This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored:
לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם
דבס''
MILLER’S MUSINGS
קדשים פרשת
*Love Knows Some Bounds*
“Love your neighbor like yourself”. This is something rather easier said than done, especially when in the company of rather challenging characters and difficult personalities. Yet this is what we must do, no matter how testing it may be to do so. The Posuk that compels us in this regard, finishes off with the statement “I am Hashem”, which although perhaps strengthening our need to comply with the commandment, still requires our understanding as to why it is mentioned pertaining to this particular Mitzvoh.
One character trait essential for a person to be considered a true righteous individual is humility. This was certainly the case with the great sage Hillel Hazoken, and yet we find that at the Simchas Beis Hasho’evah in Yerushalayim he would declare “If I am here everything is here”. This does not seem the assertion of a man steeped in modesty. To answer both our questions Rebbi Yosef Leib Bloch explained that just as we must ensure all our actions are within the framework of what Hashem wants, so too the Mitzvos we perform. Loving another is not something that can be just done freely and without thought. Rather it must be based on and rooted in the principle of “I am Hashem”, a structure of beliefs and ethics that have been laid down for us by Hashem. Anything within that structure will bear tremendous fruits. Anything outside of it is misplaced love and damaging. This is why “I am Hashem” comes at the end of the command to love each other and it is what Hillel meant. His concern was that the joy and delight found at the Simchas Beis Hasho’evah might be simply an excuse for frivolity and unruliness. But if “I”, the “I” of “I am Hashem” is here, if this is our focus, then everything is here! Everything that should be. Love, joy and service to Hashem.
There is nothing that would seem to get universal acclaim quite like this commandment to love each other like yourself. It would certainly seem to fit in with modern society’s proclivity to declare every way of life to be as acceptable as each other. But there is a fine line between respect for every human being and respect for every human being’s choices. Everybody has a right to our love, care and compassion, but not every lifestyle should be valued in the same way. Those that go against the “I am Hashem” paradigm of our existence, must be rejected in accord with our Torah’s values. This does not detract from our obligation to love every person, but loving them is not a contradiction to viewing their chosen path as harmful. In a world so worried by what is politically correct and less worried by what is actually correct, we must spread love to all, but first and foremost to the One who gives us all and follow His ultimate truth in all we do.
*May Shabbos help us exude warmth to all we meet*
לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם
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