It’s good to be back!
Printable PDF available here.
Rav Kook (Based on Midot haRe’iah, Ahavah 1, 3 and 5)
You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am the Lord. (Vayikra 19:18)
Love for all of G-d’s creations must precede love for every member of humanity, and only after that can one ascend to love of Israel (“ahavat Yisrael”). One must understand that ahavat Yisrael does not stand in contradiction to love of humanity, which is encompassed and subsumed within it. For Israel’s Divinely-appointed destiny is to rectify and repair all of existence, and thus true ahavat Yisrael requires a universal love. Thus, we must strive to advance the physical and spiritual welfare of all nations. Without an inner love of humanity that pervades its entire being, Israel will never advance towards its ultimate calling – “Give praise to G-d, call out in His name, make His greatness known amongst all nations” (Tehillim 105:1).
Our love for all of humanity also draws on the constant outpouring of Divine light that rests upon every created being. As King David declared in Psalms (33:5), “G-d’s kindness fills the earth.” That is, everything exists through G-d’s kindness and contributes to His splendor. To despise, to hate means to deny the Divine kindness that sustains the object of one’s hatred.
We have hatred only for the wickedness and spiritual pollution from which the world has not yet been cleansed. Anywhere in our tradition that we find expressions of hatred and contempt for the nations of the world, we must know that such sentiments are directed only at the points wickedness therein. But sparks of life, of light and holiness, have always been present in the tzelem Elokim possessed by all of humanity, by every nation in accordance with its measure. All of this, Israel knows, with deep confidence, purity of faith and holy resolve.
Food for Thought
Tanya (Likutei Amarim, Chapter 32): Even with regard to those who are close to him, and whom he has rebuked, yet they had not repented of their sins, in which case he is enjoined to hate them, there still remains the duty to love them also, and both are right: hatred, because of the wickedness in them; and love on account of the aspect of the hidden good in them, which is the Divine spark in them, which animates their Divine soul. He should also awaken pity in his heart for her [the Divine soul], for she is held captive, as it were, in the evil of the sitra achra that triumphs over her in wicked people. Compassion destroys hatred and awakens love, as is known from the [interpretation of the] text, “To Jacob who redeemed Abraham.”
A Story About Rav Kook (from R. Aryeh Levine): I recall the early days, after 1905, when G-d granted me the privilege to ascend to the Holy Land; and I arrived at Jaffa. There I first merited meeting our great master, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (of blessed memory), who greeted me with good cheer, as was his sacred custom to receive all people. We chatted together on various Torah topics. After an early minchah, he went out, as was his custom, to stroll a bit in the fields and collect his thoughts. I accompanied him. During the walk, I plucked a twig or a flower. Our great master was taken aback when he saw this. He told me gently: “Believe me — in all my days, I have been careful never to pluck a blade of grass or flower needlessly, when it had the ability to grow or blossom… Every sprout and leaf of grass says something, conveys some meaning. Every stone whispers its inner message in its silence. Every creature utters its song [of praise for the Creator].” Those words, spoken from a pure and holy heart, engraved themselves deeply on my heart. From then on, I began to feel a strong sense of compassion for all things.
Samson Raphael Hirsch (Chorev, Pg. 53): I, the Lord, the personification of love, am Father of all beings around you, have called them all, like you, to life and well-being. If you love Me, and because you Love me, love My children; rejoice in their well-being, see in each My work, My child, in his welfare the prospering of My work and My child, in his woe the decay of My work, the suffering of My child. Love therefore the master in the work, the father in the child… How do you raise yourself above the stone and the plant and the animal? Is it not through devoting yourself of your own free will to the welfare of the world around you? And this is just what love effects. Your whole activity belongs to G-d’s world… Carry love in your heart; it is this which makes you a man and an Israelite. This love in you, if it is genuine, expresses itself in deeds with which, to the best of your ability, you promote the progress of the world around you to that state of welfare in which your love requires that you should desire to behold it.
Lubavitcher Rebbe: When there is love of G‑d but not love of Torah and love of Israel, this means that the love of G‑d is also lacking. On the other hand, when there is love of a fellow Jew, this will eventually bring also a love of Torah and a love of G‑d… So if you see a person who has a love of G‑d but lacks a love of Torah and a love of his fellow, you must tell him that his love of G‑d is incomplete. And if you see a person who has only a love for his fellow, you must strive to bring him to a love of Torah and a love of G‑d — that his love toward his fellows should not only be expressed in providing bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty, but also to bring them close to Torah and to G‑d.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Covenant and Conversation 5778): The opening chapter of Kedoshim contains two of the most powerful of all commands: to love your neighbour and to love the stranger. “Love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord” goes the first. “When a stranger comes to live in your land, do not mistreat him,” goes the second, and continues, “Treat the stranger the way you treat your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your G-d. The first is often called the “golden rule” and held to be universal to all cultures. This is a mistake. The golden rule is different. In its positive formulation it states, “Act toward others as you would wish them to act toward you,” or in its negative formulation, given by Hillel, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour.” These rules are not about love. They are about justice, or more precisely, what evolutionary psychologists call reciprocal altruism. The Torah does not say, “Be nice or kind to your neighbour, because you would wish him to be nice or kind to you.” It says, “Love your neighbour.” That is something different and far stronger.
The second command is more radical still. Most people in most societies in most ages have feared, hated and often harmed the stranger. There is a word for this: xenophobia. How often have you heard the opposite word: xenophilia? My guess is, never. People don’t usually love strangers. That is why, almost always when the Torah states this command – which it does, according to the sages, 36 times – it adds an explanation: “because you were strangers in Egypt.” I know of no other nation that was born as a nation in slavery and exile. We know what it feels like to be a vulnerable minority. That is why love of the stranger is so central to Judaism and so marginal to most other systems of ethics. But here too, the Torah does not use the word “justice.” There is a command of justice toward strangers, but that is a different law: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him” (Ex. 22:20). Here the Torah speaks not of justice but of love. These two commands define Judaism as a religion of love – not just of G-d (“with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might”), but of humanity also. That was and is a world-changing idea.
Samson Raphael Hirsch (Chorev, Pg. 25, 159): “To love” means to feel one’s own being only through and in the being of another. “To love G-d,” therefore, means to feel that one’s own existence and activity are rendered possible and obtain value and significance only through G-d and in G-d. You exist and are something only to strive to reach G-d—that is, to perform His will. To love G-d only through G-d; and therefore in all that you are and do, you have and to love His Torah is the same thing; for to love G-d means nothing until you begin to love His Torah.
Questions for Discussion
- See Rav Hirsch in Food For Thought, above. Is he expressing the exact same point as Rav Kook? If not, how are their views different?
- What does it mean to have a tzelem Elokim?
- How does Rav Kook address the problem of loving all of humanity in a world still filled with evil and wickedness?
- Rav Kook writes that no person or nation can never lose their tzelem Elokim. Do you agree? Why or why not?
- What are different ways to express ahavat Yisrael? To express love for humanity?
- Does our generation have an easier or harder time than our ancestors in cultivating ahavat Yisrael? In cultivating love for humanity? Why or why not?
- Does the term “fellow” in “Love your fellow as yourself” include non-Jews as well? Or only Jews?
