In part one of this two-post series we gained a better understanding of what it means to fulfill the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael - to love the Jewish people.

In this second part of the series, I want to discuss the basis and meaning that Ahavat Yisrael has for Jews and for Noahides.

The Jew’s Obligation to Love Noahides

One of the more shocking moments of my army service in the IDF was the reaction I received when I mentioned to my Israeli friend that one of my good friends in America is a non-Jewish guy who finds Judaism intriguing.

The Israeli friend of mine replied - “You have non-Jewish friends?! Whoa!”
- as if I had encountered some rare, exotic culture in a far off world.

And that’s when I realized:
in Israel, the only non-Jews that religious Jews ever meet are Arabs. And since Israel is in a state of war with her Arab neighbors¹, there is little to no interaction between Jews and non-Jews within the state of Israel².

So the question is, can a Jew love his fellow Jew - fulfull the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael - without loving his gentile neighbor?

To answer, Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook zt”l says the following in a chapter entitled “Love”

1. The love must be completely full in one’s heart.

2. The love of the entirety of Creation comes before all else. Afterward the love of all of Mankind. And after the love of Mankind, the love of Israel, which is a love that includes everything above - since Israel are destined to rectify the entirety of Creation.

And all of these types of love must be practical love, to love them [the Creation, Mankind, and Israel -ed] to do for them goodness and to cause them to be elevated, and a love of Hashem will arise within them, which is love in action, love that has no ulterior motive whatsoever, only that which the heart is filled with from such love, which is the happiness/bliss exalted above all else.
(emphasis added -ed):

Rav Kook makes it clear. To love the Jewish people, one must first love the entire Creation AND Mankind AND the Jewish people.

What does it mean to love Creation?
It means to use them for spiritual ends and “cause them to be elevated”:
To use flowers to beautify the Shabbat home. To say blessings over the food we eat. To be thankful for the air we breath. To appreciate beauty itself, and incorporate that in our service of Hashem.

What does it mean to love Mankind?
It means “to do goodness for them, and cause them to be elevated” so that “a love of Hashem will arise within them.” What greater good can be given than knowledge of G-d Almighty. To me, this means to teach them - whether formally, or simply by example and through friendship³.

What does it mean to love Israel?
See Ahavat Yisrael part 1.

The Noahide’s Obligation⁴ to Love the Jewish people

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (Alter Rebbe) who lived from 1745 - 1812 in White Russia, was asked the following question by his students:

Which is the superior avoda (service), love of G-d or love of Israel?

And the Alter Rebbe responded:

Both love of G-d and love of Israel are equally engraved in every Jew’s [soul]. Scripture is explicit: “I have loved you [Israel], says the L-rd.⁵” It follows that love of Israel is superior - for you love whom your beloved loves.

“You love whom your beloved loves.”

What a statement!
The Noahide’s love for the Jewish people, it seems, is rooted in his or her love for G-d. Anything or anyone that Hashem loves should be loved by those who love Hashem.

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