Love means sacrifice as well as pleasure. To be lasting and genuine, love must be based upon a more enduring foundation than mere fleshly gratification. It must reflect an unselfish innate desire to protect and help and to make the other happy, a God-given love and a spirit of self-sacrifice in which each prefers the happiness of the other to his or her own. This is the only love that lasts!
  This is love, real love, true love—the willingness of a husband to sacrifice himself for his wife, the eagerness of a wife to lay down her life for her husband. This is supernatural love, divine love, God's love, more than human!

—David Brandt Berg

     The German philosopher and scholar Moses Mendelssohn (1729­-86), was born a hunchback. Despite this deformity, which could have soured him on life forever, Mendelssohn achieved maturity and wisdom.
       While on a trip to Hamburg as a young man, Mendelssohn met a rich merchant who had a beautiful young daughter, Frumtje. The young man fell hopelessly in love with her. She too was mature beyond her years, and despite his obvious physical defect, she was attracted to his gentleness, his charm, and his brilliant mind.
       Mendelssohn stayed several weeks in Hamburg, spending much of his time with this lovely girl he had fallen in love with at first sight. When it finally came time to leave, he worked up enough nerve to speak to her father. It was either that or lose her forever.
       The rich and powerful merchant hesitated for a long time. Mendelssohn finally asked him to speak his thoughts frankly. "Well," said the older man, "you are known throughout Germany as a most brilliant young man. And yet ... I must tell you my child was a bit frightened when she first saw you."
       "Because I am a hunchback?"
       Sadly, the merchant nodded.
       Downcast, but not defeated, Mendelssohn asked only one last favor-the privilege of seeing her once more before he left. Admitted to her room, he found her busy with needlework. He spoke at first of various matters, then carefully and gradually, he led the conversation to the subject that was nearest to his heart. "Do you believe," he asked, "that marriages are made in Heaven?"
       "Yes," she said, "for that is our faith."
       "And it is true," he said gently. "Now let me tell you about something strange that happened when I was born. As you know, at a child's birth, according to our tradition, they call out in Heaven that the birth has occurred. And when it is a boy, they announce, 'Such-and-such boy will have this or that girl for a wife.'
       "Well, there I was, just born, and I heard the name of my future wife announced. At the same time, I heard the great far-off voice say, 'Unfortunately, the poor little girl, Frumtje, will have a terrible hump on her back.'
       "Quick as a flash, I cried out, 'O Lord God, if a girl is hunchbacked, she will grow up bitter and hard. Please give her hump to me and let her develop into a well-formed, lovely, and charming young lady.'"
       Mendelssohn waited for her reaction. Slowly, Frumtje looked up. She dropped her needlework, rose, and approached him with arms outstretched.
       The merchant gave his consent and they were soon married, living a long and fruitful life together.

—Bits and Pieces