Loving Your Neighbor

[ this is another repost from my older blog as I transition to Steemit ]
In an article posted 26 february in the Huffington Post, Dr. Michael Laitman makes a very interesting argument about the cause and cure for anti-semitism:

Today we define ourselves as Jews in many ways: by common heritage, observance of Jewish laws, lineage, or by a combination of all or some of the above. But many years back, before the ruin of the Temple, Jews were defined first and foremost by their spirit -- the spirit of camaraderie and mutual responsibility. "Love your neighbor as yourself" was the great klal ("rule," but also "sum total") by which we lived. It was a rule that included within it every other precept, the pinnacle of human spiritual achievement. This is why we, Jews, became a nation only when we pledged to be "as one man with one heart" at the foot of Mt. Sinai. This is also what allowed us to develop the humane society that we had cultivated for centuries, and which has given the world so many of its cultural and moral assets.
In my encounters with anti-Semites, they keep returning to that point in time and to those values. Their words echo that need, and the demand that we finish what we started, and share these morals with the rest of the world.
Today it is so common to say that if we only love each other all will be well, that if you say it people dismiss you as being trite. These days even science supports it. ... The problem is that we don't know how to connect in a positive way because this type of connection means that we implement the motto, "love your neighbor as yourself," and we cannot bring ourselves to do it. If we knew the benefits of such relationships, and knew how to establish them among us, the world would not be treading its current, self-destructive trajectory.

Now here is where I must point out that Jesus showed us, and indeed, provided us, with the way to do exactly what Dr. Laitman is talking about. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus answered "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength". He directly connected it with loving your neighbor as yourself, saying that on these two klals hang all the Law and the Prophets.

So, first things first, Dr. Laitman. The key to gaining the power to love your neighbor as yourself is to love the LORD, the God of Israel, with all your heart. Love Him, not the idol of your choice, not your pet idea of who God must be and what he must be like: Him, I AM, the one who really exists, the Living God.

It is not as if this god-person has ego problems: he actually is worthy of all that love that he is demanding. See, it isn't for his good that he commands this: it is for our good. Loving Him is what empowers us imperfect mortals to do what we cannot otherwise do: love our neighbors, and maybe even love ourselves.

In Jesus, the Annointed One, we gentiles have access to being a part of this, as Dr. Laitman said, "ancient prophecy that through us the nations of the earth will be blessed -- with unity and brotherly love."

So, Israel, love the LORD your God. Not only does He empower the Jews, his chosen people, to do so, but the rest of the world as well.