V'Ahavta L'Reiakha Kamokha

Kedoshim 

Compiled by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg and translated by Rabbi Avi Billet 

Itturei Torah, a sefer that has a collection of Divrei Torah on every parsha, has two pages dedicated to the Mitzvah of V’ahavta l’Rei’akha Kamokha – which is often loosely translated to mean “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Torah ideas are sourced from a cross between classic commentaries to Chassidish Rebbehs, sometimes with stories attached, sometimes a musser lesson. I don’t know if the book has been translated (I am pretty sure it hasn’t been). 

Here are many of the entries on this verse – my translation (AB).  [If you'd like to see perspectives from more "classic" sources - click here]

 R Moshe Leib Sassover explained how he learned from a non-Jew what it means to love your fellow man. He saw two villagers sitting around, drinking together, till they were quite inebriated. They started kissing one another. One said to the other, “Do you love me?” Of course I do, my friend! “How can you say you love me, when you don’t know what I lack?” 

 R Moshe Leib said, “At that moment I realized that a Jew doesn’t truly love his fellow until he is aware of what his fellow Jew lacks,” and how he can therefore help the other person. 

R Avrohom Chaim of Zolotzhov asked R Shmelke of Nikolsburg how one can fulfill this mitzvah when the other Jew is truly wicked? 

R Shmelke explained: All Jewish souls are part of one soul. Just as your soul is in every part of your body – and if your hand were to accidentally hurt a different part of your body, you wouldn’t strike your hand (to punish it) as it would only make you feel worse… So too, a fellow Jew, whose soul is a part of your soul, if you mistreat him for being bad to you, you’re only hurting yourself more. 

 The Yehudi HaKadosh (R Yaakov Yitzchak of Peshischa) asked how can you really love every person like yourself? Presumably, in human nature, you’ll gravitate toward Tzadikkim and love them more! 

See the third word of the Mitzvah: כמוך – as yourself. Surely you have some parts of you that you care for more, such as the heart, brain, liver, surely more than certain fingers or toes. So too you have to love each person per his ערך – what he brings to the table (his value). 

 R Akiva taught that V’ahavta… is a great principle of the Torah. A good measure of where you stand in your connection to Torah is how great your Ahavas Yisrael (love of your fellow Jew) is. 

 In the Kotzk Beis Medrash it was taught – “How can you be commanded to love another AS YOURSELF? Are you allowed to love YOURSELF? Loving oneself leads to arrogance, to laziness in one’s thinking, to self-deception.” The answer given: כמוך – the energy you put into lowering your ego and nullifying your own personage is the energy you have to put into loving your fellow Jew. 

A “Gadol” is credited with saying that to whatever degree a person is lapse in V’ahavta L’rei’akha ka’mokha is a good indicator of how a person is also lapse in v’ahavta es Hashem E’lokekha. 

The Zeide of Slabodka taught “Just as you love yourself, without having a mitzvah to do so, so must you love your fellow Jew, not because there is a mitzvah.” 

The Chazon Ish explained a perspective of the Rambam. Jews who sin are also considered רעך, so much so that the Rabbis taught (Sanhedrin 52) that even one who is to be executed by the Beit Din should be given an appropriate (swift) death because of v’ahavta l’reiakha kamokha. The only time you are allowed to hate a Jewish sinner is if after his having been given proper rebuke he still continues in his ways of folly. The Talmud (Erchin 16) teaches in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah that no one knows how to rebuke anymore. Thus since no one ever really gets proper rebuke, they can’t be considered רשע, and we are to still love them. 

The Baal HaTanya taught that before davening a person should say “I accept upon myself the mitzvah of V’ahavta l’reiakha kamokha” because the mitzvah of loving your fellow Jew is the gateway to be able to stand before the Almighty to pray. 

 R David of Mikilyob (a student of the Baal Shem Tov) offered that if you love your fellow Jew, and see your fellow Jew as being equal with you - no one is better, no one is less - then two Yuden (Yidden, Jews) together (think of the way God’s name is sometimes spelled in a Siddur with two “Yud”s next to each other – י י ) can bring Hashem in ever so close, which is attested to by the last words of the verse ואהבת לרעך כמוך אני ה'. 

 R Avraham Yaakov of Sadigora put the pause in a different place. ואהבת לרעך – when you love your friend, כמוך אני ה' – as you do to your friend I will do to you (says God). 

There are many other interpretations for how this verse is telling us to relate to our fellow. They include looking out for the other’s person’s property, the other person’s person, to want to do good for our fellow, to not be judgmental, to treat others as we would like to be treated. 

And of course, many also point to Hillel’s famous version of this, which he told to the potential convert, “That which is hateful unto you do not do unto others. The rest of the Torah is commentary – go study!” 

ALL of this puts the onus on ourselves to be advocates FOR our fellow Jews. Unfortunately, so many people in the world hate us (even though most don’t know why). So – if we can spread a little love amongst ourselves, we all benefit (at the very least) on the back end, if not immediately and directly.