Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron, getting ready for Shabbat here at Cave of Yishai and Ruth. Everyone knows this Shabbat, Parshat Kedoshim we have the commandment to emulate Hashem and to emulate His attributes and His ways.
We have the most famous verse in all of the Torah in this week’s parsha Chapter 19 verse 18: V’Ahavta lereiacha kamocha, Ani Hashem — Love thy neighbor as yourself. I am Hashem.
As many interpretations and deep profound lessons and psychological insights into this verse, we’re still living in a world full of divisiveness full of hatred, full of division and lots and lots of arguments between people. And somehow or other this passuk “V’Ahavta Lereiacha Kamocha” is one of the most hardest verses to actually fulfill.
A little insight we could receive from both the Baal HaTanya and Rav Cook — a lot of times it all has to do with the way we look at another person. A lot of times we see ourselves as individual cells, like a cell in the body. And all I’m interested in is my survival, my fitness, my greatness. And that is and a very self-centered way of looking at things.
But sometimes I can see myself as part of a greater body, something bigger than myself. And I’m just a little piece in a bigger pie. Maybe we the Jewish nation, are 600,000 bodies, but we’re really one soul that’s just divided into many bodies. We see ourselves as all part of one great nation. Nishmat Yisrael. Knesset Yisrael.
So it’s so much easier to be able to become one and unified. Let’s hope this Shabbat we should be able to wipe out the sin of Rabbi Akiva’s students and their mistake. We should be able to give honor to one another, to see the specialness in each other, to realize that we all have different expressions. No two people look alike. No two people think alike.
But together we’re all part of this great puzzle to bring the ultimate redemption and unification of God’s oneness in this world.
Shabbat shalom.
