thing which finds favor in the latter’s eyes, then the soul of the lover becomes more precious in his own eyes, because he is able to find favor in the eyes of his beloved by doing a thing which is good in the eyes of his beloved. If the lover should chance to do a deliberate or an unpremeditated sinful act, or anything which does not please his beloved, then the lover will be confounded and ashamed and he will steal away, as an entire people will steal away when they are ashamed. This pertains to the power of love which is like an iron yoke upon him, to cause the love to yield to the beloved as Scripture says, (Song of Songs 8:6), ‘For love is as strong as death.’ ”