ד"א יערף כמטר לקחי - ר' יהודה אומר: לעולם הוי אדם כונס דברי תורה כללים, שאם כונסן פרטים - מייגעים אותו, ואין יודע מה לעשות. משל למלך שהלך לקיסרי וצריך מאה זוז או מאתים זוז הוצאה: נוטלים פרט - מייגעים אותו, ואין יודע מה לעשות; אבל אם מצרפם, ועושה אותו סלעים - פורט ומוציא בכל מקום שירצה.
Or, "let my lesson ya`arof like rain": R. Yehudah said: One should gather words of Torah as klalim; for if he gathers them as pratim, they wear him out and he doesn't know what to do. An analogy: One going to Caesarea and requiring one hundred or two hundred zuzim for expenses — If he takes them in perutoth (small coin), they wear him out he doesn't know what to do; but if he melts them into selaim (large coin), he can divide and spend them wherever he wishes.
A play is made on prat (“detail”, also “small coin”) and on ya`arof, which elsewhere in this piska is used in the same sense we use “break”, as in “can you break a 20 for me”.)
אבל חכמים אומרים זה כלל גדול בדין המוציא מחבירו עליו הראיה
But the Sages say, this is a fundamental principle of justice: The one who takes from his fellow bears the burden of proof. (i.e. possession is 9/10 of the law).
היך עבידא הוה מקטע קופד ומחת סכינא לידוי תחזור ותמחי לידיה. (ויקרא יט) ואהבת לרעך כמוך. רבי עקיבה אומר זהו כלל גדול בתורה. בן עזאי אומר (בראשית ה) זה ספר תולדות אדם זה כלל גדול מזה.
What is an example? Someone was cutting meat and laid the knife on his hand. Would he in turn cut the other hand? (Leviticus 19:18) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Rabbi Akiva says: This is the great principal of the Torah. Ben Azzai says: (Genesis 5:1) "This is the book of the generations of Adam" is the great principal of the Torah. (Mishnah Nedarim 9:4)
עין יעקב בהקדמת הכותב
בן זומא אומר מצינו פסוק כולל יותר והוא שמע ישראל וגו'. בן ננס אומר מצינו פסוק כולל יותר והוא ואהבת לרעך כמוך. שמעון בן פזי אומר מצינו פסוק כולל יותר והוא את הכבש האחד תעשה בבוקר וגו'. עמד ר' פלוני על רגליו ואמר הלכה כבן פזי.
R. Jacob ibn Habib, Introduction to Ein Yaakov (1516)
Ben Zoma says: We have found a more inclusive verse, and it is, “Shema Yisrael.”
Ben Nanas says: We have found a more inclusive verse, and it is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Shimon Ben Pazi says: We have found a more inclusive verse and it is, “The first lamb you shall sacrifice in the morning and the second lamb you shall sacrifice in the evening.”
Rabbi Ploni stood up and said: The halakha is in accordance with Ben Pazi.
Composed in Salonica / Thessaloniki (c.1490 - c.1550 CE). Ein Yaakov (Well of Jacob) is a compilation of all the Aggadic material in the Talmud together with commentaries. Its introduction contains an account of the history of Talmudic censorship and the term Gemara. It was compiled by Jacob ibn Habib and completed posthumously by his son Rabbi Levi ibn Habib (Maharalbach). There are some differences between the version of the Talmud found in Ein Yaakov and printed versions, in addition to passages that appear only in Ein Yaakov.
(ז) ר' עקיבא אומר: (ויקרא יט) ואהבת לרעך כמוך, זה כלל גדול בתורה, שלא תאמר הואיל ונתבזיתי יתבזה חבירי עמי, הואיל ונתקללתי יתקלל חבירי עמי. אמר רבי תנחומא: אם עשית כן, דע למי אתה מבזה, בדמות אלקים עשה אותו.
Rabbi Akiba says: "Love your fellow human being as you love yourself," this is a fundamental principle of the Torah, so that you will not say, 'I was degraded, let my fellow be degraded with me; I was cursed, let my fellow be cursed with me.' Rabbi Tanchuma said: If you do this, know whom you are degrading, this person who was made in God's image.
שוב מעשה בנכרי אחד שבא לפני שמאי א"ל גיירני ע"מ שתלמדני כל התורה כולה כשאני עומד על רגל אחת דחפו באמת הבנין שבידו בא לפני הלל גייריה אמר לו דעלך סני לחברך לא תעביד זו היא כל התורה כולה ואידך פירושה הוא זיל גמור.
Another time a non-Jew came before Shammai and said, "I will convert if you can teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot." Shammai pushed the non-Jews aside with the ruler that was in his hand. The non-Jew came before Hillel and Hillel converted him saying, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor, that is the entire Torah, the rest is just commentary, now go and study."
(ו) וידיעת דבר זה מצות עשה שנאמר אנכי יי אלקיך וכל המעלה על דעתו שיש שם אלוק אחר חוץ מזה עובר בלא תעשה שנאמר לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים על פני וכופר בעיקר שזהו העיקר הגדול שהכל תלוי בו:
(6) The knowledge of this matter is a positive commandment, as it says, "I am the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:2). And anyone who brings upon his mind that there may be another god beside Ado-nai violates a negative commandment, as it says, "You shall not have other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3). And this [thought] is heresy against what is fundamental. For this [knowledge of God] is the greatest principle upon which everything else depends.
דין השכמת הבוקר ובו ט סעיפים:
יתגבר כארי לעמוד בבוקר לעבודת בוראו שיהא הוא מעורר השחר: הגה ועכ"פ לא יאחר זמן התפלה שהצבור מתפללין. (טור) הגה שויתי יי לנגדי תמיד הוא כלל גדול בתורה
One should strengthen himself like a lion to get up in the morning to serve his Creator, so that it is he who awakens the dawn. Rem"a: At least, one should not delay beyond the time when the congregation prays (Tur). Rem"a: "I have set the Lord before me constantly" (Psalms 16:8); this is a major principle in the Torah
Source #4 Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals
Act only according to that maxim that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.
Nietzsche calls the idea "horrifying and paralyzing",[citation needed] referring to it as a burden of the "heaviest weight" ("das schwerste Gewicht")[12] imaginable. He professes that the wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life:
"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' "[The Gay Science, §341]
Mark 12:28-34
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Arthur Green, quoted in Siddur Lev Shalem, p. 155
The core of our worship is not a prayer at all, but a cry to our fellow Jews and fellow humans. In it we declare that God is one- which is also to day that humanity is one, that life is one, that joys and sufferings are all one- for God is the force that binds them all together. There is nothing obvious about this truth, for life as we experience it seems infinitely fragmented. Human beings seem isolated from one another, divided by all the fears and hatreds that make up human history. Even within a single life, one moment feels cut off from the next, memories of joy and fullness offering us little consolation when we are depressed or lonely. To assert that all is one in God is our supreme act of faith. No wonder that the Sh’ma, the first “prayer” we learn in childhood, is also the last thing we are to say before we die