This text-based class on the discourse (maamar) by the Alter Rebbe, Bayom Hashmini Atzeres, was presented on Monday, 5 Tishrei, 5784, October 7, 2024, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

This is the first class in the series, exploring the three types of love: “With all your heart, all your soul, and all your might,” with all your brokenness and failures. "You shall love" is not just a mitzvah, but also a prediction, "you will love." When the blockages are gone, the love will emerge. 

There is the love with "all our heart," all our parts, realizing that all of our "negative cravings" and emotions will all be transformed into Divine love. We explore how we form our coping mechanisms and survival instincts, and how our shells can hijack our Divine souls, but when they are unburdened, they all become part of the Divine love.

Then there is a love with all your soul, this is a frequency of love, only available in the Divine soul, with no replica or counterfeit in a material world, not aligned with G-d.

Then there is the love "with all your might," fueled by the darkness, toxicity, blockages, mistakes and dysfunctionality of our lives. This is never available to the "complete, whole person," who remains at best a container for Divine energy, but only to the Baal Teshuvah, who has broken all the vessels, and now can experience a longing of infinite magnitude. That is why the Talmud says that true repentance transforms sins into mitzvos, and it is what King Solomon meant when he said that the deepest light is created by darkness.  This is the secret of Teshuvah.