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Share(יח) ... וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ אֲנִ֖י ה׃
(18) ...thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
מצות עשה של דבריהם לבקר חולים ולנחם אבלים ולהוציא המת ולהכניס הכלה וללוות האורחים ולהתעסק בכל צרכי הקבורה לשאת על הכתף ולילך לפניו ולספוד ולחפור ולקבור וכן לשמח הכלה והחתן ולסעדם בכל צרכיהם ואלו הן גמילות חסדים שבגופו שאין להם שיעור אף על פי שכל מצות אלו מדבריהם הרי הן בכלל ואהבת לרעך כמוך כל הדברים שאתה רוצה שיעשו אותם לך אחרים עשה אתה אותן לאחיך בתורה ובמצות.
It is a positive commandment to visit the sick, comfort the mourning, to remove the dead, to bring in the bride, to escort guests, and to occupy oneself with all the needs of burial; carrying [the coffin] on one’s shoulder, to walk in front of him, to eulogize, to dig, and to bury. As well to make the bride and groom happy, and to take care of all their needs. And these are ‘Gemillut Chasadim’ that are done with one’s body, that have no measurement. Although all these are rabbinic laws they are included under "Love Your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), meaning that all things that you would like others to do for you, you should do for your brother.
ר' עקיבא אומר: (ויקרא יט) ואהבת לרעך כמוך, זה כלל גדול בתורה, שלא תאמר הואיל ונתבזיתי יתבזה חבירי עמי, הואיל ונתקללתי יתקלל חבירי עמי. אמר רבי תנחומא: אם עשית כן, דע למי אתה מבזה, בדמות אלהים עשה אותו.
Rabbi Akiva said: This is a great principle of the Torah: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). Thus, one should not say, “Since I am scorned, I should scorn my fellow as well; since I have been cursed, I will curse my fellow as well.” Rabbi Tanchumah said, if you act thus, realize who it is that you are willing to have humiliated - "the one who was made in the likeness of God."
It is a commandment upon every person to love each and every Jew as himself, as it is said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18)." Therefore one needs to speak praises of one and to be as careful with his money as one is with one's own money and desires his own honor. Whoever gains honor through diminishing his colleague has no portion in the world to come.
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving but this,
in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
-- Pablo Neruda
(2) And He said: ‘Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.’
Letters to a Young Poet -- Rainer Maria Rilke
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."
Look
What happens
With love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
Love in Jewih tradition is incomplete if it is only a sentiment. It requires deeds in order to be actualized, both in the world and in our own hearts. It is not enough to hold good thought for the bride and groom; we need to kick up our heels in dance at the wedding and gladden them. It is not enough to send out comforting vibrations to someone in mourning; we need to bake a kugel and then take it in hand to the house of mourning... Love feeds action and is fed by it.
We should treat compassion, learning compassion, becoming more compassionate, like we treat learning to play piano or throw a ball. It's actually something we can decide we are going to practice...The more we do it...it starts to work on us from the inside...
(1) By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not. (2) ’I will rise now, and go about the city, In the streets and in the broad ways, I will seek him whom my soul loveth.’ I sought him, but I found him not. (3) The watchmen that go about the city found me: ‘Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?’ (4) Scarce had I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him into my mother’s house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me. (5) ’I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, That ye awaken not, nor stir up love, Until it please.’