Aharon’s Avodah is an Avodah through love as the Mishneh in Pirkei Ovos instructs הֱוֵּי מִתַלְּמִידָיו שֶל אַהֲרֹן, אוֹהֵּב שָלוֹם כוּ׳ “You shall be a disciple of Aharon who loves peace etc” also Aharons’s Avodah in blessing the B’nei Yisroel with Birkas Kohanim the Mitzvah is (in the Brocha which the Kohanim make before they Duchen) לְּבָרֵּךְ אֶת עַמוֹ יִשְּרָאֵּל בְּאַהֲבָה “To bless HaShem’s nation Yisroel with love”.
It is explained in Shulchan Oruch that love is a prerequisite to Duchening. (And the Zohar goes even further to highlight the severity of the situation).
Therefore, in order to fully grasp the virtue of Aharon’s Avodah, the Alter Rebbe broaches the subject by first clarifying the love [for HaShem] that existed before Aharon. This is the Avodas HaShem through love of Avrohom Ovinu who was the first of the three Ovos and is referred to in the Torah as אַבְּרָהָם אֹהֲבִי “Avrohom [who] loved Me”.
Avrohom’s [ability to] love [HaSHem] is also passed down to all of Yisroel since the Ovos bequeathed everything they had to Yisroel. To the extent that the Rambam writes in his Sefer Mishneh Torah at the end of Hilchos Teshuvah that: “The perfect love is the love of...
