Is It Possible to Fulfill the Commandment “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” Without Peace in Israel?
In today’s Daily Kabbalah Lesson, we read the 60th letter of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), where he responded to a question from someone who had read his essay Matan Torah [“The Giving of the Torah”] following its publication. Matan Torah elaborates on the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” being the whole of the Torah, explaining how one should care for one’s friend’s benefit no less than one cares for one’s own benefit.
The person who asked Baal HaSulam the question criticized the idea of “Love your neighbor as yourself” being the whole of the Torah as an idea conjured up in Baal HaSulam’s own mind, because, as he wrote, the Torah, the authors of the Talmud and rabbinical authorities hardly discussed it.
Baal HaSulam explained that while there was a precondition from the beginning of the reception of the Torah, the later appearance of quarrels, murders and ongoing disquiet made it irrelevant to ask anyone to uphold the prime commandment, and “in order for the Torah not to be forgotten from Israel, they began to engage in the rest of the commandments although they had abandoned its main point, since they had no other choice” (Baal HaSulam, “Letter 60”).
One of my students asked me about this, that on one hand, according to Baal HaSulam, a state of peace in the nation of Israel is a prerequisite for engaging in the commandment of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but on the other hand, it seems as if there will never be peace in Israel.
If, however, precisely in the midst of this unrest, we yearn for unity, connection and love for others, then we can understand from such a longing that the lack of peace, wars and the myriad conflicts within the nation actually direct us toward a positive connection, even toward love.
We should thus understand the reason for the wars and what we should do. Can we indeed achieve a beautiful connection among us? What should we do in order to make a new unified reality take flight? It seems that our nature is such that it gradually builds the correct discernments within us.
The demand for “Love your neighbor as yourself” comes to the person who is ready to accept and apply it. Unlike the changing seasons, this call does not come and go. We should thus continuously strive to implement it.
We, the people of Israel, should thus acknowledge that now is a very good time for us to awaken to our need to uphold the prime commandment. How can we see that? First, there is a growing understanding that we are in an unhealthy and negative situation, how a state of mutual conflict and hatred increasingly surfaces in the nation. By contrast, if we truly wish to elevate our relations to become harmonious, then we have no choice but to learn and know how to maintain love between us.
The will for correct relations, where love dwells between us, awakens initially from above. We ourselves do not need to awaken it from above. We do, however, need to awaken the deficiency for relations of “Love your neighbor as yourself” to dwell among us from below, from within us. Then they will manifest.
Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 30, 2024. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
What Does It Mean to Observe a Mitzvah?
Observing a Mitzvah (commandment) means wanting, through our efforts, to connect the states we undergo with their higher source.
In doing so, we resolve the states that we pass through, as it is that higher source — the force of love and bestowal called “the Creator” in the wisdom of Kabbalah — that organizes and corrects these states.