[Avodah] Love your fellow as yourself

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, May 1, 2007 8:36 pm, Daniel Eidensohn wrote:
: Prof. Levine wrote:
...
:> From Rav Hirsch's commentary it seems to me that he interprets the
:> work l'ray'acha to apply to all of mankind, to one's fellow man, and
:> not just to one's fellow Jew.
...
:> Yet, according to the Chinuch and the Rambam, ray'acha is taken to
:> refer to one's fellow Jew only.
...
: A support for the general understanding is found in Rashi (Shabbos
: 31a). Rashi understands Hillel's response as a parapharase of Vayikra
: (19:18). [As does the Maharsha] Concerning the idea of learning all
: the Torah on one foot. ...

Tangent: It could be that he was asking for an explanation of the
whole Torah of a single principle, not "while standing on one foot".
This would explain why Hillel doesn't follow his own advice about not
wasting time answering people who are trying to be silly; the question
wasn't silly. I believe this is in the Gra, but as I didn't find it, I
may have my sources confused.

It also explains why I assumed Hillel's answer really was the
underlying morality behind all of halakhah.

Now, back to the subject...

"Achikha" in the lav "lo sisna" doesn't necessarily mean all Jews, but
rather only shomerei Torah umitzvos. See the Sema"q #16, Rambam
"Rozeiach" 13:14. Very important for another thread... The Rambam
concludes the list of ikkarim with a statement associating "halo
misan'ekha H esne" (Teh' 139) to those who do not believe the ikkarim.
Whatever anyone else holds, the Rambam intended the ikkarim to define
who is "unzerer".

I wonder if we necessarily interpret "rei'akha" here as being all
Jews, if we are required to hate resha'im meizidim. (Although
according to the CI such people can't exist in the post-haskalah era,
so leshitaso this isn't lema'aseh.) One could say no, or one could say
we're being asked to have a love-hate relationship. I am inclined
toward the latter but more because of the elegance of the idea than
any real basis.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter