LEV660 If we have derekh eretz, we're polite and affable and don't go around bumping into others, either physically or emotionally. But that's not so easy. We regularly can see the truth in the Yiddish maxim: "It's harder to stay on good terms with people then with God." Too often we witness a hurtful behavior Barukh of Medzibezh has in mind when he says that people are very careful not to swallow an insect, but not at all careful about devouring a person (Elkins, Melodies from My Father's House). Common courtesy, the everyday concern that flows from "Love your neighbor as yourself" [this verse], too often gets lost as we engage in conduct that Gluckel of Hameln describes in her memoirs in 1690: "Nothing pleases a person more than ruining his neighbor" (The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln). Hillel counsels a tamer but more ethical realism, recommending: "Anything you hate having done to you, don't do to your neighbor" (Shabbat 31a). Few things are more commonly irksome today than trying to negotiate city streets when people double- or triple-park, so we try not to be guilty of it ourselves. And walking from a distant parking place, we can't stand those who are clearly physically fit yet insist on zooming into a parking place plainly reserved for the handicapped.