We respond to every follow-up question submitted, but only publish selected ones.
In order to be considered for publication, questions must be on-topic, polite, and address ideas rather than
personalities.
Question: I have read that “Treat your neighbor as yourself” is how one Rabbi summed up the Torah. Is that a common theme of the torah?
Answer: The verse states. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Rabbi Akiva expounded, “This is a great principle of Torah.”
It has two meanings. One is referring to your human neighbor, that we should love each other as ourselves and take care to treat them in every way as we’d want to be treated, both in a positive and negative sense.
Rashi (Medieval commentator) adds that it also refers to G-d. We must love our neighbor in this world – G-d – as our self.
According to this, one covers both the man to man and man to G-d requirements.
—Rabbi Meir Goldberg
