Great article on relationships from a Jewish point of view.
The theme repeated everywhere in novels and movies is that “I am in love and my love is beyond my control”; “I fell in love”; it was as though someone pushed me off a cliff and it was all accidental and unintentional. The Jewish approach warns us not to “love in spite of yourself”, but to love “because of yourself”. Find out what you’re headed for. Enter into the love relationship with your eyes open, not with your eyes closed. Don’t accept blind dates, unless you know who the potential partner is.
If you find that you are “falling”, realize while your eyes are still open, while you can still think clearly and objectively, who this person is for whom you are falling. By whom, I refer to background, commitment, education, character, personality, family, friends, values, concern for others, goals and ideals—the things that really count—not the external, superficial things, some of which may be “put on”.
Fall in love with the real person inside the skin. Fall in love deliberately, with control, not on the rebound, or because you’re simply “in love with love”. Fall in love only after you have come to know yourself, not because you feel insecure and think “no one loves me”, and not because you don’t get along with your parents and are anxious to leave home. Don’t let your craving for acceptance or love lead you to throw yourself at the first person who gives you a tumble or is “pliable” in physical conduct.
All this is a matter of decency, honesty and fairness to yourself, to the other person involved, and to your family and Jewish tradition. It is a pre-condition of authentic and lasting love. Let the woman use her “feminine charm”; it’s her legitimate prerogative, a healthy manifestation of her femininity. It’s quite one thing to be charmed by it, but don’t be taken in don’t let it blind you; don’t fall for it... Young men, too, often employ a trickery more harmful and more dangerous than that employed by women. There is no ultimate danger if a girl employs her femininity to charm a young man into turning a fleeting interest into a more serious one. Young men, however, sometimes deceive a young woman into thinking that they are in love, while all they want is a physical relationship. Intimacy without true love, commitment and permanence is a price too high to pay...
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