Christmas Stories - Part 2
December 12, 2021Today's message, by guest speaker Tabitha Panariso, was the second in a series called Christmas Stories. The message is here.
As you might imagine, the Torah doesn't have much to say about the meaning of Christmas. So let me pick up on a thought Tabitha offered early-on in her message: "Love the stranger. There is much about him you don't know. Love what you don't see."
Deuteronomy 10:19 - You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 19:18 - Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.
Stranger and neighbor are used throughout both testaments to essentially mean the same thing in this regard. Other phrases like "show no partiality" to members of other nations occur as well. I'd like to focus on the Leviticus verse...
If you ask many people about where in the Bible it says "love your neighbor as yourself," I'd bet serious bucks that very few answers would reference the Old Testament. Yet there it is. And not just in any spot. It's in the center of Leviticus and is in the center of the Torah.
Even fewer people will remember that "love your neighbor as yourself" does not end the verse. The verse ends with "I am God." All instruction given in the Bible is made more potent by reference to a higher authority. This is not my feelings or thoughts on the matter, or yours. They are God's instruction.
Dennis Prager goes out of his way in his taped lectures to explain also that loving a person also requires reproving them when necessary. Don't let them walk around with their fly open, sort of speak.
By the way, the word used in Leviticus 19:18 for "bear/carry any grudge" is the same word used in the Ten Commandments for "carry" God's name in vain, not "take."
Is it really possible to love your neighbor exactly as you love yourself? Probably not, certainly not in human practice. The literal translation may help, which is closer to "show love to your neighbor who is like you." You are to recognize that your neighbor is just like you, just as valuable as you, and in God's image just like you.
So why neighbor and not stranger here? Prager suggests that you start with loving the neighbor. Not exactly a stranger, but not a Jew necessairly either. The instruction starts in the micro (individual, close) and develops later into the macro (society).
Mostly the Torah does not have laws such as "be nice." That's basically meaningless. This is why the Ten Commandments are generally prohibitions when it comes to the Man-Man laws (the last 5). The Torah says "give 10%," it doesn't say "give charity." This clarity is better for raising good people and for making a better society.
The Torah has two biggies: be holy and love your neighbor. And He often follows up instructions in both realms with "I am the Lord your God." That does it for me.