When the Almighty created human beings She made them capable of both giving and taking. The faculty of giving is a sublime power; it is one of the attributes of the blessed Creator of all things. She is the Giver par excellence; Her mercy, Her bounty and Her goodness extend to all Her creatures. Her giving is pure giving for She takes nothing in return. She can take nothing for She lacks nothing, as the verse says, ” . . . If you are righteous what do you give to Her ?” Our service to Her is not for Her need but for our own, since we need a means of expressing our gratitude to Her. People have been granted this sublime power of giving, enabling her too to be merciful, to bestow happiness, to give of herself. “God created man in Her own image.”
…כאן שאלה יפה עומד לפנינו: הן האהבה והנתינה באות באחת. האם הנתינה היא תולדת האהבה, או להפך, האהבה באה מן הנתינה? הורגלנו לחשוב את הנתינה לתולדת האהבה, כי לאשר יאהב האדם, ייטיב לו. אבל הסברה השנייה היא, כי יאהב האדם את פרי מעשיו, בהרגישו אשר חלק מן עצמיותו בהם הוא – אם בן יהיה, אשר ילד או אימן, או חיה אשר גידל, ואם צמח אשר נטע, או אם גם מן הדומם, כמו בית אשר בנה – הנהו דבוק למעשי ידיו באהבה, כי את עצמו ימצא בהם.
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, Michtav MeEliyahu, ch. 4, The Basis of Love
…Here an important question stands before us: Both love and giving come as one. Is giving a result of love or the opposite, does love come from giving? We are accustomed to think that giving is a result of love, because what a person is good to the person that they love. However, the other reasoning is that a person loves the fruits of their labors; when they feel that part of themselves is in them – if it’s a child that they gave birth to or raised, or an animal that they raised, or a plant that they planted. Or even in the non-living world, like a house that they built – they are attached to their labors with love. Because they find themselves in them.
“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”
- Rav Chaim Brisker
Eve ended up eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because the snake fooled her, telling her that they would gain the power of Imagination and that it is the power of Imagination that gives one the God-like power of creating worlds. However, this isn’t so. That ability comes from lovingkindness.