GEN1216 Zusya became a disciple of the great Maggid, Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezritch. But instead of learning from the Maggid in his yeshivah, Zusya preferred walking in the forest, singing blessings to God. He was so simple-minded about this people applied to him the lover’s confession in Song of Songs 4:9: “My love, you have ravaged my heart.”  Lovers are so taken with their beloved that they often do foolish things. Who could forget watching (and aching for) Forrest Gump as he ran back and forth across the country, trying to numb his pain after his sweetheart left? As he ran, he slowly healed, enabling him to spread his commonsense gospel of hope—and that, despite knowing that the opposite, too, “can happen.” It’s easy to be cynical, and we smugly poke fun at the lover’s single-minded obsession. But the lover knows who is the real fool. Temimut means knowing what you truly love. The Torah describes the patriarch Jacob as an ish tam, a pure-hearted soul. The rabbis interpret this unexpected phrase as a description of his extraordinary love for learning: “No one ever labored at studying Torah as did Jacob. As it is written in [this verse]: ‘Jacob was a pure-hearted man, dwelling in tents.’ Not ‘dwelling in a tent,’ but ‘dwelling in tents.’ That implied that, having learned much, he would leave the academy of Shem and enter the Academy of Eber, then leave that school and enter the academy of Abraham” Tanhuma, Buber ed. Vayishlah 8.9  And, of course, loving Rachel as he did, Jacob willingly served her father Laban for 14 years in order to win her hand. Jacob loved Rachel enough to slave for her, wasting his youth attending the flocks of her father, Laban, a man he grew to despise. May we now ask, whom do you so long for, “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” Deuteronomy 6:5, sacrificing everything, dedicating yourself to this aspect of temimut? BOROJMV 214