The mitzvah that Jews have of “Ahavat Yisrael”¹ (to love their fellow Jew) is a deeply mystical, emotional, and foundational mitzvah for the Jewish people. And we shall see, for all people ².

Yet some of us are confused about the way Ahavat Yisrael works. Is it enough to just love someone in theory? What does it look like when you really, truly love a person or people? (this applies in many interpersonal contexts)

The Lebavetcher Rebbe zs”l used to hand out $1 bills every sunday. Jews would wait in long lines to receive a dollar, and a blessing, from the Rebbe. The person would then donate the dollar to whatever charity moved their heart. As my rabbi said when he told this story, “the Rebbe was obsessed with charity!”

He started the sunday dollar handouts when he was already in his 80’s, and continued for many years, handing out millions of dollar bills. And each sunday he would stand there for hours - 2, 3, 4 hours at a time, without taking a break, and without sitting.

One day an elderly lady came to receive a dollar from the Rebbe. When her turn finally arrived, she said to the Rebbe,

“Rebbe, I have waited in line for a whole hour, standing on my feet, in my old age. To get a dollar and a blessing from you, it is well worth it. But you, you stand here for hours every week. Why not bring a chair and sit for a while?”

The Rebbe responded to her, “My dear lady, when one is counting diamonds, he does not get tired.”

When the Rebbe - or any tzadik (saintly person) - looked at a person, he did not see their nose. He saw their neshama (soul).

The Rebbe taught us what true Ahavat Yisrael is. To really love the people of Israel is to see them for who they really are, and not for their external casing.

It is the love of the Jewish people that stopped the terrorist attack in Jerusalem yesterday.

The religious off-duty soldier recounts what happened:

“As far as what happened,” Moshe Plesser³ continued: “I was bicycling from the center of town [westward] towards my home, when I saw a bulldozer battering a bus lying on its side and a lot of commotion. I immediately realized that it was a terrorist attack. I threw the bicycle to the side, and I ran⁴ towards the scene, trying to get as close as I could to the bulldozer so that I could get on it and stop the driver. As I got closer I tried to somehow get a weapon. When the bulldozer stopped, a policeman climbed up, and I climbed up right behind him, screaming at him to shoot.”

“Oron Ben-Shimon, with whom I was privileged to cooperate in stopping the terrorist, also climbed up, and he and the policeman tried to stop him with their hands. At first I could not shoot him, because the policeman stood in between us and the terrorist. The terrorist suddenly got up and started to drive again, screaming out Allahu Akbar, and Oron was able to turn the steering wheel so that the bulldozer wouldn’t run over more cars. Finally, I was able to grab⁵ Oron’s gun and shoot over the heads of the policeman and Oron, three bullets to his head. Then a Yassam policeman got on and fired again to ascertain his death.”

(in full at Israelnn.com)

The police officer’s failure to even think to shoot the terrorist proves that weapons training is not enough to defend the Jewish people (or your own family or neighborhood). We saw this with the fireman on Sept. 11th who valued American lives with every fiber of their being.

In Israel, it was Moshe Plesser’s tangible, non-hypothetical, love of the Jewish people that left him with zero hesitation in their time of need.⁶ This is true Ahavat Yisrael.

Today we were able to better grasp what Ahavat Yisrael - loving the Jewish people - means.

In the next post, we’ll discuss what the Jewish people must know about Ahavat Yisrael as relates to the Bnei Noach, and what the Bnei Noach must know about Ahavat Yisrael as relates to the Jewish people.

Stay tuned