How to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself: Spiritual Secrets from the Depths of Hasidic Wisdom
Hasidic wisdom offers profound insights into human relationships that remain relevant in today’s world. Relationships between people often raise questions. How can you truly love another person? Especially if they aren’t spiritually close to you or even commit acts that seem wrong? In this article, we’ll uncover ancient Hasidic wisdom that will help you see others in a new light and learn to sincerely love everyone.
True Love: Beginning with the Right Attitude Toward Yourself
Imagine that you consist of two parts. One part is your body with its desires and needs. The other is a divine soul, a spark of light within you. When we focus too much on the physical and material, we lose connection with this spark.
The first step toward genuine love for others is to stop placing excessive importance on your body and its needs. When you begin to value the soul above the body, something amazing happens – you can see the same divine spark in every person.
“When a person’s only joy is the joy associated with the Divine soul, they can also love their neighbor, based on the thought of the Divine soul and the good hidden in every person.”
Why All People Are Truly Brothers and Sisters
When we look at people’s bodies, we see separation and differences. But if we look at souls, everything appears different. All souls have one source; they are connected by invisible threads.
This isn’t just a beautiful metaphor. In a profound sense, all people are truly brothers and sisters because their souls come from the same source. Separation is an illusion created by our focus on the physical.
The sages say: “Those people for whom the physical is primary and the spiritual is secondary cannot have true love and brotherhood.” Such people can love others only for external reasons – because of benefit or pleasure. And when these reasons disappear, so does the love.
Hasidic Wisdom on Love as the Foundation of the Entire Spiritual Path
The great teacher Hillel said an amazing thing: “Love your neighbor – this is the entire Torah, everything else is merely commentary.” This may seem like an exaggeration. How can one commandment contain all wisdom?
But if we understand the deep meaning of loving your neighbor, everything becomes clear. The entire spiritual path is aimed at elevating the soul above the body, connecting it with the source of everything. And this is only possible when souls are united with each other.
Imagine: if you hold several wires separately from each other, electricity cannot flow between them. Similarly, divine light cannot fully manifest where there is separation between souls.
How to Relate to Those Who Act Wrongly
Here we approach a difficult question. How can you love someone who commits bad deeds? After all, you can’t turn a blind eye to evil, can you?
Ancient wisdom offers an amazing solution. Yes, you can hate the evil in a person, but continue to love the person themselves – more precisely, their soul, which always contains a divine spark.
Moreover, if someone is far from spiritual values, we should make special efforts to bring them closer “with strong bonds of love.” Even if our efforts don’t lead to changes, we still fulfill the commandment of love.
Compassion – The Key to Overcoming Hatred
When we see someone doing bad things, we may feel negative emotions toward them. But if we remember that their divine soul is in “exile” within negative qualities that have temporarily taken over, our attitude will change.
Imagine a beautiful bird locked in a cage. You wouldn’t hate the bird because of the cage, would you? Rather, you would feel compassion for it. Similarly, a person’s soul is in a “cage” of their negative qualities.
Compassion works wonders – it dissolves hatred and awakens love. As an ancient text says: “Jacob redeemed Abraham” – compassion (Jacob’s quality) helps love (Abraham’s quality) to manifest.
How to Apply Hasidic Wisdom in Everyday Life
- Start with yourself: pay more attention to your inner world, your soul, than to external needs.
- Look for the divine spark in everyone: even in people who are unpleasant to you or behave incorrectly, there is an inner light.
- Develop compassion: when you see someone’s shortcomings, remember that this person’s soul suffers from them even more.
- Treat the “distant ones” with love: make special efforts to show kindness to those who seem far from spiritual values.
- Remember unity: behind the visible separation lies the profound unity of all souls.
By applying these principles from Hasidic wisdom, you will not only change your attitude toward others but also discover new depths within yourself. After all, love for your neighbor is not just a rule of behavior but a key to understanding all spiritual reality.
This article is based on Chapter 32 of the book “Likutei Amarim — Tanya” by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, one of the greatest Hasidic thinkers and the founder of the Chabad movement.
Afterword: This text has not been approved by any sage, Torah scholar, or rabbi and is merely a simplified adaptation of the sacred text for general understanding. For comprehension of true wisdom and a deeper understanding of the original text, you should refer to the sources.
