PIKESVILLE, Maryland — In the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19:18, the Torah states, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It emphasizes that proper conduct must exist in relationships between people, not just towards God. The New Testament repeats the command in Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31. In these verses, Jesus is responding to questions about the greatest commandments and identifies loving God with all one’s being and loving one’s neighbor as oneself as the two human duties.
In Talmud Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:4 and Midrash Sifra Kedoshim, 4:12, Rabbi Akiva states that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the most essential principle of the Torah. His colleague, the sage Ben Azzai, stressed the verse in Genesis 5:1, “This is the record of Adam’s descendants,” emphasizing the concept that all human beings were created in the image of God. Both statements highlight the significance of proper ethical interpersonal relationships for all that God created.
This is not the only way the Torah emphasizes the importance of treating everyone and everything properly.
The importance that Scripture gives to this command by its 46 repetitions is further emphasized by the fact that it stresses loving strangers more than the command warning against mistreating orphans and widows, which is repeated only twice in Exodus 22:22-23 and Deuteronomy 27:19.
Among the 46 repetitions, the Torah instructs us in Deuteronomy 10:19, “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” and in Leviticus 19:33, “The stranger who dwells with you must be to you as one born among you, and you must love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
This is not a suggestion. It is a core principle of Jewish ethics that extends beyond passive tolerance or non-harming. It insists on acting to care for the stranger as one would for oneself.
The Torah uses the word “love” when it speaks about God and humans. Love has a larger meaning in the Torah than in the English language.
The Torah concept of “love” is not about emotions but acts such as kindness, helping, justice, and, especially, working to create a society where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their background, religion, or origin.
The ancients believed that thinking came from the heart rather than the mind. So, they and the Torah often used the word “love” to mean thinking that leads to behavior.
This biblical understanding of “love” helps explain many current problems with marriages. About half of today’s marriages end in divorce, and more than half of couples in the second half live unfulfilled lives. The main problem is misunderstanding love as just an emotion, focusing on sexuality instead of showing the kindness a spouse deserves.
The command to love God, found in Deuteronomy 6:5, which instructs us to love “with all your heart and all your soul and might,” requires action: commitment to study and observance of the Torah and its commands. Maimonides understood that controlling emotions is difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, he interpreted the command to love God in his code of Jewish laws, Mishneh Torah, as using the mind, not emotion, “know” God. One learns about God by observing what God created or formed.
Loving people also requires us to know, to pay attention and identify with other people’s experiences and feelings, especially those who are suffering or vulnerable, and requires acts of kindness, charity, and justice, including strangers and enemies, refraining from negative actions and feelings, and setting the needs of all people as important as what we want and need.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He is the author of more than 50 books.