To bear the sorrow

Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov learned to love when he went to an inn and heard one drunken peasant ask another, “Do you love me?”  

“Certainly I love you,” replied the second.  “I love you like a brother.”  

But the first shook his head and insisted, “You don't love me.  You don't know what I lack. You don't know what I need.”  

The second peasant fell into sullen silence, but Rabbi Moshe Leib understood:  “To know the need of men and to bear the burden of their sorrow, that is the true love of men."