Love Your Fellow

“Love your fellow as yourself” —Leviticus.
“This is a major principle of the Torah” —Rabbi Akiva.
“A soul enters this world for seventy or eighty years just to do a favor for another” —the Baal Shem Tov.

Perhaps nothing has been as detrimental to the Jewish people as the modern idea that Judaism is just a religion. We are much more than a religion; we are a single soul radiating into many bodies, bonding them as one.

A healthy body is one where every part works in harmony. A healthy Jewish people is one big, caring family where each individual loves the other like his or her own self. Where one Jew faces rough times and the others hold his hands. Where one meets good fortune and all of us celebrate. Where no one is labeled or alienated for his or her beliefs, behaviors or background. Where each runs to do an act of kindness for the other, and shuts his eyes and ears to the other’s shame.

Follow Hillel’s golden rule: “If you wouldn’t like it done to you, don’t do it to the other guy.”Love for those closest to home nurtures love for the extended family of humanity, and from there, love for all G‑d’s creatures. But if love doesn’t start at home, from where will it come?

Practically speaking . . .

1. Start each morning by saying, “I accept upon myself the mitzvah to love my fellow Jew like myself.”
2. Follow Hillel’s golden rule: “If you wouldn’t like it done to you, don't do it to the other guy.”
3. Speak only good about fellow Jews. Don’t even listen to a bad word, unless some real benefit will come through your conversation.
4. Care for your fellow Jew’s property and possessions as you care for your own.
5. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to do another Jew a favor.
6. Bring Jewish people together. Tear down the false barriers of age, affiliation and ethnicity.
7. Invite other Jews to share in the most precious thing we have, our Torah and mitzvahs.