The last 3 words in the first paragraph of Shmone esrei, the silent 18 blessing/prayer, aka the Amidah, are לְמַען ׁשֹמו בּאהבה if the essence of Hashem to the best of our comprehension is 'love' (mercy, kindness etc.), & the meaning of שׁם ֹis essence, as we know a persons name represents his essence (just like the word 'shamayim' has the root word 'shaim' meaning heaven is , essence of everything in our world, since heaven is known as the place of the souls..) then what different expression of praise did the Men of the Great Assembly have in mind, we are saying there, He brings the redemption for His name sake with love but if His name sake is love then what essentialy is the diffrence between these two praises? To clarify the question in a concise way: What is the difference between "l'ma'an Sh'emo" & "b'ahava" if Sh'mo is His essence & His essence that we know of is The Beneficent One (The One Who gives lovingly), is this not included in the word B'ahava (His love)??
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if the essence of Hashem to the best of our comprehension is 'love' where do you get that from?– mevaqeshCommented Oct 10, 2017 at 12:36
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the meaning of שׁם ֹis essence source?– mevaqeshCommented Oct 10, 2017 at 12:38
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as we know a persons name represents his essence: how do we know this?– mevaqeshCommented Oct 10, 2017 at 12:38
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then what different expression of praise did the Men of the Great Assembly have in mind: different from what? What exactly are you trying to ask?– mevaqeshCommented Oct 10, 2017 at 12:40
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the 13 attributes were the greatest revealing that we got into Hashem's ways, as Moshe Rabeinu requested "Hareni Nu es kvodeich" so when i say love is the understanding we have of Hashem i mean the purpose Hashem created the world for namely to benefit man kind "olam chesed yibaneh" Hashem established the world on this idea of giving..that is what i mean by love like Rav dessler says to love is to give...– Forward StridesCommented Oct 10, 2017 at 17:21
1 Answer
With Hashem's help a possible approach may be, there is a higher form of love than plain love. Plain love is a father giving his son breakfast because the child needs to be well nourished. unconditional love is where the child does a sin & because the father cares about his sons happiness, growth & character & his place in the world to come, he firmly reprimands the son for this sin he committed.
This idea has its source in 13 attributes of Hashem's mercy, we call it His mercy even though some of them are ways of reproof & strong consequences, like v'emes which means truth & kail the power of His kindness, with that being said we can understand the praise like this 'Hashem is bringing the redemption for his name sake that in the future the world will recognize even how all the pain & consequences of our sins were there as an act the higher form of love that of bringing close a child through loving him so much to the point where He will even rebuke him when necessary & he does all this because He loves us not because we are deserving.