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Many Bodies, One Soul

The Mitzvah to Love Your Fellow

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Many Bodies, One Soul: The Mitzvah to Love Your Fellow

A kabbalistic explanation of why whatever we do to others, we are actually doing to ourselves.

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Topics:	Ahavat Yisrael

By Nomi Freeman

Nomi Freeman is the daughter of the renowned Argentinian Kabbalist Professor Avraham Polichenco, of blessed memory. She is well known for her seminars on spirituality and Jewish mysticism. Mrs. Freeman has lectured extensively in Canada and abroad. Contact her here for lecture engagements.

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25 Comments

Debra Paulino Kenosha February 9, 2016

Beautifully perfect. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma October 30, 2011

crossed lines There is a fine line between being one's self, and the abolition of all negativity. Here is an example. Someone near and dear to me swears when he encounters people en the road, as he is driving, who do stupid, dangerous things. Then he lets loose, a volley. For him, it's safe to do this, and a way of letting off steam, and only the passenger, if there is one, hears him.

But I was taught, it's not "nice" to swear, not refined. So one day I told him how I felt and he said he would stop completely. He became someone quite different, and it didn't feel like him, withou that "old fire". I actually got worried, since he was doing such a good job of not being the person I "knew" and loved.

I actually begged him to be his old self, and then he did relinquish the new "him".

For me, there is a lesson here, in that in all of us, there can be, idiosyncratic and endearing ways of being, and that we actually don't want to eliminate all of this, but love needs to be the final yardstick. Reply

Anonymous October 29, 2011

Latching on to the affirmative I have been trying so hard to not say and do negative things-- I have been under a lot of stress and sometimes swearing or saying mean things has been a visual symptom of that. What you said at 36:39, your story then what your husband said about the benefits of wanting to do something negative and not doing it and how the light of Hashem shines into your soul and into this world and the other worlds because you didn't-- that has helped me so, so much! Thank you. The rest of this is wonderful, but that anecdote just made my whole life better! I will think of this often! Reply

Mr. Mordechai Kirsch July 19, 2011

thanks you I loved this lecture. I wish my ex-fiancee would understand the concept of loving another fellow Jew like herself. Actually I'd just like her to accept and embrace her own Judaism. This lecture is indispensable and it's refreshing to listen to a woman's point of view as opposed to mostly men. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, MA May 15, 2011

One Soul, many FACES For me, in moving in and out of the frame, as I do, constantly, I do perceive that I am always talking to G_d in talking to YOU, meaning this audience of seekers, and, wherever I am, I am in the Presence of the Divine.

I see that we are all being Divinely inspired within a Cosmic Dance, and that each of us, is actually Divine, and that Divinity is speaking through us all.

There is a deep paradox here, and it must often be forgotten to carry on in this world.

I know, that everything we are gifted, including ourselves, is, Divine. And so I must seek out, what is truly meaning behind meaning, in parsing out what we must do, to make this a better world. That's the paradox, those who say they are speaking for the Divine, and they are Divine, but their words are somehow meant to be put into translation, because they are not according to the precepts we are taught, about bringing in humane ways of being.

So, who, in this sea of faces, speaks for G_d? Yes, Many faces, Many voices. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma May 15, 2011

once upon a story: One Song/Many Voices My Father used to tell me stories at night and leave me hanging, begging for the next. And so it was I looked for add ventures, and that is how he sent me dreaming.

Life is an adventure, and what is opening for us all, a gift, with many wrappings and much "rap" is just this, a story, a neverending story, perhaps the most amazing story ever told.

We go back as we move forward, adding to the richness of story the deep metaphoric and story connects with name, naming and, song, both Biblical and beyond, since we are all of us, constantly living and reliving, stories, and connecting, to each other, often miraculously, seemingly through the astonishment of ends that meet, that seem so unlikely. What is elusive and allusive is part of the magic.

The great paradox of life is that we need each other, and we are also, deeply needing solitude, meditative space, and that we move, as always between the "poles". I follow a North Star, and I know that star will bring me Home, back to the Garden. Reply

David Chester Petach Tikva, Israel May 13, 2011

Hillel and the "Golden Rule" I am no saint and to expect me to follow the Golden Rule and actually share with my neighbours what I have earned for myself is an exaguration! So when Hillel the Elder re-phrased this Rule into a double negative form, it was expressed in form that we can more easily follow.

For me this change is very acceptable but it has another important aspect in that it applies to a far larger community than the original instruction. The original Rule was a microeconomics one whilst Hillel's modification applies in a macroeconomics way. As such we should not pollute because it can affect the whole world etc.

It also means that we should share on a world scale and this complies with the idea of the earth being a gift to Mankind for his careful use on a basis of equallity of opportunity of access to it.

In practice the way to manage this is to tax land values of owned sites instead of taxing production and having a unequal distribution of the produce of our given bounty. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma May 12, 2011

do not give me things unbroken This is the title of a book of poetry put out by a poet. I participated in his beautiful workshops.
It is also a phrase deeply resonant for me, and should be, for us all because it's about life, and the need for tikkun, to help others, to fix what is broken, and that is perfection itself. Meaning in being gifted a broken world one could say, in its imperfections life is, perfect. And I say this knowing about the depths of sadness, cruelty, the terrible darkness that overcomes us all, in every way. But then there is the light, and I say, we cannot have the one, without, the other.

As a potter I know it is the punching, the pummeling, the handling and the firing, of that vessel and the burnishing with glazes, that makes it a work of art. And so it is, a metaphor and truth about us all.

I do believe we're here, for this task, of putting the broken pieces together, and, as in a vase, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and so it is, symphony with "lieder". Reply

Anonymous toronto, ON May 11, 2011

it's innate thank you for the lovely reminder. Reply

Anonymous Washington, dc May 11, 2011

"Neighbors: include non-Jews too! She limits G-d's command to love your neighbor as yourself by her clause "other Jews." The Book of the Law (of G-d) commands that we love our neighbor as ourself. Note the Torah command that foreginers be included in the Passover.

Thanks for sharing the more powerful negative iteration: "What is hateful, don't do to others." Reply

Richard Lennard London, England May 11, 2011

My hand I have five fingers on my hand. If one finger is damaged then my hand is damaged. So it is with all humanity.

'Love God and others as I love myself' !
This is just the problem. When people do not love themselves or God. Their atitude and behaviour towards others reflects that. Reply

Judith Anne jacksonvile, usa May 10, 2011

loved your talk Loved your talk. It motivated me to be a better person. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma May 10, 2011

this story is about RUAH: breath/soul Here is a way of understanding this that is same and different. All people have a certain amount of ruah, meaning loving kindness, a kind of purity of loving, but there is a purity of loving that supercedes all of this, and we are all of us, trying to reach that level of purity, We are deeply part of the One soul, and we are moving towards that perfection of soul. Call it RU AWE. "The Book of Ruth".

Once this happens, the division of souls is spiritually together. Can it happen?

We are each of us part of the One, part of the Divine Source of which we are part.

For me, I do not separate this out, into Jew and non Jew. Why? Because there is One God, for us all. We are all, regardless of religion, part of that greater Unity.

Roots and Branches, a book by Arthur Strimling, happens to be on my desk at this moment and I have asked the college where I teach adults in retirement whether I can do the work of this book which is intergenerational theater. My life is Massively synchronous. Reply

nathan cairo, egypt May 10, 2011

shalom mispukh i like your teaches i enjoy it thank Reply

Cathy NY, NY April 1, 2011

love excellent piece. I thought your last statement was so beautiful. Looking in that mirror and asking if i spread love whereever I go, made me feel as though that action is so important that I must be mindful of my good actions and their importance. And when the days occur that I am not so good at spreading happiness, I can always look to tomorrow and be that good person again. Reply

John Pitts Wheeling March 29, 2011

Many Bodies One Soul Beautiful! Reply

Anonymous Lodz, Poland March 23, 2011

explanation : why .. there are two kinds of comunication with an audience: [1] a river of words pushed by temporary thoughts; [2] pushing a chain of statement - to say/explain sth in a few sentences. the socond one is for me, as an man of alien language, useful. after the full stop at the end of a sentences, I can catch the content. so it's why I can understand your lecture. Reply

Judy olam hazeh March 23, 2011

thx for clarifying the idea of love beginning within one's own proximity- family, ethnic group, etc. However, at this lowest level of reality, people do tend to be exclusive, interpreting this to mean that there are 'insiders' and 'outsiders'- 'us' and 'them'- when really there is only HaShem and His creations. So universal love is profoundly necessary to emphasize in all spiritual teachings-the highest relationship with G-d is recognition of all that He has created without exception.

Also, I hadn't heard the explanation of 'cli' before as cohenim-levi'im-yehudim. As 'cli' is a covering of the unmanifest hidden soul/holiness- I had the understanding that clipot were traits to undo because they separate man from G-d. Your use of it seems to be that of connecting man to G-d, so I'd like to learn more about that if possible.

Looking forward to the next lecture! Reply

Kayo Tokyo, Japan March 23, 2011

If He wants it, then When I think, that is what G-d wants, then I think I can love fellows as myself. Reply

Mary Ann Fremont, Ca March 23, 2011

Many Bodies, One Soul Thank you Mrs. Freeman for your great insights. Reply

Many Bodies, One Soul: The Mitzvah to Love Your Fellow

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