Jewish Values - Love Your Neighbour

Love Your Neighbor Like Yourself Part I

By Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen

“Do not take revenge, do not bear a grudge against a member of your people, love thy neighbor like yourself.¹”

“Love thy neighbor” - is there any commandment more well-known than this? Yet we must ask ourselves what this requires on an individual level? Understood literally this would imply that we must have the same emotional feelings of love to others that we naturally feel for ourselves. Yet is this really possible? We all feel a very strong love for ourselves and it is surely impossible to love other people to the same extent.

A more satisfactory explanation of this commandment is that it obligates us to strive to desire that our friend succeeds in life. This attitude is not based on emotions, rather it comes from an intellectual understanding that the success of another person should also be a source of joy to ourselves. In order to achieve this level we must work on removing feelings of jealousy towards others. Jealousy comes when a person feels threatened by his friends achievements, and feels inadequate as a result. But we need to recognize that each person has his own unique set of talents tailor-made for him to be able to fulfill his potential in life.
For example, the abilities required of a pitcher in baseball are very different from those needed to be a great batter. Would a pitcher be jealous of the batter’s ability to hit a ball very hard?! And likewise, would a batter feel lacking if he could not pitch a ball as accurately as the pitcher?! Of course not - they realize that they have a particular role in the team that requires certain talents but not others. So too, I have no reason to feel jealous of my friend’s abilities. Had I needed them I would have been blessed with them!

Once we can internalize this idea then it will become far easier to share in our friend’s joy and empathize with his pain. So, when a friend is seeking employment, the command of “love thy neighbor” tells us that we should strive to want him to succeed as much as we would want to succeed ourselves. And if he fails in a test then we should try to imagine how we would feel in the same situation and transfer that feeling to him. This is one of the key aspects of ‘love thy neighbor’ and if we can live by this then we can avoid unwarranted jealousy and feel far more content with our lot in life.

¹ Vayikra, Parshas Kedoshim, 19:18.

Mussar from the Torah Portion: MISHPATIM

Slaves to Who Exactly?

In this week’s Torah portion of Mishpatim we read about some of the laws concerning servitude.

God says “The children of Israel are slaves to me.” Why is this necessary?

During the six days of work, from Saturday night until Friday afternoon, one can become so engrossed in the physicality of work and in the tempo of things; that he simply does not want to stop. He has become enslaved to his worldly affairs and is unwilling to relinquish the physical in return for the spiritual.

Thus, God tells us explicitly that we are slaves to Him. We are slaves to God and God alone.

Slaves have a purpose; to serve their master. However, not all slaves have equal tasks. We need to remember this. We all have our unique task on this world. Not all tasks are equal. Each requires its own characteristics and individual needs.

However, this aspect of a sense of duty should instil in us a sensible list of priorities. When we need to decide whether to serve the BlackBerry or God, it should be obvious which one to choose.

The Shofar, The Torah and you

In this week's Parsha we read about the giving of the ten commandments, the fundamentals of the Torah.

"And when the voice of the shofar sounded long, and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice."

The classical Biblical commentator Rashi explains:
”When a person blows a shofar, (Ram's horn blown on the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah and some other occasions throughout the year) - the longer he sounds the shofar, the weaker the sound becomes. At Mount Sinai, though, the sound of the shofar became louder as it got longer.”

Anyone who has had any musical experience knows that any (non-synthetic / non-electronic) musical instrument that is played for a long note will end on a diminuendo.

However, the sound of the shofar was different. How?

The sound of the shofar at the giving of the Torah has never ended. It continues and becomes stronger from generation to generation. It calls upon Israel and the pious people of the nations of the world to fulfill the commandments of God, which gladden the heart and enlighten the eyes.

The great Chassidic Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explains:

“Some people hear the shofar of Rosh Hashanah all year, and some hear the sound of the shofar which was blown when the Torah was given all the days of their lives.”

We have to hope and strive for that Shofar to appear in our lives on a daily basis. That shofar, the sound of repentance and closeness to God, speaks to us.

All we have to do is understand the language.

Mussar from the Parsha: Yitro

לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנָי

שמות כ:ג

Exodus Chapter 20
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.

They asked Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk: What new thing did King David tell us when he said (Psalms 81:10): “There shall not be a strange god in your midst”? Is there not an explicit commandment that “you shall not have other gods”?

He answered: King David’s intention was that you shall not have within yourself a God who is “strange” - a stranger to you. Rather, God’s presence should dwell within you in your heart at all times.