One Source: 3

The merchant who chooses to stay at one fair and not travel around is well aware that it is possible that if he were to go to another fair he may be very successful. He passes up on those opportunities because he knows he has a system that works here. It is better to work that system, then to be seeking out others, that may or may not prove to be at all profitable.
The same is true with any relationship. If a person finds a true connection, he is better off working on and deepening that connection than searching elsewhere in the hopes of finding something better. 

Totally Devoted: 5b

ורחוק מפנינים מכרה ...ושלל לא יחסר, And her price is more than pearls...shall lack no fortune.

When two people are in an intimate relationship, they are united against the world. Each desires to be the vessel for all the other has to offer. There will always be outsiders who are desirous to receive from either party to the relationship - from their wisdom, beauty, or something else - but in doing so they are trying to rob the relationship. When each person treats what they have as being more precious than pearls, that there is no price that would allow them to share it with someone outside the relationship, then ושלל לא יחסר, there will be nothing missing from the relationship; each one will feel and know that they have the other in his or her entirety.

The same is true in a relationship between Man and Hashem.

Totally Devoted: 5

In a monogamous relationship each person is completely devoted to the other. Each one is the vessel to receive all the other has to offer. When one of them shows off before others those things which makes him special , it diminishes the relationship because the relationship is predicated on the fact that each is a unique vessel for the other. When a third party gets involved and is enjoying what one of them has to offer, the essential relationship is no longer monogamous.

(I would like to add that we are not referring here to straying sexually alone, or even primarily. It can be emotional, intellectual, or in other ways as well.)

The Importance of Relationships: 4b

After a person finds enjoyment in being alone with Hashem he will not find any other place of refuge in the world. Nothing will give him satisfaction and relaxation like a moment alone with Hashem. When he is lacking this pleasure he will find himself hungry and desiring that taste of life. Everything else seems empty and dry in comparison; he only wants to feel that connection that he had when he and Hashem were together. (These hopes are what build the eventual connection.)

This is the idea of התבודדות, Hisbodidus. On the one hand the person leaves civilization to go out in to the fields, under the sky. He is like a beast seeking and crying out for his sustenance. On the other hand, this is where he finds his true life.

He will seek out every bit of life he can find in each word of Torah that he studies, in every Mitzvah that he performs, in his every word of prayer - in all that he does. It is all revolving around his ultimate goal of finding a resting place for the Schechinah within his heart. 

The Importance of Relationships: 4a

Hashem established His relationship with us as being predicated on ה' בדד ינחנו, Hashem will lead him alone. הן עם לבדו ישכון, behold this nation will dwell alone. It is in the "aloneness" that is found the opening to develop a relationship with Hashem.

Hashem is telling every person: Your soul is not relaxed. Day and night you are running from one refuge to another because you can't stand yourself as you are. Listen, my child. I will be your place of refuge. Come to me! With me you will feel protected and will no longer feel alone. Of all the things I created there is nothing that can provide you with true tranquility and joy - other than me. Come to me and you will find peace.

Yes, I created you in a way that you cannot be alone. The purpose behind that was that you should be pining for me. The feeling of being alone is not something from which you should be seeking to escape, but the path to lead you to speak with me, to connect to me alone. 

The Importance of Relationships: 3

Most people never find themselves in a state in which they can truly meet themselves; they are always connected to others through personal or professional connections all day. The need to earn a living, to do something, to eat, to be successful preoccupy their minds and fill their hearts until they never have the chance to truly discover their own selves.

As Koheles teaches us, often it takes old age for a person to truly find himself alone. He realizes that all he has is meaningless. Perhaps then he can find himself for the first time. Some people don't want to face themselves and discover all sorts of ailments with which to occupy themselves. These ailments were hitherto undiscovered as he was busy with other pursuits, now they become his pursuit, all in an effort to escape himself.

The Importance of Relationships: 1a

Hashem created the world in such a way that a person cannot exist alone. People always needs others in order to accomplish things; so they can incorporate within their lives things which are external to their essential selves.

Nowadays we can see this clearly when a person misplaces his phone. After a short time he begins to lose his mind. Other people need him and he needs them! The connections are part and parcel of his life. How can he be so alone?! (A person may want a break from his phone for a time, but he will quickly begin to miss it. He had just been feeling that it was becoming a burden because he was with it 24/7.)

A person's desire to connect to other people and his need to know what is going on with them shows that he cannot be by himself. This is what leads to his running from being alone to connect to others. Not only is relating to family members and escape from loneliness, but even work can be an escape from aloneness. This is why our sages compared a job to a wife.

The Value of a Relationship: 6

If a person enters a store and requests an item, there is nothing more to his words than his request. Other times the person listening to what is being said understands that there is another message behind the simple meaning of the words. For example, if a child come to her parent and starts telling her parent about something she did, while the child is verbalizing a simple story the parent hears "love" permeating every word.

But it is a completely different situation when a child is aware that her parent is moved from hearing what is going on with her and comes initially with that intent. Even though she is only telling a story and does not articulate the depth of feeling she is directing toward her parent's heart. The father understands the child's intent and his feeling to his child is even greater.

There is a private communication between the two of them. Someone who overhears the conversation may understand it in its simple superficiality, but their hearts that are full of mutual love understand what an outsider cannot.

The same is true of the praises from a recipient to his benefactor. There is the simple understanding of the words that are being spoken, but there is also a deeper message being communicated. The recipient is giving part of himself to his benefactor with his words. This is the hidden, unverbalized message that expresses the wonderful closeness they share.

With this we can understand the praises we say to Hashem in the Pesukei D'Zimrah. There is a deeper message underlying the words that we are communicating to Hashem. "Look into my heart and hear what I am saying. Understand how close I feel to You."

This depth of communication awakens the heart of the benefactor to reach out with kindness. It creates a deep, personal, connection between the two. Only the heart of man and Hashem can hear these deep feelings that are expressed in the words of praise. The result will be that the benefactor will happily entrust the recipient with all of His greatest treasures.

The Value of a Relationship: 5

The bottom line of what we have been writing, and a fundamental concept of all intimate relationships is that a recipient can only truly feel comfortable when he feels that the giver needs him as well. That creates an equal playing field. There is true peace between them.

We can't find a better example than Hashem. He calls to people and says, "Give strength to God," It is as if He is sitting and waiting to receive. His holiness above comes from man's sanctifying Him below. Obviously, Hashem lacks nothing and needs nothing. However, as the Zohar says, "Israel supports its Father in Heaven." We have the ability to give nachas to Hashem. The Torah describes the sacrifices as bringing nachas to Him. The nachas comes because, "I said, and my will was heeded." Hashem has lowered Himself to receive from His Creations. (The word נחת can also be understood as "to step down.")

A parent can command a child to do something. If it remains simply a command there is a hierarchy, with the parent on top and the child below. That is completely different from a parent who adds, "If you do that, you will give me nachas." Such a request creates a relationship of equals. The parent has lowered himself to be the equal to his son by being willing to receive from him. "I am missing something and only you can give me what I am missing." If this is true in our relationship with Hashem, surely it is true between people. The relationship is perfected when the recipient is also giving - they become equal partners in the relationship and can truly unify.

When one person feels that the other is much stronger and never needs him, he will feel lower. Even if the giver in the relationship always fills his needs he will never feel comfortable as he feels empty. There may be giving, but there is no intimate connection. Only when he realizes that the other person needs him, and he needs to come to the assistance of the other,  are they equal and can receive from each other.

A giver may feel that if he demonstrates a weakness, and need for something, it will impinge on his honor. It may be a teacher who only teaches those topics on which he is very knowledgeable. He is afraid that if he reveals any gaps in hie knowledge the students will stop learning from him entirely. Bu doing so, he robs himself and his students of a real relationship, which, according to the Ariza"l, can only arise between equals.

The Value of a Relationship: 2

When two people are involved in a close relationship each one sees the good points of the other, and not what they lack. As the Rebbe R' Elimielch taught to pray "That I should not see anything demeaning and I will despise him." You don't want to see the dark parts of the other person and end up distancing yourself from her. So, too, when Hashem is in relationship with a person He chooses not to look at the repulsive parts of the person. As the Pasuk says: לא הביט און ביעקב ולא ראה עמל בישראל ה' אלוקיו עמו ותרועת מלך בו, "He does not see out the iniquity in Yaakov and does not see the wrongdoing in Israel. Hashem his God is with him and the love of his king is in him."

There are those who err and spent their time communicating with Hashem telling Him of all of their sins and asking Him to have mercy on them, rather than engaging in a real heart-to-heart conversation. (The time for self-reckoning is not then.) It is like a child whose parent is feeling very proud of him, and the child stands up and announces all of the reasons why the father should be disappointed in him. He ruins the moment.

On the other hand if he correctly takes advantage of the opportunity by connecting joyfully with his inner self to Hashem, without looking at any of his shortcomings, it will soften the heart of Hashem and the person will come to real deep regret that will bring him to truly turn to do better. Otherwise, if he only focuses on his faults, he can come to depression and fall even further. A broken heart is one that is softened towards Hashem (a heart of flesh), not one that is depressed (a heart of stone). A broken heart should leave one desirous of Hashem, happy and given over to Hashem. As Rebbe Nachman writes: When a person is constantly happy he can easily devote some time each day to soften his heart before Hashem and to speak what is in his heart to Hashem. But when he is depressed it is difficult for him to connect and to speak his feelings.

Relationship of Give & Take: 6

When a person feels that he no longer needs prayer and a relationship with Hashem the implication is that he has resigned himself to the way his life is. There is a lack of recognition of the truth - that he is dependent on Hashem.

There are different ways in which a person can find that Hashem is hidden from him. A person may understand that his task during his lifetime is to reveal the glory of Hashem in every action, but he is so preoccupied with his pursuits that he isn't feeling it and internally he is crying out to Hashem to redirect him. But a deeper hiding is when a person finds himself at the pinnacle of success. Everything he does turns out as he desires. All day long Hashem brings success his way, but year after year passes and he never stops to think that he has never once recognized his Creator.

This can be compared to a head of household who feels no need to communicate with anyone in the home. Everything runs on auto-pilot and they don't need his input. Perhaps he is frequently away on business and they have become accustomed to arranging everything at home without consulting him. If he finds himself at home for an extended period of time he has noting to say, he doesn't even know where he can insert himself in the goings on. If the state of the household was such that they were always dependent upon him he would know very well what was going on as they would frequently consult him and he would have what to say?

When a person arranges his life such that everything, big or small, is dependent on Hashem, and he leaves no area of his life which he has not presented to Hashem, then the relationship is open and clear. Over time he feels more and more how much he needs this relationship as through it he is dependent on the one unique source.