Even We Can Feel This Love Intensely
Continues the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh with the following fervent words:
And this [burning love] even we, orphans of orphans [that is, even we who are in the bitter galus] feel it keenly, for the desire is great in our hearts, and our yearning for the G-d of the Universe is greater than all the worldly possessions and all the royal honors in the world, and every sweet and pleasant thing in the world becomes worthless in contrast to even the smallest feeling of these words being upon our hearts. Fortunate are we, how good is our lot!
Sometimes, we think that deveikus and fervency for Hashem is either a natural occurrence in people who are naturally warm and emotional, or it is an esoteric level that a person arrives at after incredible toil. But the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh is giving us the tool that everyone can access — and it is to constantly repeat to ourselves the love and the goodness of Hashem toward us, and this will awaken our hearts to love Hashem.
This very eitzah is also found in the Sefer HaChinuch, which teaches:
One should do everything in his power to habituate his thoughts all day long in the faith in Hashem and in His Singularity—until there is not a moment in the day or the night when he is awake that he does not remember the love of his Master with all his heart. (Mitzvah 418).
