LEV686 See [[LEV287]] Leviticus 19:2 holy AGUS 26

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LEV687 Since we are to love our neighbors as ourselves [this verse], but no more than ourselves, is a person allowed to insult another person on the ground that he himself does not mind if other people insult him?--The Torah refers only to a situation where two people share the same attitude. If the other person feels hurt when he is insulted, you must remember not to insult him.… In a case of this kind, they said, "Ignore your will because of the will of your friend, and your friend's will because of God's Will. But, don't you rely entirely on your own understanding. Sefer Hassidim 349.

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LEV688 The call to love God is almost as pervasive in our ethical literature as the command to obey Him. And the love of God is regularly interpreted to mean the acceptance of a pattern of human relations conceived as a response to Divine love: [Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord." [This verse]. The affirmation of the unity of the Lord is followed up by the command to love Him with all one's heart, all one's soul, and all one's might. In turn, this command is spelled out to mean the education of children in the spirit, the molding of one's thought and action to accord with this purpose, and the inscription of this theme on the market places and courthouses of the community. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

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LEV706 Whatever you wish others to do for you (whether helping you with what you need in your affairs, or lightening the burden of your cares when you are distressed) you should do for your neighbor. Therefore one must act accordingly whenever there are mourners, may God protect us. (Yet, because of our many sins, many treat this mitzvah lightly. Especially when poor people are in mourning, no one opens their door. But the contrary is true. The grief and loss of the poor are all the harder to bear, since these unfortunates derive pleasure from nothing else except their children. This line of reasoning appears in the Gemara (see Moed Katan 24b, in respect to the eulogy). I have noticed that this neglect is the result of the poor person having no friends and acquaintances in this world. Scripture has remarked (Proverbs 19:4): "Wealth added many friends; but as for the poor, his friend separates himself from him." Indeed his friend may be separated from him, but he is all the nearer to God. So Scripture has stated (Proverbs 34:19): "God is near to them that are of a broken heart." How great is the recompense of those who comfort and speak encouragingly to them). The basic intent of Nichum Avelim is to give comfort to the mourners. One may fulfill his obligation by merely reciting: "May the Allpresent comfort you…" Nevertheless it is more desirable to speak comfortingly to them and to assuage their grief by some well-chosen remark, for this is the essence of nichum, comfort. See what we have written, further on, in chapter 7, on a similar subject.

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LEV653 Based on [this] verse in Leviticus obligating each Jew to love his fellow Jew, Maimonides rules (Hilchot De'ot 6:3) that the mitzvah to love every Jew as oneself involves caring about his or her money and dignity as if they were one's own. The notion of caring for other Jews is extended further by the concept that every Jew is responsible for every other Jew (Shevuot 39a). This means that a Jew feels the pain of every other Jew. More than just feeling an obligation to help, this idea signifies that a Jew feels another Jew's pain and makes it his or her own pain. Thus, the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6) says that Jews are compared to sheep because when any limb of the sheep hurts, the sheep's entire body feels the pain. Similarly, if a man in a boat cuts a hole under his feet, he cannot claim that this act is no one's business but his own, as the act affects everyone. So, too, when any Jew is in pain, other Jews feel it. In fact, the name Jew itself connotes this concept. Although Yehudi, Jew, originally meant from the tribe of Judah, it has come to mean the person who exhibited the quality of Judah, which was to stand up to his father and Pharaoh and offer himself in order to save his brother Benjamin (Bereishit Rabbah 98:6). Every Jew feels the responsibility and caring for every other Jew. Technically, this term of "responsibility for every other Jew," in Hebrew Areivim, actually translates as a surety, guarantor or cosigner (the same word is used by Judah's action on behalf of Benjamin) (Gen. 43:9). Just as a cosigner for a loan guarantees to pay the loan if the lender defaults, each Jew takes the responsibility to guarantee to God every other Jew's proper moral behavior, as a cosigner.

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LEV674 Rabbi Akivah says that the essence of the world is to love one's neighbor as oneself [this verse] … according to Rabbi Akiva, it seems that the essence of man's activity is centered on the man-to-man relationship, and this should be the driving force in a Jew's life... (Bereishit Rabbah 24:7 and Midrash, Sifra, Kiddushin 4).

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LEV695 The Sefer Hachinuch (Sefer Hachinuch, Mitzvah #243) says that the mitzvah to love one's fellow neighbor [this verse] is a charge to all Jews to create peace among themselves.

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LEV696 The Sefer Hachinuch (Sefer Hachinuch, Mitzvah #538) gives a practical reason for this mitzvah [i.e., the obligation to return lost objects]. Society can exist more cohesively when lost objects are returned. People and society will be more productive economically if lost objects do not remain lost, but are returned to their owners. The Abarbanel (commentary on Deut. 22:1-3) says that the act of returning an object will cause people to feel compassion and consideration for fellow human beings. People will feel better about one another in general, and this feeling will spread to all aspects of man's relationship to man. The Alshich (commentary on Deut. 22:1-3) says that this mitzvah is the actual fulfillment of the commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" [this verse]. God commands us to treat our fellow human beings as we would treat ourselves, and the returning of lost objects converts this feeling into action.

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LEV657 Finally, the key to the reason that the urge for revenge and the urge to retain a grudge should be overcome and forgotten comes from the verse itself that prohibits this sin. It is not an accident that the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself is placed at the end of the verse prohibiting revenge [this verse]. Since no one would want anyone else to commit revenge against him or her for something he or she did, so too, no one should not (sic) take revenge against any individual who feels wronged and who feels as though he or she deserves the right to take that revenge. Because this is so difficult to do, it is the ultimate test of the verse to love one's neighbor as oneself. Any Jew who can bury this urge and not commit revenge can be said to truly love someone else as much as he loves himself.

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LEV647 "Wherefore I perceived that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works." -- Ecclesiastes 3:22. … Religions which stress the hereafter, in the belief that true life begins beyond the grave, instinctively downgrade all the earthly joys of man's existence. They may grudgingly concede the need for satisfying some bodily cravings in the interest of survival and the perpetuation of the species. Such concessions notwithstanding, the postulate that pleasure is intrinsically evil has been repeatedly reaffirmed. Indeed, they prefer celibacy because it eliminates the pleasure of sexual intercourse. Some aesthetics are said to have swallowed their food whole to avoid enjoying the pleasure of eating. Judaism is a this–worldly faith, primarily concerned with the quality of life on earth. It does not recommend the suppression of natural human urges and regards the enjoyment of permissible pleasures as salutatory and wholesome. It decries asceticism but at the same time condemns inordinate pursuit of self-gratification. Most Judaic rituals and precepts have a socioreligious base. The incentive of heavenly reward in the hereafter was muted in the Bible. It was stressed in postbiblical literature as a disciplinary tool for keeping man's conduct within the bounds of morality. Extraordinary acts of piety are not required to assure man of a niche in heaven. Self-affliction is deemed an offense against religion, ethics, and society. Judaism considers life on earth the most prized God-given gift. The biblical command to preserve one's life takes precedence over nearly all other religious precepts. The same holds true for the preservation of other people's lives. Rabbi Akiva boldly pointed to the command "And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" [this verse] as a major biblical principle (Jer. Nedarim 9:4). Had he stressed the hereafter he undoubtedly would have chosen the parallel commandment, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 6:5), as the major biblical principle.

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