From the Chassidic Masters

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi's "Tanya" is the "bible of Chassidism" -- the fundamental work upon which dozens of books and thousands of maamarim (discourses) by seven generations of Chabad Rebbes are based. The "heart" of Tanya is its 32nd chapter which discusses the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael, love of a fellow Jew.

Criticizing another person is not out of the question. It's just that there are a few conditions to attend to before you start...

We detect two tendencies of thought on the place of alienation and loneliness in the Jewish analysis of the emotions. To state this contrast is not to formulate an opposition; simply to open another gate...

A famous talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe analyzes the lives of Noah, Abraham and Moses as milestones in humanity's journey from an instinctive selfhood to a true concept of "love" for a one's fellow. We also encounter the basis of the Rebbe's groundbreaking approach to "outreach" and how to relate to those who are supposedly spiritually "inferior" to oneself.

Rabbi Akiva taught that "Love your fellow as yourself" is a "cardinal principle in Torah." How was it that that Rabbi Akiva's disciples, of all people, were deficient in this area?

A mystical interpretation of the laws of orlah (forbidden fruit of the first three years after a fruit tree's planting), netah revai (the sanctified fruit of the 4th year), and the "mundane" fruit of the fruit tree's 5th year.