Which Is Higher: Duty or Love?

627.1Comment: An older man visited a nurse to have his stitches removed after surgery. Everyone was busy. He asked, demanded, and begged to be taken care of quickly. He said: “I need to get to the hospital in time to feed my sick wife. She has Alzheimer’s disease.”

An elderly nurse immediately freed herself and said: “She will probably be worried if you are late. I will do everything quickly for you.”

He replied: “No, she has not recognized me for the last five years.” 

The nurse asked, “So what is your hurry if she does not know who you are?”

He replied: “It does not matter that she does not know who I am, I know who she is.”

My Response: Indeed.

Question: What supports a person who receives nothing in return: no gratitude, no smile, nothing? Opposite him is his beloved and that is it. Is that what supports a person? She does not even recognize him.

Answer: The man knows it is his duty.

Question: Can you continue like this, knowing it is a duty and you are getting nothing in return?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can this be called love?

Answer: This is more than love.

Question: What is love to you, and what is duty to you in this case?

Answer: Duty is higher than love. Love dictates your actions because that is how you treat a person, with love. Duty is what you are obligated to do above love. In this case, it is already measured by responsibility.

Love obligates you to behave this way. When it is not love, but duty, you must aim yourself correctly.

Comment: He is alive, but she seems to barely exist. He has some kind of life, but directs his whole life to her, running to her all the time.

My Response: What keeps him going is that he cares about her.

Comment: Even when people would not give him a little support by saying: “What a great guy!”

My Response: No, that doesn’t matter to him.

Question: Can we say that he is approaching pure bestowal?

Answer: I don’t think so. When he feeds her, it fills him up.

Question: That is, the fact that he fulfills his duty is his life, right? Is this fulfillment?

Answer: Yes, by lying in her hospital bed without recognizing anyone, she holds all her relatives together.

Question: When a person is given such strength and duty in his life, can this only come from above? Is it humanly possible to do this?

Answer: No, it is from above.

Question: Can we say that the Creator is there with them? While the man cares for her like this, is the Creator there?

Answer: The Creator is generally everywhere, but especially in such actions.

Comment: Our time is such…. It was time when I visited nursing homes, and they told me: “Children have not come here for a long time.” Older people have been there a long time.

My Response: This is the selfishness of sons, daughters, and relatives.

A hospital, by the way, is a recent invention.

Question: Yes, before everyone was home. It was probably right to be at home?

Answer: I think people would recover faster.

Question: Can we live like this for a long time, with love and giving? Can we come to this and be fulfilled with it?

Answer: Yes. So it will be.
[326812]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/19/24

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