LEV735 The Torah commands us, "Love your neighbor as yourself". (This verse). Seemingly it would have been enough to command "Love your neighbor"; why "as yourself"? The Torah seems to be telling us that it is impossible to love someone else unless you first love and esteem yourself. Likewise, the love of our neighbor is a prerequisite for effective love and concern for others beyond my community. A person who recognizes his own worth is capable of loving others; someone who loves and cares for members of his own community is able to push out the envelope and extend that love onward. But if a person starts by deciding that he will love all human beings equally, he will find it difficult to love any human being effectively. Universal love is certainly the ideal, but this love is achieved by cultivating brighter and brighter concentric circles of concern.