Love your Neighbor as Yourself!
This article talks about:
- Universality of "Neighbor"
- Holiness through Love
- Challenges in Practice
-By Joseph Shulam-
This is one of the most famous texts in the whole Bible for Jews of all kinds and Christians of all kinds. The text “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is stated seven times in the Bible. It appears once in Leviticus 19:18, in the Torah portion called Kedoshim, meaning the Sanctified Ones. In the New Testament, it appears six times. In the Muslim Quran, the text does not appear at all, but the closest thing to it appears in the section called Al-Baqarah:
“Say: We believe in God that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction from any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.” (Sura Al-Baqarah, 2:136–137)
The choice of the Netivyah Staff to produce an issue of the Teaching from Zion magazine with the title, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” in Israel during these days is so amazingly timely, so amazingly controversial, so amazingly prophetic, and so amazingly crazy! In the last few months, Israel, in its totality, has been in a whirlwind of division, hate speech, political radicalization, mass demonstrations, and a total breakdown of trust across the board, from the right to the left wings of the Israeli parliament and the public in the streets. I have been living in Israel since 1947. I have seen the wars of Israel in the 1950s and 1960s of the Fadayeen incursions and attacks on Israel’s civilian population by Palestinian terrorists, and in October 1956, the Suez war inspired and encouraged by so-called Great Britain and France, who encouraged Israel, who were supposed to participate together in 1956, and after the conquest of the Sinai Desert, abandoned Israel and allowed Israel to bear the brunt of that war. During 1967, I was a student at the University of Jerusalem when the war started with seven Arab nations planning to attack Israel in concert on four fronts, but Israel preempted them and in six days took all of the Sinai Desert, all the so-called “West Bank of the Jordan River,” and all the Golan Heights. After the six-day war in 1967 came the ensuing War of Attrition. After the great victory of Israel over the Arab neighbors surrounding us came the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, led by a coalition of Arab States led by Egypt and Syria. In the wake of the Yom Kippur War came a decade of Palestinian insurgency and the Lebanon War in 1981–1982. The goal of the Lebanon War was to root out the Palestinian terrorist groups that made Lebanon their base and launched terror attacks and terror operations against Israel. This Lebanon war was the first, and the second one came in South Lebanon in 1985 and lasted until 2000. I don’t want to turn this article into a calendar of the wars between Israel and its Arab and Palestinian neighbors. I just wanted to give you a short overview of some of the frameworks of hate, war, and terrorism that have come against Israel in the years since I and my family immigrated to Israel in 1947. The hate, the enmity, and the murderous terrorist activity against Israel are certainly not over, and they are, as the word of God says, Israel’s daily bread! But I must remember that this article is not on the topic of war and hate. This article is on the topic of “Love your neighbor as yourself!”
The text from Leviticus 19:18 appears in the New Testament six times, and here they are:
Matt. 19:19, “Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “
Matt. 22:39, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Mark 12:31, “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Rom. 13:9, “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, they are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Gal. 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
James 2:8, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.”
Suddenly, I remembered that what we are writing about in this issue of Teaching from Zion magazine is only a partial quotation from Leviticus 19:18. The full picture from the Torah in Leviticus is just a little more challenging and personal. But it is seldom taken into account. Here is the full verse from Leviticus, and it is always important not to take half verses and bandy them around like they were cookies.
Here is the full verse of Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” We all must notice the narrow context of this command. The narrow context is not a general statement of truth. The context is very specific, describing a state of having been damaged or hurt, whether emotionally, physically, financially, or in any situation where the natural reaction would be vengeance. The secondary reaction would be to bear a grudge. Bearing a grudge is a natural reaction in a state of affairs where you were hurt, damaged, or mistreated and you couldn’t return the favor to those who hurt and damaged you. Your only possible response is to hold a grievance, hate, dislike, or desire to damage or hurt back those who have mistreated you and taken advantage of you or yours. When you look into the broad context of this command, it changes the picture and the meaning of this very famous and widely quoted half-verse from Leviticus. What makes this verse even more powerful is that it is in the context of Parashat Kedoshim, meaning Saints or Sanctified. A context of someone who has been hurt, damaged, or offended, not in a context of “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Now, to understand this verse that is repeated seven times in the Bible, six of them in the New Testament, we must look at the full context of chapter 19 of the book of Leviticus. God’s command: “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”’” (Leviticus 19:1–2 NKJV).
There is no doubt that these words of God to Moses, words that Moses must say and command the children of Israel, are obligatory, commanded, and required, with no place for change, interpretation, or mitigation. The strength of this command is God’s nature itself: “You shall be holy!” The reason you shall or must be holy is because I, the LORD your God, am holy!” This verse indicates that we are obligated to be holy because God is holy. The upshot of this command is that if we are not holy, we are casting a dark shadow on our God and compromising His holiness! So, it is a very important and serious issue. This is the reason that the rest of chapter 19 is an encyclopedic commentary of practical instructions on how to be holy like God. It is a list of ways to achieve that state of being holy like God.
Okay, Dear God, what shall we do to be holy like you?
“Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and keep My Sabbaths; I am the LORD your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods; I am the LORD your God. And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace offering to the LORD, you shall offer it of your own free will. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day. And if any remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. And if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination. It shall not be accepted. Therefore, everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the hallowed offering of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from his people. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God. “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD. You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
“You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you. Whoever lies carnally with a woman who is betrothed to a man as a concubine, and who has not at all been redeemed nor given her freedom, for this there shall be scourging; but they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
“And he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, a ram as a trespass offering. The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he has committed. And the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him. When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised. Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten. But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the LORD.” “And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase: I am the LORD your God. You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying. You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD. Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness. You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD. Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD. And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:3–37 NKJV)
I realize that it is not common to quote a whole chapter from the Bible in an article, but in this case, I feel that I must bring to you this whole chapter 19 of the book of Leviticus because it is actually a classic example of giving the rule, the paradigm, and then sorting it out point by point, command by command, to the last detail of how to achieve that state of “being holy!” The details of this chapter are truly monumental! I am not going to go through this article point by point; you can and ought to read the whole chapter with great care and reflection on your own path to enlightenment and holiness. I just want to touch on a few of the things that, at first sight, might not make any sense to you.
Please let me start with the simplest and most important thing that the Word of God to Moses is again stressing so clearly. In western civilization, there is a Proverb that states, “Charity starts at home!” It is true, and the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation holds this truth to be self-evident. Moses parses out the details and starts with the family. If a person can’t love his own family—his father and mother and his home—respect them, observe the simplest and most beneficial aspects of our human nature, like the command of honoring and keeping a day of rest like God himself did already in the story of creation in the first chapters of the book of Genesis, that person could never be holy or sanctified. The simple reason is that a person who does not honor his father and mother can’t grasp the need and importance of honoring our Heavenly Father of all creation.
The next big issue that concerns loving your fellow man and your neighbors as yourself is idolatry. If you make an idol, physically or even in your imagination, or you just worship the forces of nature, the Sun, Moon, and stars, you are setting an affront on the One and Only who created our universe. You can’t love your neighbor, your friend, or your own self if you don’t accept and believe that you were designed, planned, and created by an intelligent engineer who wanted you and loves you just the way you are, and that you have a purpose under heaven that you should appreciate and live out to the end. If a person believes and thinks that he is the result of a cosmic accident without a proposition or a purpose, there could be no moral constraint for such a person, and therefore there could be no true love or satisfaction in such a person’s existence. The next requirement for being holy is your relationship to God, your father. That requires a relationship of honor, respect, and love for God, and the way that relationship always plays out is by giving. Love is always a relationship of giving. The way you give to your creator and show your gratitude is through sacrifices, and they too need to be done from a sincere heart and a willing mind.
After a few theocentric [1] commands dealing with the appreciation of God’s provision from the Land, like the harvest and the fertility of the land, the commandments change from theocentric to anthropocentric. [2]
The next issue that the Torah raises is loving yourself and your body. You really can’t love others and respect them as equal to yourself if you don’t love yourself, and loving yourself according to the Torah means loving your body as it is, because the designer or creator knows what He is doing, and if He chose to give you black and beautiful skin, don’t try to bleach it. Don’t mutilate your body by cutting yourself or tattooing yourself. From yourself, you go to your family again, and you don’t use your family members as merchandise for your own profit and pleasure. From your family, you go out to the less fortunate in your society, the deaf and the blind, and you realize that they are God’s children, equal to you, and they are there to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your humanity, your spark of divinity, and the God nature that is in you; therefore, you don’t curse a deaf person even though he doesn’t hear you, or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. Although the blind can’t see you, the Almighty God sees you. From there, the Torah takes us back to ourselves. The verse commands us to love ourselves so that we can also love our fellow man. If you don’t love yourself, and again, love yourself unconditionally, you can’t really love anyone else. However, if you love yourself, you must also love your neighbor in the same way, as an equal and worthy of life, joy, and all the elements that the Creator put in our human hands.
I would like to share a sad story that happened to me and to a family of dear friends from America that came to visit us in Israel. The family came from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to visit us, and we took them to visit the tomb of the prophet Samuel on top of the hill Rama. Rama was the home of Samuel the prophet, and it is also where he was buried. Rama was a town on the highest hill, overlooking Jerusalem from the west-northwest. There are rich archaeological remains in Rama, including the tomb of Samuel the prophet, and a beautiful view of Jerusalem from the West. We looked at the Archaeology and went into the building that houses Samuel’s tomb. As we entered the building, there was a young American Orthodox Jewish Rabbi looking at us and listening to my explanations. After a short while, this young Rabbi approaches me in English and says to me, “I see that you know much! You ought to come and join us in the Yeshiva (Rabbinical College) and learn Torah with us!” I asked him, “Why do you assume that I don’t know the Torah?” He said to me, “You don’t wear a kippa!” (A kippa is the little round hat that they wear on their heads as a sign that they are religious.) I told this young Rabbi, “Why don’t you test me to see if I know the Torah or don’t know it?” He said, “Okay. What is this next Shabbat’s Torah reading?” I said to him, “Kedoshim. Can I now ask you a question?” He said, “Yes, you can ask me!” “Well,” I said to him, “There is one verse in Parashat Kedoshim that is universally known and used by Jews and Christians; what is that verse?” He looked at me and without hesitation said, “You shall be holy because I, the LORD, am holy.” I said to him, “This is a good verse, but it is not a verse that almost every intelligent Jew and Christian knows!” “So,” he said, “Okay, I see that you know something about the Torah.” So, the young American Rabbi turns to me and says, “Okay, what is the verse that is so famous for both Jews and Christians?” I said, “It is verse 18 of chapter 19 of Leviticus that says, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself!’” “Yes, the Rabbi said you are right! But who is your neighbor?” “Every human being is my neighbor!” I replied. “And who is your neighbor?” I asked the Rabbi. He quickly replied without a bit of hesitation, “My neighbor is only the one that is exactly like me!” I asked him again, “These soldiers who protect you and guard you day and night, are they not your neighbors? Do you not have to love them too?” I asked the Rabbi. “No!” said the Rabbi, “I don’t have to love them at all because they don’t eat Kosher!” “How about Orthodox Jews from other Hassidic groups like Chabad/Lubavitch? Do you not love them?” The Rabbi replied loud and clear, “No, I don’t love them, and I don’t have to love them; they are not just like me! I only have to love those who are from my group and no one else!” A very sad and sorry mood overtook me! What a sad and bad attitude religion can take, and how dark is a religious group of people who close themselves under a dome of hate and alienation from the rest of humanity and even put God, the creator of all and all flesh, into a religious box of sadness and darkness that doesn’t now allow them to see the Sun and the wonderful creation that the Father of all has created? How dark a religious group is that alienates God and makes Him so small that only a small group of Hassidic Jews from New York who think that they know God own Him as only their own God! The Command of God in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” is universal and does follow through to teach us all that we are made of one flesh, we are all children of God, and that religion ought not to make us enemies but teach us to be brothers. Let us all make a simple and important commitment, the same commitment as that of the Good Samaritan who took that Jew who was violently attacked and vandalized on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, placed him in the inn, and offered to pay for him until he got back on his feet and was able to travel again. A few years ago, when all of the Jewish synagogues around the world were reading this Torah portion of Kedoshim in a Friday afternoon Torah portion, the son of the ex-Chief Rabbi and the brother of the present Chief Rabbi, Rabbi B. Lauw, was asked who is Kadosh (Holy) today. He answered, “Only one who is like the Good Samaritan!” We must all learn and relearn to do two things in order to be able to love our neighbor as ourselves. 1) Learn to love ourselves, remembering that God made us and that He loves us! 2) Realize who our neighbor is! Every human being, because all of us are children of God!
[1] Theocentricity is where our relationship with God is at the center of our interests and our existence. The pagan religions are all theocentric: the human being is like a disposable element, and everything that is important is God.
[2] Anthropocentric means that our relationship with our fellow man and our brothers is at the center of our relationship with God. God doesn’t need our services; our service to God is by serving our fellowman. We don’t really have direct access to the Creator Himself, whom we didn’t see and who is above all of creation. The way we have a relationship with the Creator is through our relationship with our fellow man. This is true from Genesis to Revelation. Here is the teaching of Yeshua that demonstrates this so clearly: “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41–46 NKJV)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Shulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, on March 24, 1946, to a Sephardic Jewish Family. In 1948, his family immigrated to Israel just before the establishment of the State. While in high school, he was introduced to the New Testament and immediately identified with the person of Yeshua. In 1981, Joseph and the small fellowship that was started in his house established one of the first official non-profit organizations of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in Israel – Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry. Joseph has lectured extensively and has assisted in encouraging disciples around the world. He and his wife, Marcia, have two children and two grandchildren.