LEV640 If we look again carefully at that central verse commanding the Jew to treat all people like he would want to be treated, we see that the verse ends with the words "I am God" [this verse]. Why end the most man-to-man verse in the Torah with "I am God"? God is teaching us that every action between men is also an action between man and God. Why and how is this so? Just as man shows honor to an artist by admiring his painting or respecting his work, by treating a human being with honor, Jews also showed respect to the "Artist," the Creator of that human being-God. Thus, every act towards man also brings with it respect for God, the Artist, and transforms it into a man-to-God act as well. One contemporary thinker compared how Jews treat each other to the treatment between siblings, because God is called the Father of the Jewish people (and of all people, for that matter) and Jews are His children (Malachi 2:10). What would any parent prefer experiencing: a child who shows love and devotion to the parent exclusively, or two siblings who show love and devotion to each other? Just as any normal parent would certainly prefer the latter, God also prefers for Jews to demonstrate love for one another, even more than love for Him. This idea seems to be echoed by King Solomon when he tells us that God prefers justice and Tzedaka (charity) between men over man's sacrifices to God, and the Rabbis reiterate this idea as well in the Talmud (Proverbs 21:3, Sukkah 49b). Apparently, how Jews behave towards each other will help them endure until the Messiah arrives. One prophet predicts (Zephaniah 3:13) that the only Jews who will survive the onslaught of Jewish history and endure the test of assimilation and anti-Semitism will be those Jews who do not hurt their fellow Jews, who do not speak lies and deceive one another, and who feed those that are hungry.

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LEV641 See [[LEV301]] Leviticus 19:3 "I" ISSACS 7-8

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LEV642 For the nontheist, an autonomous basis for morality must be affirmed for moral behavior to be justified. For the theist, the existence of God serves as the ultimate source of a justification for moral behavior. For example, a rabbinic text interprets the well-known verse from Leviticus (19:18): "You should love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord"-- to mean: "You should love your neighbor as yourself because I am the Lord, because I [God] have created him." Berakhot 59b.

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LEV643 Just as the physical can serve as an entrée to the spiritual, so can the spiritual be an invitation to the physical. Human love can serve as a path to love us God, but to be complete, love of God must be a portal to love of one's fellow. In this view, communion with God is the foundation for ethical behavior. Figuratively, the verse, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord" (this verse) was taken to refer the to the love of God, i.e., one's "neighbor" is God. (See Rashi to Shabbat 31a; also see Exodus Rabbah 27:1). Literally, the verse was taken to refer to one's fellow human being. In other words, love of God is the premise upon which ethics rest. Through love of the Creator, one comes to a love of His creatures. As a rabbinic text states, commenting on this verse, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself because I am the Lord, because I have created him." Avot d'Rabbi Natan, Solomon Schechter, "A" chap. 16 end, p. 32b.

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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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