Love thy friend as thyself. (Creator, Leviticus, virtual, doom)

[svetlu]

Love thy friend, or neighbor,as thyself, taught by the great Kabbalist Rabbi Akiva, is maxim that virtually all religions and teachings have adopted. But this is a very dangerous maxim if lived without its final goal - to reach the Creator. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes that this is exactly what happened in Russia's communism. It was doomed to fail, and they continue to pay a heavy price because they used nature's law of altruism without its final purpose: to reach the Creator through equivalence of form with Him.
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[MidnightBlue]

Originally Posted by svetlu

Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes that this is exactly what happened in Russia's communism. It was doomed to fail, and they continue to pay a heavy price because they used nature's law of altruism without its final purpose: to reach the Creator through equivalence of form with Him.

I don't think they used it at all. If you love people as you love yourself, you don't line them up and shoot them or send them off to Solovki.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by svetlu

Love thy friend, or neighbor,as thyself, taught by the great Kabbalist Rabbi Akiva, ...

That is a rather interesting (and, I would suggest, entirely misleading) characterization of Rabbi Akiva. As for the teaching in question, it obviously derives from Vayikra/Leviticus 19 and, in fact, is subject to an alternate translation. As I noted here back in May 2004 ...

Normally rendered:

• love thy neighbour as thyself

it can also be read:

• love thy neighbor - he is like you

This seems to me the more profound interpretation.

Rather than an appeal to naive altruism, it was an appeal for a religious recognition of our common humanity.