web analytics
May 24, 2013 /15 Sivan, 5773
At a Glance ▼
Sections
Sponsored Post
The Tosfos Yomtov was convinced that the death of 300,000 –600,000 Jews during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49 were because of improper Tefila. Communicated: Tefilla

Chillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.



The Love Drug


Latest update: June 26th, 2012
tell a friend
Herskowitz-Moishe

The Dubna Magid in Safer Hamidos, states that “love is one of the most important midos in a person”. Hashem has given us a most powerful energy source with the potential to grow and heal unresolved issues of the past. But in order to activate this energy source we must first try to understand the levels of complexity love has to offer.

After the Holocaust the Agudah of America traveled to the displaced camps of war-torn Europe. One of the many services they provided for European Jews was to marry off as many Jewish singles as possible. My parents, A”H, were two of them and soon after they were married they came to America. I recall as a teenager asking my mother if they were in love when they got married. My mother stated clearly “no way, how could we have been in love? As with so many other girls in the B’nos d.p. camps, a rov made the shidduch and soon we were married!” At the time I could not fathom the idea! How could this be possible? How could marriage come before love? Yet I never saw a more giving, caring, and loving couple like my parents. What shocked me even more was the fact that less than 1% of this population got divorced.

It was not until I got married, learned more Torah and became a marriage counselor that I was able to understand the stages of love and what this gift from Hashem is all about. Love is a developmental stage of energy that needs to keep moving to a higher level of growth. It’s composed of energy divided into two stages – Stage 1 Romantic Love and Stage 2 Acquired Love. In Romantic Love, the couple may or may not be engaged, but in most cases they are. The couple will shower each other with acts of caring and understanding. They can’t wait to see each other and will do anything for each other. They see only positive traits. Any negative traits will be overlooked. Their infatuation tends to be an idealization accompanied by a disregard of reality. The couple, as the expression goes, is ‘high on cloud nine’ or ‘in seventh heaven’. They feel intense pleasure, exhilaration and excitement. They seem happier, playful and have more energy. In some cases if a person is on medication, they may even stop taking it because they feel they no longer need it. Psycho pharmacologists have learned that the person is high on natural hormones and chemicals that flood the body with a sense of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. You’ve heard the expression ‘love is blind’, well it’s true! The couple will have the illusion that they are in love. In the physical sense, the couple is in love. They are in love with themselves. That’s because romantic love is a master of disguises for something called self love, a love that’s based on ‘what’s in it for me’. In all honesty, people don’t get married to take care of their partner; they get married so that their partner can take care of them!

When the relationship is more taking than giving true love cannot take place. This is why Hashem designed this love drug not to last. When the wedding is over, and the couple begins to settle into married life, the infatuation may change suddenly and unpredictably. Hashem determines how long the love drug should remain in the person’s system. For some people it will begin to fade before the wedding, and for others it can last for weeks, months and years. But one thing is for certain, this energy source will move to a higher level of growth called acquired love.

I recall one case where a chosen called me up the very next morning after he became engaged. ‘What did I do, I’m not sure that I love this person!’ He was confused and scared and wanted help. He knew that his kallah was a great girl but something was happening and he didn’t know why. He wanted me to help him break off his engagement. As I reviewed the process with him, he started to calm down. When we met I reassured him that what he was feeling was perfectly normal. But he was caught between the stages of romantic and acquired love. Boruch Hashem, with a little coaching, a few months later, the couple was happily married.

tell a friend

About the Author:


You might also be interested in:


no comments

You must log in to post a comment.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Current Top Story
Minister Yaakov Perry, (Yesh Atid, on the left), with Minister Limor Livnat, (Likud, second from left) visit Haredi soldiers serving in the Israeli Air Force, April 23, 2013.
Perry Committee Haredi Recruitment Plan: Sanctions on Draft Dodgers
Latest Sections Stories
Respler-052413
Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

Dear Dr. Yael:

Do you really believe that the Internet is the reason why the divorce rate is so high among young couples? This may be so in some cases, but what about the fact that many singles are pressured to get married at a young age despite not having any idea what they are looking for in a mate? And add to that the fact that many are pressured to make a decision about marriage after dating for a very short period of time.

Neuman-Rabbi-M-Gary
Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

From the moment they stand under the chuppah, newlyweds have two years to enjoy the special bliss that new love brings. This new finding, reported by the New York Times, is based on a study undertaken by American and European researchers. 1,761 people who got married and stayed married over 15 years were followed. The research shows that after two years the couples moved into a more companionable state in their relationships.

Schonfeld-logo1
Sections → Family → Parenting Our Children

Shel Silverstein’s 1974 poem “Where The Sidewalk Ends” is intended to paint a magical picture of a world of peace and serenity far away from the “black and dark streets.” At the time, perhaps the end of the sidewalk was a place that was “measured and slow.” Today, however, for many parents, where the sidewalk ends can feel like a scary place.

Sections → Community → South Florida

Florida is famous for sparkling water. We have the beautiful Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico surrounding our coast. We have bays, lakes, canals and, of course, an incredible abundance of swimming pools in homes, resorts, apartment complexes and city parks.

Sections → Community → South Florida

The buzz is back as Camp Gan Israel Florida Overnight gears up for another fantastic summer, CGI Florida style. What makes CGI Florida so different from all the other overnight camps? It’s all in the details.

Sections → Magazine → Teens and Twenties

Leah Katz, a TeenZone camper at Oorah’s TheZone summer camp and an 11th grader at Midwood High School, read her winning essay about how TheZone changed her views on Judaism at the Jewish Heritage Awards Ceremony held at Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’s office in April. The purpose of the Jewish Heritage Essay Contest is to acquaint public school students with Jewish history and customs and to help foster a deeper understanding of Jewish culture. The contest is open to students of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Leah’s essay is reproduced in full below.

Sections → Jewess Press → Impact Of Women On Jewish History/Prof. L. Jackson

Moshe Sharett, the head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department, visited Egypt in 1945. In Cairo he met a most remarkable young woman, a beautiful journalist who was the darling of Egyptian high society – from high-ranking military brass, to culture icons and Muslim sheikhs, to the court of King Faruk.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

The two proceeded to talk about everyday things and surprisingly her mother-in-law did not find anything else to criticize. This occurred a few more times, with my client changing the topic every time by complimenting her mother-in-law or mentioning something positive about her.

Sections → Family → Parenting Our Children

There is always a lot of confusion surrounding sensory processing disorder – mainly because there are many different diagnoses that fall under the catch-all phrase sensory processing disorder (SPD). Among them are three specific subcategories:

Sections → Family

The doctor had warned us that even if we did everything right and followed the protocol after the follicle was of the right size, there was no guarantee of success. Fertilization still had to occur, and just like couples do not necessarily become pregnant every month, we had no way to know if we were actually expecting for two full weeks.

More Articles from Moishe Herskowitz
Herskowitz-Moishe
Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

In my last article I had mentioned that often one of the symptoms of autophobia, a fear of abandonment, is that as adults people suffering with this condition may become extremely sensitive to rejection.

Herskowitz-Moishe
Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

In part one (Family Issues 04-29-2011) we mentioned that often a symptom of the anxiety disorder, the fear of abandonment, is a strong need to be in control. That is because the person suffering from the disorder has lost someone in their past – due to separation, divorce or death – and may unconsciously blame themselves for the desertion.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

The fear of abandonment, also known as autophobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by an acute fear of being alone. Often, one of the symptoms of this particular anxiety is a strong need to be in control. This is because one has previously lost someone close through separation, divorce or death and may unconsciously blames his or herself for the event. When this happens, any type of separation may traumatize the person, even the marriage of his or her own child can be viewed as a life-threatening event.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

The following was a letter sent as a response to the article, “Children of Shame” (02-04-2011). The article addressed the fact that children learn at a very young age to disconnect their feelings as a mechanism to end their feelings of shame. As these children become adults, they find it difficult to reconnect those out of fear that once again they will feel the pain of shame.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

Children who grew up feeling shameful for the most part will have also grown up without someone to talk to about how it made them feel.

Shame is one of the most destructive feelings there is. It is a feeling that something is wrong within us and has a negative affect on a child’s self-development.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

Traumatic events are typically unexpected, and uncontrollable. If in the past a person experienced a traumatizing event – even if it’s been long forgotten – the brain will remind them of that time, should something similar take place. Memories to traumatic occurrences lie dormant in the recesses of subconscious memories.

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

A few years ago I was invited to be a guest on a talk show. An interesting question came up from a young man who wanted some information on the topic of in-laws. He wanted to know if I had ever known of a couple divorcing because of their in-laws. My response was that although divorced people may blame the in-laws for the marriage failure, in most cases this does not happen directly, but indirectly- YES!

Sections → Family → Marriage and Relationships

The ability to maintain a pleasant and peaceful relationship with in-laws is of the greatest importance for the young couple entering marriage. The more you understand the in-law relationship, the more likely you will achieve happiness in marriage.

    Latest Poll

    Which is the most beautiful location in Jerusalem?









    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/family/marriage-relationships/the-love-drug/2004/09/29/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

Related posts:

  1. Moshe Feiglin Walks Into a Gay Bar…
Close