Daily Tanya Sunday 9th Adar: Chapter 32 Part 1: Ahavas Yisrael – How to love every Jew

Chapter 32: Ahavas Yisrael-How to love every Jew, and the Mitzvah to love even sinners and the non-observant

9th Adar/(LY) 23^rd Adar 1

1.      Achieving true love of a fellow Jew through experiencing contempt of the body and joy of the soul:

• Through doing the above exercises [found in chapters 30 and 31], in which one contemplates and experiences the lowliness and contempt of the body, and in contrast one experiences only the joy of the soul, one can come to a straightforward and easy fulfillment of the command to love one’s fellow Jew. A love for every single Jew, whether young or old.

(LY) 24^th Adar 1

• Focusing on the G-dly soul of every Jew: As a result of the fact that one’s body is scorned and viewed in contempt in one’s own eyes, and one has no awareness of the true level of greatness of the soul and spirit within its root and source in G-d [therefore, one can easily accomplish the Mitzvah to love every single Jew]. [This can be accomplished by contemplating how every single Jew contains a holy soul, of which we do not know its level and do not know who contains a higher soul than whom. Now, even though the body and animal soul of the other Jew may be lowly and putrid, nonetheless, we focus on the greatness of his G-dly soul and not the lowliness of his animal soul, just as one uses the same approach regarding himself, as explained in the previous chapters.]
• Focusing that all souls are equal in their root: [One should not be challenged against experiencing love of a fellow Jew due to a feeling of hierarchy that possibly his soul is higher than his friends soul, as aside for the fact that perhaps the opposite is true], in truth all souls are equal in their root above, and they all come from one father.
• We are all brothers: It is due to the above [that we all come from the same root and have one father, who is the one G-d] that all the Jewish people are referred to as brothers, as in truth, we are really all brothers due to the root of our souls in the one G-d, and it is only our bodies that are different.

2. Lack of love for a fellow Jew is a result of making the body the priority of one’s focus:

• Those who do not live according to the philosophies brought in the previous chapters and make their bodies their main focus and their souls of only a secondary focus, it is not possible for them to come to a true love and feeling of brotherhood between them and their fellow Jew, and at maximum they can only experience a love that is due to external factors [i.e. Hateluyah Bedavar].

(LY) 25^th Adar 1

3. Love of a fellow Jew is the entire Torah:

• The statement of Hillel: Based on the above, we can understand the statement of Hillel the Elder who stated that the Mitzvah to love a fellow Jew is the entire Torah and the remainder of the Torah is simply its commentary. [On the outset, this seems like a most wondrous and puzzling statement, as what connection is there between all the other 613 commands and this one command?]
• Achieving true love of a fellow Jew fulfills the entire purpose of the Torah which is to elevate the soul to G-d above and draw G-dliness to the Jewish souls below: [Rather, the intent of Hillel is that through going through with the exercise to bring one to have true love of a fellow Jew one fulfills the entire purpose of all the other commands of the Torah.] You see, the entire root and purpose of the Torah is to elevate the soul over the body to the highest of heights up until the root and source of all the worlds. Likewise, the purpose is to also draw down the infinite light of G-d into the general souls of Israel [i.e. Kneses Yisrael], which is the source of all souls of the Jewish people, in order to unite them with G-d so they be one with the true One. This drawing down of G-dliness to the Jewish souls cannot be achieved when there is discord between the Jewish souls, as G-d does not reside in a blemished area, as can be seen from the wording of the common blessing in which we ask G-d to bless us all as one, [as the oneness draws down the blessing], as will be explained in length elsewhere.