Tu B'Av, the Holiday of Love. If we look for a moment beyond the noisy commercial festivity, we will get to the most fascinating, difficult and rewarding human challenge there is: marriage, home, family. Here are two pieces of advice in this area, one from an Israeli rabbi, and the other from a French writer.
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe once received a letter from a worried mother and wife, who spilled her troubles to him. In one word, his answer could be summed up as follows: Humor. She should be "gifted with humor". We tend to lose our temper, he explained, to start fights, to magnify small things with our spouse and family, not to look at things in the right context. A smile, a good word, lightness, looking at reality at home in an amused way - this is the best medicine, instead of overreacting and taking every little thing seriously. It is precisely those who are connected to Eternity, he claimed, who can utilize humor.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the author of the book "The Little Prince". When he was asked once what is love, he answered: Love does not consist in gazing at each other with longing eyes, with eyes full of hearts. Love is two lovers looking outward together in the same direction towards a shared destination. That is, this is not only about meeting the romantic needs of both spouses, but also about having a vision and a purpose, a direction and a path, towards which they walk together.
