{"id":45504,"date":"2018-12-11T13:02:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T11:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45504"},"modified":"2022-07-06T10:39:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T07:39:40","slug":"love-your-fellow-3-words-4-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/love-your-fellow-3-words-4-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Fellow: 3 Words, 4 Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[480,575,381,436],"acf":{"old_id":"45504","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34011,"related_cahpter":"109","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"You want me to do what? To whom? Seriously?","content":"

Actually, the three words in the title refer to the three Hebrew words in the original – \u201cve-ahavta le-rei\u2019acha kamocha<\/em>\u201d \u00a0\u201cLove your fellow as yourself\u201d (Lev 19:18).<\/span><\/p>\n

What could be wrong with such a pithy encapsulation of the basic moral imperative?<\/span><\/p>\n

First of all: \u201clove.\u201d What\u2019s being commanded here? An emotion? A behavior? What does it mean to command love? How does this \u201clove\u201d compare with love of a parent, a sibling, a child – or even the love of God, which is also commanded (Deut 6:5) with \u201cve-ahavta<\/em>\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, the little particle \u201cle-.\u201d Our translation is faulty here. Usually we love someone directly (\u201cI love you\u201d), as in the aforementioned command to love God, the phrasing is \u201cve-ahavta ET adonai<\/em>\u2026\u201d \u201cet<\/em>\u201d signifying the direct object. Here, the small Hebrew prefix letter \u201cle-\u201d indicates the indirect object, and literally means \u201cYou shall love to your fellow.\u201d This is as strange in Hebrew as it is in English: if you love, say, chocolate, you would say \u201cAni ohev shokolad,<\/em>\u201d never \u201cani ohev le-shokolad<\/em>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps this \u201cproblem\u201d though is actually a solution to the first question. Perhaps the command is not to love one\u2019s fellow, with all the fraught nature of what that might entail emotionally, but essentially \u201cshow love to<\/em> your fellow,\u201d behave in a loving fashion. Seems somehow more doable. <\/span><\/p>\n

What about the second word – \u201crei\u2019acha<\/em>\u201d? Often translated as \u201cneighbor,\u201d who is this object of our love? The guy next door? Buckets of ink have been spilled over the question: does this only refer to your fellow Israelite? Are we only commanded to love Jews? This problem is also solvable, because even if the intent here is restrictive, only 16 verses later in the same chapter the exact same phrasing is used to refer to the ger<\/em>, the foreigner: \u201cThe stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens – ve-ahavta lo kamocha<\/em> – you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt\u201d (19:34). However we interpret this loving behavior regarding one\u2019s \u201cfellow,\u201d it holds identically for us and them, the homegrown and the foreigner or immigrant. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, what about the last word: \u201ckamocha<\/em>\u201d – \u201cas yourself\u201d? Is this a minimum – consider your fellow and their interests as no less than your own? Famously, Hillel \u201ctranslated\u201d this dictum as: \u201cWhat is hateful to you do not do unto others\u201d (Talmud, Shabbat 31a). Or is it a maximum: do not feel obligated to sacrifice yourself for them, for you need (only) love them as yourself? <\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, \u201cas yourself\u201d seems to define quite a relative, even subjective standard, permitting every masochist to be a sadist. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, whereas Rabbi Akiva defined this verse as a \u201cklal gadol,\u201d a supreme principle of the Torah, there was an argument over what teaching is the most foundational (Sifra, Kedoshim 4:12). Ben Azzai claimed it was Genesis 5:1: \u201cThis is the book of the generations of man. On the day that God created man, in the likeness of God He created him.\u201d His view is both clearly universal, encompassing the entire human race, and objective and absolute: our behavior to others should be based on the divine image in them, not an extension of our own self-love.<\/span><\/p>\n

However we look at it: striving to show lovingkindness to our fellow human beings remains a foundation of morality, \u00a0one of the essential ingredients of holiness, and a worthy, if difficult to achieve ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n

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