Love Your Neighbor as Yourself: The Analogy of the Netziv

By: Rabbi Daniel Kroll


This week's parsha contains the famous command, ואהבת לרעך כמוך - and you shall love your fellow as yourself. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1816-1893), the Netziv, explains in his commentary to the Torah, Ha'Emek Davar, that this commandment must be seen in light of the other commandments it is grouped together with in a single verse. The Torah states (Vayikra 19:18),

לא תקם ולא תטר את בני עמך ואהבת לרעך כמוך אני יקוק

You shall not take revenge and you shall not bear a grudge against members of your people; you shall love your fellow as yourself - I am Hashem

Basing his comments on a passage from the Talmud Yerushalmi, the Netziv writes

הנקמה בחברו דומה לאדם שמחתך בשר ולא נזהר היד שאוחז בסכין והיכה בסכינו על ידו השנית, אם תעלה על הדעת לחזור ולהכות את היד החותך ולנקום בה? כך 'ואהבת לרעך כמוך' אחר 'לא תקום', שאף על גב שחיי עצמו וטובתו קודם לשל חברו, מכל מקום הרי הוא כמו האדם בעצמו, שאף על גב שאין ראוי לאיזה אבר להכות אבר השני, מכל מקום אם כבר היכה, אין לנקום מהאבר המכה, כך אין לנקום מחברו אחר שכבר הזיק אותך, והרי הוא כמוך, שכל ישראל נפש אחת.

Taking revenge from a friend is similar to a person who, while cutting meat, was not careful with the hand that was holding the knife and he struck his other hand with the knife. Would that person ever entertain the thought to go ahead and strike the hand which was cutting and take revenge on it? So too, "Love your fellow as yourself" comes after "Do not take revenge", because even though one's own life and well being comes before that of his friend, nevertheless he (the friend) is like the person himself; for even though it is not fitting for one limb to strike another limb (on the same body), nevertheless if one of the limbs went ahead and struck, the other limb should not take revenge; so too one should not take revenge from one's fellow after he has already caused him damage, for behold he is like him, for all Jews are one soul.

The Netziv writes that if a person fulfills the mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך properly they will view taking revenge on a fellow Jew as counterintuitive; if a person sincerely views a fellow Jews as כמוך, like himself, any revenge taken would, in reality, be a self-inflicted wound. If we all heed the words of the Netziv, a person would not only see revenge as irrational, but would never need to entertain such illogical thoughts, because no Jew would ever cause harm to a fellow Jew whom he truly loves as himself, in the first place, for we are all one soul.