In the previous chapters we arrived at the conclusion that follows from chapters 29 and 30: the body is lowly, repulsive and base, and yet a person is meant to be joyful, because the essence of his life is his soul, and every opportunity he is given to connect with the soul within him is an opportunity for joy. Now, in chapter 32, the Alter Rebbe reveals that precisely this conclusion is the key to fulfilling the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael, love of a fellow Jew.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: "על ידי קיום הדברים הנ"ל, להיות גופו נבזה ונמאס בעיניו, רק שמחתו תהיה שמחת הנפש לבדה" ("by fulfilling what was said above, that his body be despised and loathsome in his eyes, and his joy be the joy of the soul alone"). When a person takes an honest accounting of body versus soul, he reaches the conclusion that the soul is what he really is. True, the body is despised and loathsome in his eyes, but his joy does not come from it at all; it comes from the soul that animates it, which is the essence. And once he has reached that conclusion, it becomes his help in fulfilling the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael.
What is the connection between the two? Let us first lay out an introduction to the mitzvah of "ואהבת לרעך כמוך," and then we will see what chapter 32 adds to that structure, which is the heart of the matter.
An introduction to the mitzvah of "Love your fellow as yourself":
In the book of Vayikra, in parshas Kedoshim, it says: "ואהבת לרעך כמוך" ("Love your fellow as yourself"). On the simple level, the meaning is this: just as a person loves himself, wants what is good for him and does not want to be harmed, so too he must care about his fellow. The same idea is formulated in the negative: "דעלך סני לחברך לא תעביד" ("what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow"). We will return to these points later.
But Chassidus explains the verse in another way as well, and in truth this is not a new interpretation at all, but the most straightforward reading of all. As is its way, Chassidus takes the plain meaning and illuminates within it a depth and a light that would never have occurred to us otherwise.
Analyzing the word "ve'ahavta":
Before we examine the word "כמוך," "as yourself," we must clarify the opening word, "ואהבת," "and you shall love." What is love? Broadly speaking there are two kinds, and we can examine the difference between them even before the Torah's command, simply from the nature of the world:
Self-love: Every person loves himself, and "love covers over all offenses." This love requires no reason whatsoever. A person who would say, "I love myself because I am smart, handsome, strong or wealthy," is not of sound mind. More than that: even if he had every reason in the world not to love himself, he would still love himself. Self-love does not depend on reasons.
Love of another: This love generally comes about because of a reason, a love that is dependent on something. The other person gave him something or helped him in some way; and even if he gave him nothing at all, a person sees virtues and potential in him, and out of that intellectual appreciation he develops love for him.
At first glance the bottom line is the same: either way the person loves, so what difference does it make whether his love comes from a reason or without a reason? In truth there are two differences between them:
An external difference, whether the love endures: Love of another is not necessarily eternal; it is liable to stop. If it came about because of a reason, then one day that reason will fall away, or it will seem to the one who loves that the reason no longer exists, and then there is no longer any point in continuing to love, since from the outset he loved because of the reason. With self-love, by contrast, cessation is simply not applicable. No matter what happens, no matter how much time passes, no matter what occurs, because from the outset it was never built on a reason, and there is nothing in the world that could bring it to an end.
A deeper difference, how deep the love goes: The first difference concerns only the moment when the love ceases; seemingly, as long as it exists there is no difference between them. But even while the love exists there is an enormous difference, and it lies in the depth at which the love is found within the person. The intellect, though it is man's highest faculty, is something external to him: a person's essence is not his intellect, and the intellect is an addition to his essence. Therefore a love that comes from logic and reasoning sits at a depth that is no depth at all, but rather in an external layer of the essence. Self-love, by contrast, goes all the way: it is in the depth of the depth of the soul, with no restraint and no boundary, not in time, not in place, and not within the soul. For it does not come from something external that arrived from the outside and argued that it is worthwhile to love; it flows from the innermost dimension, from the "you" within the person himself, as is hinted in the letters of the word "ואהבת" (the letters א-ת-ה, "atah," "you").
Another person whom one loves with self-love:
A father and son: A son is another person, yet a father's love for his son is a self-love that requires no reasons. A father loves his son because he is his son, whether the son has fine qualities or whether he does not.
Brothers: Although it need not be to the same degree between brothers, nevertheless, since they came from one point (and all the more so twins), there is an essential, inner bond between them, and the love is not because of some reason but simply because he is his brother.
But what about another person who is not a relative? Even if he is a fine Jew, even if he does good things for him, and the person has every reason in the world to love him, and he genuinely does love him, you still cannot say that his love for him is "כמוך," a self-love. He loves him because he is a good, pleasant person who helps everyone; you could draw up a long list of reasons whose conclusion is love. But since the love comes because of a reason, the depth of the bond between them is not the depth of self-love.
The Torah's demand: "as yourself":
And here the Torah comes and tells a Jew: "ואהבת לרעך כמוך" - the way a person loves himself, with self-love, that is how his love for his fellow must be. And since this is not natural (for if it were natural, the Torah would not have needed to command it), it is clear that work is required in order to reach it.
But even before we see how one arrives at such a love, we have to understand the logic of it: what grounds are there for demanding that a person love someone else with an actual self-love? Why go to such an extreme? How can the Torah say such a thing to us?
The words of the Arizal:
To this the Arizal says that all souls are in essence one body: a single spiritual body that spread out and divided into a multitude of souls. And within one body, which has 248 limbs and 365 sinews, it makes no sense to speak of a dispute between the right hand and the left hand, or between the right leg and the left leg. True, these are different limbs, a weaker hand and a stronger hand, this one chesed and that one gevurah, this one a leg and that one a head, opposite extremes, but it is obvious that all the limbs belong to that very same body.
It emerges that the Torah's demand to relate to one's fellow literally "as yourself" is not a baseless demand, and it is not like someone trying to glue together two things that will not stick. The Torah is telling a person something that is already the case in essence: he and his fellow are one, since all souls are in essence one body, and that is why the Torah asks this of us.
In summary: In this section we learned how the Alter Rebbe opens chapter 32: out of fulfilling what we have learned, that one's body is despised and loathsome in his eyes and that his joy is the joy of the soul alone, a person comes to the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael. We analyzed the word "ואהבת": a self-love that is not dependent on any reason, as opposed to love of another that is dependent on something, and we identified the two differences between them: the one is liable to cease when its reason falls away while the other is eternal; the one resides in the external layer of the essence (the intellect) while the other resides in the depth of the depth of the soul. We also saw that there are others whom one loves with self-love (a father and son, brothers), and that the basis for the demand of "כמוך" is explained in the words of the Arizal, that all souls are in essence one body.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 32, and see how the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael flows in practice from this foundation that all souls are as one body.