On Marriage

Not every marriage is between soulmates, but creating a truly loving relationship with our spouse is always a spiritual duty, as well as a great opportunity for evolution and growth. Although soulmates are truly two halves of the same soul, even very different souls can form deep and permanent bonds. As everywhere in life, this is a process of transforming desire to receive for ourselves alone into desire to receive in order to share with our husband or wife. Often, we think that we share with those we love, but the truth is that we come to love those with whom we share. This is what creates a loving and peaceful home in which the Divine presence of the Light of G-d perpetually resides. The Talmud says, "If a man's wife is shorter than he is, he should bend down to speak to her." Metaphorically, this means we should meet people at the point where they are communicating in ways that will make us understood - and we ourselves should listen with understanding. In this way, we can merit finding our true soulmate, or perhaps merit the realization that our true soulmate has already been found.

Rav Berg