T165 PNC - Love Your Neighbor — I Am God / Receive All Evils Lovingly / Emunah in Suffering (1 seg)

The verse: 'Love your neighbor as yourself — I am God' (Leviticus 19:18). Rabbeinu teaches: receive lovingly all the evils and sufferings that befall you, knowing that according to your deeds, despite all the sufferings and evils, God is still dealing with you mercifully — for more was due to you by strict justice, God forbid. Thus, 'love your neighbor' — love the evil (the ra'ot, the bad things) that befall you, as yourself. This is an astonishing reading: 'your neighbor' (re'ekha) is connected to 'ra' (evil) — the evils that are your 'neighbors,' that come close to you. And 'I am God' — the God who is with you even in the suffering is the very ground of this love. The ability to love one's sufferings is not stoicism but faith: trusting that God who 'is' the 'I AM' is present even in the hardship, and that His presence there is itself a form of mercy.