Parshas Kedoshim: Brotherly Love

This weeks Torah portion tells us to 'Love your fellow as yourself'.

The Talmud in the Tractate Shabbat relates the story of the budding convert who came to the venerable sage, Hillel, and asked him to teach him the whole Torah whilst standing on one foot (the original source of the phrase 'on one foot'!).  Hillel replied 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.  This is the whole Torah - the rest is commentary..."

Rabbi Akiva considered love for one's fellow a vital principle of the Torah.

Why did Hillel place so much emphasis on this particular precept?  We can understand how it underlies those commandments which apply amongst between our fellow man, but how does it impact on those commandments which apply between mankind and G-d?  How is brotherly love related to keeping the Sabbath, or Kosher?

We need to look further into the concept of loving one's fellow "as oneself".  How can I love someone else like myself?  Ultimately, no matter how close we may become, surely we remain distinct individuals?  Surely the concepts of "self" and "other" are two separate entities?

This is true when we consider our physical existence.  As physical beings, self and other are indeed two distinct entities. In the spiritual realm, however, they are ultimately one, for all souls derive from the same source, united with G-d at that source.  When we regard our physical selves as "I" and the soul as a mere accessory, we are indeed different from another.  If, however, we regard the soul as the "I", our spiritual needs as paramount, then the differences between us become blurred and we are able to love another just as we love ourselves.

Loving another person the same way as one loves oneself involves acknowledging and nurturing our own spiritual roots, seeing ourselves.

In this week's Pirkei Avos, Ethics of the Fathers (Chapter 2) we are told "Do not judge your fellow until you have stood in their place".  Given that only one whose place you can truly stand in is yourself, we are really only qualified to judge ourselves.

Even so, human nature is the exact opposite - to be extremely forgiving and generous towards oneself and one's own failings, whilst being extremely demanding and critical of another.

Shabbat Shalom