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Gleanings - Images of the other
The Editors
From The Bible
You shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
Lev. 19:18.
...it is you, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to hold sweet conserve together;
within God's house we walked in fellowship.
Ps. 55:13f.
Behold how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
Ps. 133,1.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,
'Let me take the speck out of your eye,'
when there is a log in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Matt. 7:3-5.
One of the scribes ... asked him,
"Which commandment is the first of sr'
Jesus answered,
"The first is,
'Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one;
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.'
The second Is this,
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'
There is no other commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:28-31.
From The Mishna
(Ben Azzai) used to say: Despise no man and deem nothing impossible,
for there is not a man that has not his hour
and there is not a thing that has not its place.
Aboth 49,
From Safer ha-Aggadah
Man was created unique. This teaches that he who destroys one single life in Israel he is considered ashaving destroyed the whole world. And he who saves one single life in Israel, It is as if he had saved the whole world. This has been said for the sake of peace among all those whom God has created so that no man might say to his neighbor: `My father is greater than yours;' and that heretics might not be able to say: `there are many gods in heaven.'
It shows moreover the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, because when a man mints coins they are all stamped with the same image, so that all of them are alike. But when the King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, makes each person with the same stamp with which he made the first man, each one is unique. Therefore each person is able to say: 'the world was created for my sake.'
Translated from N.H. Blank & Rawnitzki, edd. Safer Ha-Aggadah, II, 2, 8, 'Man" no. 54.
From The Fathers of the Church
Man has been free from the beginning,
because God is freedom,
and man has been made in his likeness.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against all Heresies. IV, 37, 4.
Above all, give me the grace of compassion. Give me the gift of knowing how to pity sinners from the depth of my heart. This is the height of virtue...
Give me compassion each time I witness the fall of a sinner. Let me not arrogantly chastise him, but rather let me weep and be afflicted with him.
Let me weep for myself as I weep for my neighbour, and let me apply to myself these words:
'The prostitute is more righteous than your are.' Ambrose of Milan, On Penitence. II, 8, 67, 73.
Do not make any distinction between rich and poor. Do not seek to know who is worthy or who is unworthy. Let all men be equal in your eyes, and then you will be able to draw even the unworthy into the path of righteous. ness.
Brother, I recommend this to you:
May the weight of compassion in you tip the balance until you feel in your heart the compassion which God himself has for the world.
Isaac Syrus, Ascetic Tracts, Tract 34.
From The Hasidic Tradition
The Commandment to Love 1
A disciple asked Rabbi Shmelke:
"We are commanded to love our neighbour as ourself. How can I do this, if my neighbour has wronged me?" The rabbi answered:
'You must understand these words aright. Love your neighbour like something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. Each is a spark from the original soul, and this soul is wholly inherent in all souls, just as your soul is in all the members of your body. It may come to pass that your hand makes a mistake and strikes you. But would you then take a stick and chastise your hand, because it lacked understanding, and so increase your pain? It is the same if your neighbour, who is of one soul with you, wrongs you for lack of understanding. II you punish him, you only hurt yourself.-
The disciple went on asking:
"But if I see a man who is wicked before God, how can I love him? "Don't you know," said Rabbi Shmelke, "that the original soul came out of the essence of God, and that every human soul is a part of God? And will you have no mercy on him, when you see that one of his holy sparks has been lost in a maze, and is almost stifled?"
P. 190.
Everyone Has His Place 2
Rabbi Abraham was asked:
"Our sages say: -And there is not a thing that has not its place.' And so man too has his own place. Then why do people sometimes feel so crowded?"
He replied:
-Because each one wants to occupy the place of the other."
P. 72.
Interruption
One midnight when Rabbi Moshe Leib was absorbed in the mystic teachings, he heard a knock at his window. A drunken peasant stood outside and asked to be let in and given a bed for the night. For a moment the zaddik's heart was lull of anger and he said to himself: -How can a drunk have the insolence to ask to be let In, and what business has he in this house!"
But then he said silently in his heart:
"And what business has he in God's world? But if God gets along with him, can I reject him?"
He opened the door at once, and prepared a bed.
P. 85.
Imitatio Dei
The rabbi of Sasov once gave the last money he had in his pocket to a man of HI repute. His disciples threw it up to him. He answered them:
`Shall I be more finicky than God, who gave it to me?"
P. 85.
How the Rabbi of Sasov Learned How to Love
Rabbi Moshe Leib told this story:
"How to love men is something I learned from a peasant. He was sitting in an inn along with other peasants, drinking. For a long time he was as silent as all the rest, but when he was moved by the wine, he asked one of the men seated beside him:
'Tell me, do you love me, or don't you love me?' The other replied:
'I love you very much.'
But the first peasant replied:
You say that you love me, but you do not know what I need. If you really loved me, you would know.'
The other had not a word to say to this, and the peasant who had put the question fell silent again.
-But I understood. To know the needs of men and to bear the burden of their sorrow — that is the true love of men."
P. 86.
Drugs
A learned but ungenerous man said to Rabbi Abraham of Stretyn:
"They say that you give people mysterious drugs and that your drugs are effective. Give me one that I may attain to the tear of God."
"I don't know any drug for the fear of God" said Rabbi Abraham, "But if you like I can give you one for the love of God."
"That's even better!" cried the other, "Just you give it to me." 'It is the love of one's fellow men," answered the zaddik.
P. 152.
Water
Rabbi Bunam said:
"It is written in Proverbs:
"As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.'
Why does the verse read 7n water and not 'in a mirror'?
Man can see his reflection in water only when he bends close to it, and the heart of man too must lean down to the heart of his fellow; then it will see itself within his heart."
P. 263.
Comparing One to Another
Someone once told Rabbi Mendel that a certain person was greater than another whom he also mentioned by name. Rabbi Mendel replied:
"If I am I because I am and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you.
But if I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I, then I am not and you are not you.
From Other Sources
I am not a Christian; I do not share in those convictions which make Christians of men. Moreover, I am inextricably bound up in my Judaism. Yet I have no disposition to set the one against the other, and to make meaningless comparisons. I do not regard Judaism as objectively superior to Christianity nor Christlantiy to Judaism. Rather, Judaism is mine, and I consider it good, and Iam at home in it, and I love it, and I want it. That is how I want Christians to feel about their Christianity.
Samuel Sandmel: We Jews and Jesus, Oxford
University Press. New York, 1977, p. 151.
In aiding a creature, (a pious man) is helping the Creator.
In succoring the poor, he fulfils a concern of God. In admiring the good, he reveres the spirit of God. In loving the pure, he is drawn to Him..
Ascending by this ladder, the pious man reaches the state of self-forgetfulness...
A.J. Heschel, Man is not Alone, Farrar, Strauss 8 Cudahy. New York 1951.
1. Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Early Masters, Schocken, New York, 1970.
2. Ibid. Later Masters.Imitatio Dei
