Terror victim's husband slams outgoing UN chief Ban Ki-moon
In the video below, the speaker talks about the verse, "You shall love your fellow as yourself" which is found in this week's portion of Parshat Kedoshim, which is read in the diaspora. In Israel, the week's Torah poriton is Emor.
One of the most famous phrases in this week’s Torah reading is (Vayikra 19:18), “You shall love your fellow as yourself.” R’ Moshe ben Nachman z”l (Ramban; Spain and Eretz Yisrael; 1194-1270) writes about this mitzvah:
What the Torah is expressing is the ideal, but a person’s heart is not capable of loving another person as it loves itself. Moreover, Rabbi Akiva taught (Bava Metzia 62a) that saving one’s own life takes precedence over saving another person’s life. [Rabbi Akiva spoke of two people traveling in a desert, one of whom has water and the other doesn’t. If there is only enough water for one to survive, he is not permitted to share, which would not be the case if he had to love the other as much as he loves himself].
Rather, Ramban writes, the mitzvah is to desire your friend’s success as you desire your own.
Continue reading: http://torah.org/torah-portion/hamaayan-5775-achareimos/
Some of you may have purchased tickets for this week's powerball lottery; When you began reading an article about how one person had purchased the winning tocket, your thought might have been, "Well, I don't have to bother checking the numbers because I didn't purchase a ticket." Another person might have said, "I know I didn't win because I checked the numbers but let me see if I conceivably could have picked the winning numbers." I didn't buy a ticket but I did check if I could have come up with those numbers and felt relieved that I wouldn't have picked those numbers.
As more details came out, I read that the winning ticket was purchased in New Jersey. Since I know a number of people living in New Jersey, I thoought that perhaps a Jewish person living in Lakewood had won. What was my initiial reaction when I thought about the possible success of a fellow brother or sister? Would I have been happier if the winning ticket had been purchased in Alaska?
"The mitzvah is to desire your friend’s success as you desire your own."
Did I desire my friend's success as I desire my own?
Rosh Chodesh Iyar - a new month - a new beginning to practice "veahavta lereacha kamocha." It's time to give people the benefit of the doubt, to stop the petty arguments about the yerusha, to contact someone with whom you've had a falling out.
I will try to take concrete steps to fulfill the mitzva, iy"h.
Very glad the true way of 'loving one's fellow as oneself' has been explained here. Of course, no one can love another as one self (unless maybe a parent or spouse); but the real word that fits to explain the meaning is 'jealousy'. Jealousy of another's success, happiness, etc. is absolutely wrong and that is the true meaning of loving another as one self and that really means to be truly happy for someone else's happiness and caring (loving enough) to pray for another's well being, etc.! That is the real love.
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