Ahavat Olam

(["With] everlasting love"). Opening words of the benediction which immediately precedes the reading of the Shema in the Evening Service. (For its liturgical background and details of its counterpart in the Morning Service, see Ahavah Rabbah.) It thanks God for His gift of the Torah and commandments, an eternal heritage in which the Jew can find happiness on earth as well as life in the world to come. There are textual differences among the various rites. Both Ḥasidic Jews and Reform liturgy retain the traditional Ashkenazi text.

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