Love Thy Neighbor

Question: The purpose of creation is to become like the general power of nature, the Creator, in terms of properties. His property is to bestow.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings” that one cannot just jump over and acquire the property of the Creator because one can deceive oneself.

To make sure that I indeed achieve this property, an image of our world was created with all kinds of creations: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and most importantly, human. I must correct my attitude toward people.

Therefore, as it is written in all the original sources, the basic law is “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” What does it mean? Everyone understands this in their own way.

Answer: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the goal that a person must achieve if one works on one’s correction. This goal is a very distant one, but in the beginning there are other preliminary stages of correction.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself” means that just as today I love myself and I instinctively, consciously, and subconsciously put myself at the head of the whole world and only through myself do I perceive this world, and only from myself onward do I look at the world, and only for my dear own self do I work and do everything, so I must change myself for the whole world, work for the improvement of the world only, and only feel pain for it as if it were my beloved little child.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/7/19

Related Material:
The Method Of Correction, Part 2
The Method Of Correction, Part 1
The Soul Is the Property of Bestowal, and Without It We Are Animals

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