Self Love and Shared Love
In this week’s dual Torah portion, Acharei Mot-K’doshim, we encounter a passage so central to Jewish life that our tradition regards it as the “fundamental principle of the Torah.” But even more broadly, it is the foundational concept of empathy that undergirds the morality of most faiths and secular philosophies. Often characterized more colloquially as “The Golden Rule,” its terse simplicity obscures a deeper challenge and meaning. For what if one does not love oneself? Does that undermine the significance of the premise, or excuse a person from engendering the core compassion upon which human flourishing depends?
Perhaps these three little Hebrew words encompass a larger message: We must look to our own health, care, and wellbeing as a primary concern—not out of a narcissistic navel gazing, but rather out of an extended and loftier pursuit of bringing good, right and blessing to realms beyond ourselves, and thus bringing about God’s messianic vision for a better world.