"Love Thy Neighbor": challenging the notion of in-group morality in the bible.

Shudnow, Sanford H.

"One should accept the truth from whatever source it proceeds" Maimonides (see Weiss 1975, and Hertz 1945).

While some hold the opinion that a sage in ancient Israel required the mental acumen of a genius, exemplified by the uncanny ability to prove swine kosher in one hundred different ways, no such ability is required to prove that "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) means exactly what it says. John Hartung, published a fascinating and most convincing piece on what he considered a misunderstanding of the concept of "Love Thy Neighbor" in what he termed Judeo-Christianity. His challenging article appeared in a prominent magazine called Skeptic in 1995. Today, it is readily accessible on the internet.

Perhaps Dr Hartung possesses the ability to prove pig kosher, when it is not. When reading his seemingly well-documented piece, I was both impressed and disappointed at the same time: impressed because he writes beautifully and convincingly, disappointed because he does not truly understand the sources he presents. His work is tendentious, probably influenced by the impressive list of scholars he cites in his author's note.

It is my intention to demonstrate from primary biblical sources and later rabbinic sources, the actual meaning of the well-known biblical verse: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." It is important to understand the verse in the biblical context itself as well as how it was understood by the Rabbis of old and as it is understood by Jews today.

The Torah--the Five Books of Moses--variously dated as to composition, has, traditionally speaking, been in the possession of the Jewish world for over three thousand years. It must, therefore, have some meaning. What did it mean to those who believed in it and cherished its message?

Dr Hartung would have us believe that what he terms Judeo-Christianity, misrepresents "Love your neighbor" as an idea, universally applied to all people. He writes, "In context, neighbor meant 'the children of thy people,' 'your countrymen'--in other words, fellow in-group members. Specific laws which follow from the love law can be better understood by keeping the in-group definition of neighbor in mind" (Hartung 1995:87).

He cites numerous other scriptural sources to demonstrate the in-group/out-group concept in the Bible. There is no doubt that biblical literature is replete with references to wars, especially in the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, following the Israelite Exodus from Egypt. Dr Hartung--in the name of other scholars--questions the factuality of the Israelite presence in Egypt. This is not the position taken by all expert scholars on the subject. Professor James K. Hoffmeier, a renowned archaeologist, biblical historian and Egyptologist, has written an in-depth source review, supporting the reality of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (Hoffmeier 1997).

While there are other areas of misunderstanding and misrepresentations found in the Hartung piece, it would be fruitless attempting to justify acts of cruelty recorded in the books of the Bible. These are troubling to all who read them. It is, however, gratifying to find a people and its literature that so openly shows itself, warts and all.

Hartung cites Maimonides and other rabbinic sources, including the Mishna and Talmud in support of his thesis of Israelite in-group and out-group thinking. His sources are those that antisemites have cited throughout the ages to justify the persecution and killing of Jews.

Any competent rabbinic authority knows that these quotations especially those found in Maimonides' Code in the twelfth century refer to a time in the distant future, known as the End of Days, when absolute, universal justice will apply to all humankind. These laws refer to an unspecified end time--a time beyond human experience. His Code is seen as a major component in the development of Jewish Law, but has never been universally accepted as the final word.

By way of example, Maimonides writes, "In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither jealousy nor strife. Blessings will be abundant, comforts within the reach of all ... 'for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (Isaiah 11:9)" (Mishneh Torah 12:5). Maimonides, unlike other legal arbiters, is unique in that he wrote a code for his contemporary situation in the twelfth century, as well as what he perceived would be necessary in the End of Days, when Israel would be a totally sovereign nation under God's Kingdom.

Much of Maimonides' Code, known as Mishneh Torah, especially in his Book of Judges and the Laws of Kings and their Wars, pertains to an idealized future, and to judging non-Jews by the Seven Noahide Principles which alone are applicable to them. The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin delves into much of this material. While it may appear to be discriminatory, the intent is to apply appropriate standards to individual groupings, much as we often consider extradition in cases where local sovereign laws seem either too stringent or too lenient (see Shudnow 1992:60-62).

As stated, Noahides (non-Jews) when living under Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel were judged by the Seven Noahide Principles. An example is the prohibition of practicing avodah zarah (alien worship). Maimonides writes, "A Noahide practising alien worship is held guilty ... [for] any alien practice that a Jewish court finds to be a capital crime. The Noahide is thereby executed; however, any practice that a Jewish court does not hold to be a capital crime, the Noahide is not to be executed" (Maimonides. 9:2).

Highlighting concepts of stringency and leniency in Biblical law, Professor Moshe Greenberg of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, convincingly sets forth in his classic essay, "Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law," that, when Israelite Ancient Near Eastern law and for example, the Code of Hammurabi, are contrasted, the Torah at times appears stringent and at times lenient. This is often due to a very different perspective as to who is the offended party--God, the society, or the individual (Greenberg 1995:25-41).

Since I intend to explicate a Jewish understanding of "Love your Neighbor," I would like to first clarify the commonly misunderstood term Judeo-Christian. While it is a nice sounding word--as many hyphenated words are--it is of limited use. What do we mean by the two words Judeo and Christian when placed side by side? Are these synonymous, meaning that Jewish beliefs are the same as Christian, or similar enough that it is no big deal, "let's throw the two together"? When one actually studies the subject, it becomes evident that, while the two religions share much vocabulary, the understanding of the meaning of words and concepts can be vastly different.

For around two thousand years, Christianity and Judaism have stood their ground as distinct and separate religions. It may be polite to employ the term Judeo-Christianity in common parlance as a modern sign of cooperation and love, however, it is quite another to believe that everybody believes in the same thing. It is my intent to elucidate the subject of loving your neighbor and its applicability, within the context of a Jewish understanding. I leave it to others to explain how Christians understand this concept.

So what does all this have to do with "Love thy Neighbor"? We must explore the actual verse in its context and how it is understood. The nineteenth chapter of Leviticus is a compendium of laws of righteousness, which is awesome with even a superficial reading. I might add, that if it only applied to the so-called in-group as John Hartung alleges, it would suffice as an amazingly powerful voice for good within society. Take, for instance:

And when you reap the harvest of your land you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the single grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not defraud your neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment ... (Leviticus 19:9-15).

It is tempting to go on to quote the whole chapter, but, as the Sages taught, "a hint to the wise is sufficient."

The context in which verse eighteen appears is without question one of equity and justice. "Love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord" is explicated by Dr Hartung as referring only to the neighbor in your in-group. In other words, especially good treatment is reserved for "neighbors" of my own type exclusively.

The biblical translations appearing in this article are based on a Jewish version rooted in the linguistic spirit of the King James Version. Unfamiliarity with Hebrew is often the crux of the problem in misinterpreting a biblical passage: with an appreciation of the original Hebrew, the true meaning of a passage becomes clear.

Does "Love your neighbor as yourself" refer to in-group or not? As I shall show, it does not. In fact, "neighbor" as used here is universally applicable.

All biblical scholars when researching a particular usage in the Bible look into a concordance, which lists every possible usage of a particular term (see Even-Shoshan 1981), and the landmark biblical dictionary referred to by scholars as the BDB (Brown Driver and Briggs 1907). In our case, we are concerned with the phrase: v'ahavta l're'akha kamokha. The first word v'ahavta is no problem; it comes from the word ahavah, meaning "love." The third word kamokha is also no problem, it comes from the word k'mo, meaning "like" or "as." Kamokha means "as yourself." We are now left with the second crucial word, l're'akha. What is the referent of re'a?

Looking in the definitive A New Concordance of the Bible (Hebrew) edited by Abraham Even-Shoshan, we are referred to the word re'a as a haver, meaning "friend." While most listed usages of re'a "friend" seem to be the in-group of the ancestors and descendants of the Israelites, we note important passages where re'a clearly refers to non-Israelites as well.

Abraham, known as the Father of the Jews, had numerous dealings with the peoples inhabiting the land of Canaan, later to be called Israel. His descendants included his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob is especially famous, and known by his other name, Israel. He is the patriarch known for his twelve sons, each the founder of one of the tribes of Israel. Jacob's preeminent son was Judah, who founded the senior tribe known as Judah, the majority of which constituted at a later date the Land of Israel/Judah (sometimes called Judea).

We are told in Genesis 38:12 that Judah was comforted after the death of his wife by going to Timna to supervise sheep shearing, "he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite," together. "His friend" in Hebrew is re'ehu, our term. Again in verse 20, "And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend--re'ehu--the Adullamite ..." By stating that his friend is "the Adullamite," the Torah places special emphasis that Hirah was not of the same clan or stock as Judah, yet the word re'a meaning "friend" or "neighbor" is used.

Still more convincing are two verses in Exodus 12. The first verse employs both the masculine and feminine forms of re'a--"let every man ask of re'ehu--his neighbor, and every woman of re'utah--her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold" (12:2). The context here is most instructive, since we are now speaking of the nation of Israel enslaved in Egypt, yet living amongst the ancient Egyptians. There can be no question that the biblical text is using re'a-neighbor, explicitly, to refer to the so-called out-group, the Egyptian masters.

Even more conclusive is the fact that the slave masters, the Egyptians, developed a respect for the Israelites they had enslaved. "And the Lord gave the people [that is, the Israelites] favor in the sight of the Egyptians; moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the [Egyptian] people" (12:3).

One might ask, so how did the Rabbis understand the verse "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"? Did they interpret it as an in group, out-group thing? The Hizkuni (Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, who lived in the thirteenth century) comments:

... therefore interpret it [your neighbor] as the ger--stranger. Interpret doing acts of love to your neighbor, meaning, you shall love to bestow goodness to him, just as you love that he would do for you. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your friend. Therefore, you must understand: "And if a ger--stranger sojourn with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. But the ger--stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as ezrah--one born among you--and you shall love him as yourself; for you were gerim--strangers--in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Torat Haim Humash Leviticus 19:18, 33and34).

Despite what John Hartung would have us believe, we see that the Bible, fifteen verses later, paraphrases itself and makes explicit the love of the neighbor who is a stranger. The Bible contrasts the terms ger--stranger and ezrah--home-born. Ger-stranger can be understood as any outsider, coming into your midst. Ger is most often understood as "other."

The Torah challenged the Israelites to do an incredibly difficult thing--to treat the other as an equal. The Bible appealed to the Israelites' own experience in Egypt of "otherness" and servitude as the reason for knowing what "otherness" can be like.

Later rabbinic interpretation extended the concept and the term gerto include a proselyte. Today, most often, a geris one who comes to live within Jewish society as a co-equal. This extension of the concept of stranger to include co-equals demonstrates the idealized trend in Judaism working towards universality and equality.

Conceptually, the Bible begins with a single Creator and one creation of all of humanity as one united people (see Genesis 1 and 2). The Bible takes the reader through all of the highs and lows of living life, a life of freedom of choice, but culminates with a prophetic vision of a return to a Garden-of-Eden-like existence, of one united humanity.

"Loving your neighbor as yourself" is fundamental to achieving this goal. The Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Nedarim 9:4 quotes one of the most beloved of all sages, Rabbi Akiba: "Rabbi Akiba taught: Love your neighbor as yourself--This is a great principle of the Torah [i.e. of Judaism]."

A glaring omission in most quotations of our verse, are the final three words: "I am God." We would not be thorough in our presentation if we did not include these words in our citation. Many familiar biblical quotations are cut short or truncated. These concluding words, "I am God" are considered crucial to any person of faith.

A modern but traditional Hebrew commentary on Leviticus, known as Da 'at Mikra, elucidates the importance of the phrase, "I am God." The Da 'at Mikra states:

Concerning a cordial relationship with your friend, you are commanded also by the authority of God, and not only by human authority. And if you injure your friend, it is as if you are bringing dishonor to his Creator [a term used for the Creator of all Creation]. And this is the conclusion to the commandments between humans and their fellow human beings. This concluding phrase applies to all (Bullah 1992:67).

The Torah is literature that says what it means and means what it says. The Torah clearly states its central principle as "Love your neighbor as yourself, I am God." This, as we have shown, applies to all humanity. Adumbrating this essential teaching, Rabbi Akiba teaches the world, "This is a great principle of the Torah."

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Babylonian Talmud. (Hebrew/Aramaic, various printings).

Brown, R, Driver, S.R. and Briggs, C.A (eds.) 1907. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Bullah M. (ed.) 1992. Da'at Mikra: Leviticus Modern Rabbinic Commentary Vol. 2 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Even-Shoshan, A. (ed.) 1981. A New Concordance of the Bible: Thesaurus of the Language of the Bible (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher Publishing House.

The Jerusalem Bible, according to the Masoretic Text (Hebrew and English). Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 1977.

Jerusalem Talmud. (Hebrew/Aramaic various printings).

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, "Book of Judges" and the chapters "Laws of Kings and their Wars".

Torat Haim Humash: Leviticus Rabbinic Commentary Compendium (Hebrew) 1990. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Secondary Sources

Greenberg, M. 1995. Studies in the Bible and Jewish Thought. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.

Hartung, J. 1995. "Love Thy Neighbor: The Evolution of In-Group Morality" Skeptic, 3(4):86-99.

Hertz, J.H. 1945. Sayings of the Fathers: (Hebrew and English with commentary). New York: Behrman House.

Hoffmeier, J.K. 1997. Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shudnow, S.H. Summer 1992. "Covenant Implications for Ministry: A Jewish Perspective." Military Chaplains' Review, Summer:60-62.

Weiss, R.L. (ed.) 1975. Ethical Writing of Maimonides. New York: Dover Publications.