There comes before us a second saying, even more conspicuous, about a convert who came to Hillel (Shabbat 31a) and told him, “Teach me the whole of the Torah while I am standing on one leg.”And he replied, “Anything that you hate, do not do to your friend” (the translation of “love your friend as yourself”), “and the rest is its commentary; go study” (Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]).

If I already fulfill the rule “love your neighbor as yourself,” do I need to add anything else to it? Perhaps some kind of springboard, an intermediate degree between my corrections and my relationship with the Creator?

“No,” I am told. “You do not have to do anything regarding the Creator. On the contrary, leave Him alone, completely leave Him alone; do not begin correcting your relationship with Him. You want to become closer to Him, to become better? This will not help you. You cannot do anything with regard to Him.

But you have your neighbor, and if in relation to him you carry out all the corrections and reach such a degree of love that it no longer matters to you whether it is you or your neighbor, then by this you will completely correct your relationship with the Creator and rise to His degree.”

Thus, it is not only that the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” is the general law of all reality according to which the Creator relates to the created beings.

We say about Him: the Creator is good and does good to the bad and the good. This is how He relates to the created beings.

Therefore, for me to become similar to His love for the created beings is contained within this statement, within this law of “love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, they are one and the same.

It is the same motto, the same law, so much so that once I fulfill this correction, I no longer need any additions in order to attain equivalence with the Creator. In this, I completely correspond to Him, am equal to Him, and become similar to Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/3/26

Related Material:
“Love Thy Friend As Thyself” Is the Main Law of Nature
“Love Your Neighbor” Is the Main Commandment of the Universe
The Basis Of “Love Thy Friend As Thyself”

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