Unconditional love of the neshamah

כתיב ארפא משובתם אהבם נדבה.

It is written, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely (nedavah)" (Hoshea 14:5).

The Sefas Emes builds this piece on the promise that Hashem will heal Bnei Yisrael's wandering and love them with a freely given, unconditioned love.

דאיתא אהבה שתלוי' בדבר בטל דבר בטלה אהבה.

For it is taught: a love that depends on some thing — when that thing ceases, the love ceases (Avos 5:16).

Any love that rests on an external cause is conditional and temporary; remove the cause and the love collapses with it.

ושאינה תלוי' בדבר אינה בטלה עולמית.

And one that does not depend on any thing will never cease, forever.

A love bound to no external cause is unconditional and eternal — nothing can undo it.

וכן באהבת הקב"ה לישראל.

And so it is with the love of the Holy One, Blessed is He, for Yisrael.

This same distinction applies to Hashem's love for His people: there is a conditional dimension and an unconditional one.

שבאמת ע"י המצות ומעשים טובים נעשים אהובים להשי"ת.

For in truth, through mitzvos and good deeds (maasim tovim) we become beloved to Hashem Yisbarach.

By performing mitzvos and good deeds a person earns Hashem's love — but this love is "based on a thing," namely the deeds themselves.

והיא תלוי' בדבר.

And this love depends on a thing.

Since it is earned through our actions, it is the conditional kind of love.

לכן עבירה מכבה מצוה.

Therefore "an aveirah extinguishes a mitzvah" (cf. Sotah 21a).

Because this love hinges on our deeds, a sin can quench the love that a mitzvah had kindled — when the "thing" is undone, the love it generated is diminished.

אבל האהבה שיש בעצם בנ"י להקב"ה מצד חלק ה' עמו.

But the love that exists in the very essence of Bnei Yisrael for the Holy One, Blessed is He, by virtue of "the portion of Hashem is His people" (Devarim 32:9) —

Beyond the earned love lies an essential love rooted in the fact that every Jew is literally a "portion of Hashem."

זה אינה תלוי' בדבר.

— this does not depend on any thing.

This essential bond is intrinsic, not earned, and therefore unconditional and indestructible.

וע"ז כ' מים רבים לא יוכלו לכבות את האהבה הידועה שאינה תלוי' בדבר.

And of this it is written, "Many waters cannot extinguish the love" (Shir HaShirim 8:7) — the well-known love that depends on no thing.

Unlike the earned love that an aveirah can quench, this essential love is the one that "many waters cannot extinguish," for it has no external condition that could be removed.

בימי המעשה היא בחי' תלוי' בדבר.

During the weekdays it is in the aspect of "dependent on a thing."

In the workweek, when we serve through deeds and effort, our relationship operates on the level of earned, conditional love.

ובשבת שנק' מתנה טובה היא שאינה תלויה בדבר.

But on Shabbos, which is called "a good gift," it is the love that depends on no thing.

Shabbos is a matanah tovah, a free gift; it reveals the unearned, essential love that flows from the soul's bond with Hashem rather than from our deeds.

ונק' יום מנוחה.

And it is called "a day of rest (menuchah)."

Shabbos is menuchah precisely because on it we rest from the "doing" that conditions weekday love and rest instead in the unconditional bond.

ובאמת אהבה זו היא בחי' נשמה.

And in truth this love is the aspect of the neshamah.

The unconditional love is identified with the neshamah, the Divine soul, which is itself a "portion of Hashem from above."

וע"י החטא מסתלק כח הנשמה.

And through sin the power of the neshamah departs.

Sin does not sever the essential bond, but it causes the active power of the neshamah to withdraw and grow dormant.

וע"י תשובה חוזר וניעור.

And through teshuvah it returns and reawakens.

Teshuvah rouses the dormant neshamah back to life, reawakening the essential love that was only hidden, never destroyed.

ולכן אוהבם נדבה כי שב אפי כו'.

Therefore "I will love them freely (nedavah)," for "My anger has turned away from him" (Hoshea 14:5).

Because the bond is essential and only needed reawakening, Hashem's love returns as a free gift the moment His "anger turns away" through teshuvah.

ולכן בשבת דהיא יומא דנשמתין ולאו דגופא לכן היא מסייע לתשובה.

Therefore Shabbos, which is "the day of neshamos and not of the body," assists teshuvah.

Since Shabbos is the day that belongs to the soul rather than the body, it strengthens the neshamah and thereby aids the work of teshuvah.

אהבת נפש וגוף תלוי' בדבר.

The love of the nefesh and body is "dependent on a thing."

Love tied to the lower soul and the body is the conditional, earned kind, bound up with deeds.

ואהבת הנשמה אינה תלוי' בדבר שהיא חלק אלוקי ממעל:

But the love of the neshamah depends on no thing, for it is "a portion of God from above" (cf. Iyov 31:2).

The neshamah's love is unconditional because the neshamah is literally a piece of the Divine — an eternal bond that no sin and no "many waters" can ever extinguish.

Summary: There are two loves between Hashem and Bnei Yisrael. One is "dependent on a thing": earned through mitzvos and good deeds, and so an aveirah can extinguish it — this is the love of the nefesh and body, active in the weekday. The other flows from the essence of every Jew as a "portion of Hashem," the neshamah, "a portion of God from above"; this love depends on nothing, and "many waters cannot extinguish" it. Sin only causes the neshamah's power to withdraw; teshuvah reawakens it, so Hashem "loves them freely." Shabbos, the day of the soul and a free gift, reveals this unconditional love and therefore aids teshuvah.