Kedoshim-Rabbi Mark Diamond

A You Like You: Loving Your Neighbor
May 3, 2008 / 28 Nisan 5768

Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
Executive Vice President
The Board of Rabbis of Southern California

Torah Portion: Kedoshim ("After the death..."), Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Haftarah Portion: Amos 9:7-15

What does it mean to love another human being? How does one demonstrate love of family? Friends? Neighbors? This week's parashah features the famous injunction: "Love your neighbor as yourself: I am God." (Lev. 19:18) Some 2,000 years ago Rabbi Akiba saw this verse as the great unifying principle of the Torah, the essence of what it means to be a Jew.

His colleague Ben Azzai added that we must understand these words in connection with an earlier passage in the Book of Genesis: "This is the record of Adam's line--God created the first human being in the Divine image..." (Gen. 5:1). According to Ben Azzai, this verse from Genesis teaches that all people are created in the Divine image. Our verse from Leviticus teaches the corollary that all human beings deserve the same honor, respect, and love.

What shall we make of the lofty challenge to "love your neighbor as yourself"? The great modern philosopher Franz Rosenzweig analyzed the import of these words in his classic The Star of Redemption:

Out of the endless chaos of the world, one nighest thing, his neighbor, is placed before his soul and concerning this one, and well-nigh only concerning this one, he is told: He is like you! 'Like you,' and thus not 'you.' You remain You and you are to remain just that. But he is not to remain a He for you and, thus, a mere It for your You. Rather, he is like You, like your You, a You like You, an I--a soul.

My interpretation of Franz Rosenzweig's philosophical gem is that we will never truly be able to love others like ourselves. We cannot nor must not sacrifice our own identities in the quest to love others. Rather, we should recognize that they are like ourselves--they are their own "you"; their lives are every bit as precious and sacred as our own lives.

In my ongoing teleconference learning with Prof. Moshe Halbertal of the Shalom Hartman Institute, we have been studying rabbinic texts that deal with the tachlis (practical side) of the mitzvah of loving your neighbor. What obligations do neighbors share with one another? How far do we extend the "love your neighbor" dictum?

The Mishnah (Baba Batra 1:5) teaches that residents of a shared courtyard may compel one another to contribute to improvements in the courtyard's security. Similarly, city residents may do likewise for improvements to the town, such as a wall for protection. The Gemara's discussion of this Mishnah (Talmud Baba Batra 7b) raises the timeless issue of equity in taxation. How do we determine who should pay more for city services and improvements? Do we levy taxes based on means (family wealth) or benefit (e.g. proximity to the city wall)? Or do we follow the opinion of Rabbenu Tam (grandson of Rashi and one of the Tosefot) that we should integrate the criteria to ensure that wealthier people who live further from the town wall pay more in taxes than poorer people who live closer to the wall?

It is relatively easy to wax poetic about loving others. It is a far weightier challenge to debate what that means in practical terms. Our tradition recognizes that caring communities, like caring families, are built upon foundations of shared duties and responsibilities. This is one critical component in bringing kedushah (holiness) into our lives and our world.