HANG UP THE BACKDROP

Love your fellow as yourself, this is the entire Torah.

The commandment to love a fellow is emphasized in the Chasidic teachings and the Chasisdic life style.

The big question is HOW? How can you love someone else as yourself? Even your best friend will inevitably get you upset sometimes?

A person does not get on his own nerves. A person does not hate himself even when he knows that he did something wrong. The sages in their wisdom have said: “A man does not see his own faults”.

Why not? Don’t you know your own shortcomings better then anyone else? Who truly knows your weaknesses if not yourself? Yet you love yourself profoundly, and against that backdrop all of your faults have no significance at all, they are irrelevant.

When someone else discovers a fault of yours you become furious. The other person who lacks that powerful backdrop of love sees only the default and that dominates his perspective.

This then is the key to “love your fellow as yourself” when you love your fellow you will not see his faults just as you don’t see your own.

Chasidus teaches that when we develop this attitude toward other people G-d does the same to us. The verse states “he sees iniquity however he does not meditate on it”, G-d knows of it but it is insignificant because we are part of him and “a man does not see his own faults”.