Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
by Encounter Director Rabbi Yisroel Roll
We pray for peace in Israel-but what are we doing to effect peace with our neighbors, here at home?
Last week, my neighbor, Howard, drove up in a gleaming new Saab turbo 900 with spoke wheels, wood interior and in my favorite color---racing green. I walked over to him as he was getting out of his new car and shaking his hand heartily I said: "Mazel Tov, Howard, Congratulations! It's beautiful. Drive it well and in good health. You deserve it!"
As I walked back to my own beat up, tired, 1987 Chevy station wagon jalopy-the one with baseball dents and no fender, I said to myself: "Why does he deserve a new Saab? I work just as hard as he does! I am a GOOD person, and he is, well....I work longer hours than he does and I am working for the community and....HOLD IT! What about "Love your neighbor as yourself? How come I feel this way? Why am I so bitter?
I'll have to admit it, then-I don't love Howard, my neighbor, as I love myself. If I did I should be as happy for him as I would be for myself...racing green, yet....it HAD to be racing green!
What happened to my sense of brotherly love? Maybe I'm not such a nice guy, after all? And then I figured it out. If I am supposed to love my neighbor as myself I can only love him as much as I love myself. If I don't love or even like myself then I can hardly love or even like Howard or be happy for his success. If I am not secure in my own abilities and am not happy with my own possessions and lot in life then I can't possibly be happy when my neighbor adds an extension onto his house , goes on his third, his THIRD vacation this year and is adding a sunken kidney shaped swimming pool in his back yard...what a weird shape, anyway!
Here's where a little Jewish wisdom can help. We all know the famous verse in the Torah, Leviticus 19 which states: Love your neighbor as yourself, I am God." HOLD IT! what's all this "I am God" stuff? I never knew that was part of the verse! It is. It's just that we never read the
whole verse. It means that I should love my neighbor as myself because he has GOD in him. He has Godliness-goodness-in him and a God-Given mission to fulfill in the world--just as I do.
If I can remember that God gives EACH of us a unique mission in life and that He gives each of us the resources that WE need to fulfill that mission-then I can let go of my jealousy about Howard's Saab turbo with racing green. Howard's got what God has decided Howard needs to fulfill his destiny in life and I've got what I need to fulfill my life goal....even if it is with a beat up 1987 Chevy wagon with dents and no fender. Think of all the meals on wheels I can deliver to shut in elderly people in the community. My car drives to the hospital to visit a sick member of the community--just as well as a new Saab turbo. Maybe I was meant to be a little less comfortable than Howard when I performed that good deed.
When we add God to the equation then the division of worldly possessions is easier to accept. I can learn to appreciate my abilities, my possessions and learn to appreciate my special corner of the world. I can even learn to like myself--by appreciating that what I have is what I need to get done that which I have been put into this world to accomplish. Then, and only then, can I start to like Howard, as myself.
