(18) You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Eternal.
Who is my "neighbor"?
What does it mean to "love my neighbor"?
What does it mean to love my neighbor "as myself"?
Are there any limits to this love of my neighbor?
The verse itself is odd. Rather than the article "et" coming before "neighbor / re'a,"
we have the indirect preposition, "l-[word]" instead. What is the meaning of this unusual grammatical construction?
4) "shall be to you the ger that lives among you. And you shall love them as yourself." Just as it is written of Jews (Ibid. 19:18) "and you shall love your fellow as yourself," so is it written of gerim "and you shall love him as yourself." "for you were strangers in the land of Egypt": Know the soul of the strangers, for you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt."
(34) The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Eternal am your God.
What does the verse "love you ger as yourself" do to one's understanding of "love your neighbor as yourself"?
(ג) וַיֹּאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵ֗הוּ הָ֚בָה נִלְבְּנָ֣ה לְבֵנִ֔ים וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וַתְּהִ֨י לָהֶ֤ם הַלְּבֵנָה֙ לְאָ֔בֶן וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם לַחֹֽמֶר׃
(3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.—
(ב) דַּבֶּר־נָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וְיִשְׁאֲל֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ ׀ מֵאֵ֣ת רֵעֵ֗הוּ וְאִשָּׁה֙ מֵאֵ֣ת רְעוּתָ֔הּ כְּלֵי־כֶ֖סֶף וּכְלֵ֥י זָהָֽב׃
(2) Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.”
רַבִּי תַּנְחוּמָא בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר וְרַבִּי מְנַחֵם בְּשֵׁם רַב אָמַר כָּל הָאֻמָנִיּוֹת אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן לְמָדָם, מַאי טַעְמֵיהּ (ישעיה מד, יא): וְחָרָשִׁים הֵמָּה מֵאָדָם, מֵאָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן. רַבָּנָן אָמְרִין אֲפִלּוּ סִרְגּוּלוֹ שֶׁל סֵפֶר, אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן לְמָדוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית ה, א): זֶה סֵפֶר, הוּא וְסִרְגּוּלוֹ. (בראשית ה, א): בְּיוֹם בְּרֹא אֱלֹהִים אָדָם, הָדָא מְסַיְּעָא לְהַהִיא דְּאָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲזַרְיָה שָׁלשׁ פְּלָאִים נַעֲשׂוּ בְּאוֹתוֹ הַיּוֹם, בּוֹ בַּיּוֹם נִבְרְאוּ, בּוֹ בַּיּוֹם שִׁמְשׁוּ, בּוֹ בַּיּוֹם הוֹצִיאוּ תּוֹלָדוֹת. בֶּן עֲזַאי אוֹמֵר זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם, זֶה כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה, רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר (ויקרא יט, יח): וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ, זֶה כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה, שֶׁלֹא תֹאמַר הוֹאִיל וְנִתְבַּזֵּיתִי יִתְבַּזֶה חֲבֵרִי עִמִּי, הוֹאִיל וְנִתְקַלַּלְתִּי יִתְקַלֵּל חֲבֵרִי עִמִּי. אָמַר רַבִּי תַּנְחוּמָא אִם עָשִׂיתָ כֵּן דַּע לְמִי אַתָּה מְבַזֶּה בִּדְמוּת אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אוֹתוֹ.
Rabbi Tanchuma said in the name of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Menachem in the name of Rav said... Ben Azzai said: “These are the generations of Adam" is a great principle in the Torah. Rabbi Akiva said: This is a great principle of the Torah: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). Thus, one should not say, “Since I am scorned, I should scorn my fellow as well; since I have been cursed, I will curse my fellow as well.” Rabbi Tanchumah said, if you act thus, realize who it is that you are willing to have humiliated - "the one who was made in the likeness of God." Rabbi Tanchuma says, “If you do so, you should know who are you scorning — ‘in the likeness of God He created him.’”
Are there limits to their interpretations of these verses?
How do they differ? How is each of these two verses different from each other?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Knowing that this is an internal Jewish debate on the meaning of this verse (i.e. should we read this verse as applying only to fellow Jews or applying to all humanity?), what does this source add to the discussion?
(3) ואהבת לרעך כמוך, if they are truly your colleague/friend; however, if they are wicked you need not love them, as even God hates them as we know from Proverbs 8,13 יראת ה' שנאת רע, “to fear the Eternal is to hate evil.”
It is mandatory upon every person to love each and every one of Israel, even as they love their own self, for it is said: "But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19.19.). One is therefore, obliged to speak in praise of his neighbor, and to be considerate of his money, even as he is considerate of his own money, or desires to preserve his own honor. "But whosoever glorifies himself in disgracing his neighbor has no share in the world to come" (Yerushalmi, Hegigah. 2.1).
Nechama Leibowitz
More plausible, however, is the view that takes the phrase as thyself not as qualifying the degree of love, but as motivating the principle embodied in the text – he is as thyself, a human being like yourself. This is the view R. N.H. Weisel offers after analyzing the other views:
The word "as thyself" is not usually used adverbially, but rather adjectivally, meaning similar to you, cf. Gen. 44:18, "For thou art as Pharaoh," i.e., your position is similar to Pharaoh; or "There is none so discerning and wise as thou art" (ib. 41:39). Likewise here the meaning is: "Love thy neighbor who is as thyself" – like you, created in the image of God, a human being like yourself.
This encompasses all of humanity created in the image of God. R. Akiva was referring to this in his comment, This is a fundamental principle in the Torah, restated by him thus in the Mishna, "Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God" (Avot 3, 14). Even if he sinned, he can reform his conduct for he was created in the image of God and was endowed with free will and is able to control action...The correct translation of this phrase is, Love thy neighbor for he is like yourself.
https://www.jfedgmw.org/jewish-life/kedoshim-and-love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself
ואחרי כן יצוה שיאהב לו כמוהו וטעם ואהבת לרעך כמוך הפלגה כי לא יקבל לב האדם שיאהוב את חבירו כאהבתו את נפשו ועוד שכבר בא רבי עקיבא ולמד חייך קודמין לחיי חבירך (ב"מ סב)אלא מצות התורה שיאהב חבירו בכל ענין כאשר יאהב את נפשו בכל הטוב ויתכן בעבור שלא אמר "ואהבת את רעך כמוך" והשוה אותם במלת "לרעך" וכן ואהבת לו כמוך (פסוק לד) דגר שיהיה פירושו להשוות אהבת שניהם בדעתו
And afterwards it commands him, "and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The phrase "love your neighbor as yourself" is an exaggeration, since the heart of a person will not accept that he love his fellow as he loves himself. Moreover, Rabbi Akiva has already taught (Bava Metzia 62), "Your life comes before the life of your fellow." Rather, the Torah here enjoins us that one should love his neighbor with every item with which he loves himself, [to receive] every benefit [that he wish upon himself]. It is likely that this is the reason for the dative (literally, "to your neighbor") instead of the accusative form of the verb phrase; we find the same in "and you shall love to him as yourself" (Leviticus 19:34) regarding the convert - the understanding of which is to equalize the love of both of them in his mind.
By. Dr. Richard Elliot Friedman
Since the line before it is about “the children of your people,” and the two lines were put together into a single verse when verse numbers were added to the Bible, some have assumed that the “love your neighbor as yourself” line must also be just about “the children of your people.” Why? No reason at all. As we have seen, the laws in Leviticus 19 come interspersed. No line can be judged by what comes before it or after it.
Indeed, there is context and there is context. In the full context of the occurrences of the wordre‘a, we would never take the verse about loving your neighbor to mean: now this is just if your neighbor has the same religion as you. And in the full context of 52 references to treating aliens the same as ourselves, we would never take loving one’s neighbors to exclude aliens. People who have been reading the verse as meaning just-your-own-kind, were both misjudging the immediate context of the passage and completely missing its total context in the Bible. Apparently, on their desert island they brought only one verse, Leviticus 19:18.
So unfortunately Richard Dawkins in a bestselling book, The God Delusion, wrote:
‘Love thy neighbour’ didn’t mean what we now think it means. It meant only ‘Love another Jew.’ The point is devastatingly made by the American physician and evolutionary anthropologist John Hartung.[4]
It was not devastating. Hartung, a professor of anesthesiology, emphasized the importance of context, but he had only Lev 19:18 on his island and used it even though he was aware that the joining of its two statements was done by those who created numbered verses centuries after the Bible was written. And, reading the Bible only in translation, he mistook the meaning of the word re‘a.
Love all People as Yourself
So let’s teach not to repeat this mistake again. Something extraordinary happened in ancient Israel. The writers of the Torah who came from the stock of those who had experienced the exodus bequeathed to us something tremendous: Treat the alien the same. Love your neighbor as yourself. This piece of wisdom has reached us from a text written over two millennia ago. And, if we are right in our analysis, it derived from an event over three millennia ago. We no longer need to argue over whether love of neighbor really means what we thought. It does. Perhaps now we can use our time trying more than ever to live it.