Questions for today:
With so much emphasis on “Love Your Neighbor like yourself”, where are the instructions?
What does it mean to love someone like yourself?
When you love someone that's not yourself, it's based on a metric. For example, if I love them for their sense of humor, how funny are they? Or, if I love them because we're similar, then how similar are we?
Self-love doesn't work that way. I love myself no matter what. I love my father, and it doesn't matter how much father has done for me because he’s an extension of myself.
How do you feel this way for somebody else?
Let’s go back to the exercise we've been discussing for the last few weeks, to look in the mirror and recognize the self-centeredness and insignificance of my body.
On the flipside, we must recognize the value of the soul within us, and our joy with our soulful achievements. This lesson, to prioritize the soul over the body, is the underlying guidance of every part of the Torah.
When we comprehend this, we gain the perspective that, among all of us, I have no idea whose soul is more valuable than the other. Not only this, but in essence your soul, and my soul, are one soul.
080 Tanya Adar 9 ~ m092 Adar I, 23
Tanya book 1, Ch 32, Pt 1
THOU SHALT LOVE THY FELLOW MAN AS THYSELF —Rabbi Akiba said: “This is a fundamental principle of the Torah” (Sifra; Talmud Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:3
a) how is this a fundamental principle of ALL the Torah?
b) what is “self” love?
c) how do we have self-love for another?
By fulfilling the exercises of the past few chapters to prioritize the soul over the body (a) we gain a perspective from a stance where we are all one (c) and our love is inherent, no matter what (b)
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=2/24/2022
See today’s video: