LEVITICUS | 19:18 love — LEV653 Based on [this] verse in Leviticus obligat...
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.
Source Key | AMEMEI |
Verse | 19:18 |
Keyword(s) | love |
Source Page(s) | 196 |