“Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
ואהבת לרעך כמוך
R. Akiva said: “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ – this is a great principle of the Torah” (Vayikra 19:18; Sifra ad loc.; Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:4). It is fitting to ask why R. Akiva chose specifically this mitzva, out of all the other mitzvot in the Torah, to the point that only about it did he say, “This is a great principle of the Torah.” Is the mitzva of Shabbat not more important than it? Are the mitzvot of tallit and tefillin not as important as it? What is the great principle contained in the mitzva of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” such that out of all the mitzvot R. Akiva chose it and said of it that it is a great principle of the Torah?
The simple explanation is that all the mitzvot between one person and another are, in practice, included under the mitzva “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And since most of the mitzvot a person encounters in his life deal with matters between one person and another, it turns out that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the great principle of the Torah, the foundation for their fulfillment (Rashi, Shabbat 31a). We will mention here only a few of the Torah’s mitzvot between one person and another: the prohibition of lashon ha-ra and gossip; “You shall not take revenge nor bear a grudge”; the mitzva to lend money to the poor; the mitzva of tzedaka; visiting the sick; “You shall rise before the aged”; and all the mitzvot dealing with judicial procedure and with the laws of punishments and monetary matters. And these, as stated, are only examples.
Moreover, there is a fundamental difference between the mitzvot between one person and another and the other practical mitzvot of the Torah. There are many mitzvot that can be fulfilled without any intention at all; for example, one can keep kashrut and Shabbat without any special intention or attitude. But the mitzvot between one person and another cannot be fulfilled without love. What, for example, would tzedaka look like if a person gave it without love? Or what meaning would there be to a visit to the sick done by rote, as “a commandment of men learned by habit,” without a personal attitude toward the sick person? Therefore R. Akiva said, “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ – this is a great principle of the Torah,” for without it a great many mitzvot cannot be fulfilled.