In Following the Explanation of Love Thy

Friend as Thyself
Rabbi Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag, article No. 7
According to what is explained regarding “Love thy friend as thyself,” all the details
of the 612 Mitzvot are contained in this rule. It is as our sages say, “The rest means go
study.” This means that by keeping the 612 Mitzvot we will naturally acquire the rule
of “Love thy friend” and then the love of God.
Hence, what does love of friends give us? It is written that by gathering a few friends
together, since they each have but a small force of love of man they can only keep
love of man in potential. When they implement it they remember that they have
decided to relinquish self-love in favor of love of man. In fact he sees that he cannot
relinquish any pleasure of the will to receive for another, not even a bit.
However, by collecting a few people together with the same idea that they have to
reach love of man and when they annul themselves before one another, then they are
all intermingled. Thus they accumulate a great force in each and every individual
according to the size of the society, and then they can execute the love of man in
actual fact.
In that case, what do the details of the 612 Mitzvot add to us, which we said are in
order to keep the rule, since the rule exists by love of friends? Moreover, we see that
in reality there is love of friends among secular too. They too gather in different
circles in order to have love of friends. What then is the difference between religious
and secular?
The verse says (Psalms 1), “nor sat in the seat of the scornful.” We must understand
the prohibition on “seat of the scornful.” If there is slander or idle words, then the
prohibition is not because of a “seat of scornful”; what then does the “seat of
scornful” add to us?
It means that when a few people come together for the purpose of love of friends with
the intention that each and every one will help his friend improve his corporeal state,
each anticipates that by having more meetings they will profit from society and
improve their corporeal state.
However, after all the meetings, one calculates and sees how much he has received
from society in return for self-love and what the will to receive has gained by that. In
other words, since he invested time and effort to benefit society, what has he gained
by that? He could certainly succeed more if he had been occupied with self-interest.
At the very least, the part that he has exerted in, he would exert for himself. “I entered
the society because I thought that I would be able to gain more by society than I could
gain by myself, but now I see that I have gained nothing.”
He then regrets it and says, “I would have been better off using my little strength
instead of giving my time to society. However, now that I have given the time to
society to gain more properties through help from the society, I finally realize that not
only did I not gain anything from society, I even lost what I could have gained alone.”
When there is someone who wishes to say that love of friends should be engaged in
for the purpose of bestowal, meaning everyone working to benefit their fellow person,
everyone laughs and jokes at it. It seems to them like a kind of a joke, and this is the
“seat of the scornful.” It is “but sin is a reproach to any people, and every grace that
they do, they do for themselves.” Such a society detaches one from holiness. It casts
one into the world of mockery, and this is the prohibition of the seat of the scornful.
Our sages say about such societies, “Disperse the wicked; it is good for them and
good for he world.” In other words, it is better that they do not exist. However, it is
the opposite with the righteous, “Assemble the righteous; it is good for them and good
for the world.”
What is the meaning of “righteous”? It is those who want to keep the rule of “Love
thy friend as thyself,” whose sole intention is to exit self-love and adopt a different
nature for their selves, being the love of man. Though it is a Mitzva that should be
kept, and one can force oneself to keep it, yet love is something that is given to the
heart, and the heart disagrees with it by nature. What then can one do to make love of
man touch the heart?
This is why we were given the 612 Mitzvot. They have the power to bring a sensation
in the heart. However, since it is against nature, that sensation is a small part with the
ability to keep love of friends de facto even though he has a need for it. Hence, now
he must seek advice regarding how to actually implement it.
The advice for one to be able to intensify his force in the rule of “Love thy friend” is
love of friends. If every one is nullified before his friend and mingles with him then
they become one mass where all the little parts want to connect in love of man into
the general force that consists of many parts. When he has great strength then he can
execute the love of man.
Then he can reach the love of God, but on condition that they annul before one
another. However, when he is separated from his friend he cannot receive the share he
should receive from his friend.
Thus, every one should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing
numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0” it is ten times more and when you write
“00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, his friend is number one, and the zero
follows it, it is considered that he receives from his friend ten times more. If he says
that he is double zero compared to his friend he receives from his friend a hundred
times more.
However, if it is the opposite and he says that his friend is zero and he is one then he
is ten times less than his friend. If he can say that he is one and he has two friends
who are both zeros compared to him then he is a hundred times less than them,
meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has
from his friends.
Yet, even once he acquires that strength and can keep the love of man in actual fact,
and feels his own gratification as something bad for him, do not believe in yourself. Comment [C.R.1]:
He must be afraid of falling into self-love in the middle of the work if he is given a
greater pleasure than he is used to receiving. With small pleasures he can already
work in order to bestow and is willing to relinquish them but he lives in fear of great
pleasures.
This is called “fear” and this is the gate to receive the Light of faith, called “The
inspiration of Divinity,” as it is written in the Zohar, “According to the fear is the
measure of the faith.”
We therefore must remember that the matter of “Love thy friend as thyself” should be
kept because of the Mitzva that the Creator has commanded. He intended to make a
rule of this Mitzva by which all the Mitzvot will be kept because of the commandment
of the Creator and for self-gratification.
It is not that the Mitzvot should enhance our will to receive, meaning that by keeping
the Mitzvot one will be generously rewarded. Quite the contrary, by keeping the
Mitzvot we will reach the reward of being able to annul our self-love and reach love of
man and afterwards the love of God.
Now we can understand what our sages said about the verse “place them.” It comes
from the word “potion 1 .” If granted, it is a potion of life; if not granted, a potion of
death. Not granted means that one studies Torah and Mitzvot in order to proliferate
self-love and so that the body will acquire possessions in return for its work. If
granted then one’s self-love is nullified, meaning he aims to receive a reward that is
the strength for love of man by which he will reach the love of the Creator, meaning
that his sole wish will be to give contentment to the Creator.

1
Translator’s note: In Hebrew the verb “to place” (Ve Samtem) is phonetically similar to the noun
“potion” (Sam).