Why Be Kind?

One of the most simple, profound and moving of Judaism’s principles is a comment made by R. Akiva regarding a passuk in this week’s parasha:

ואהבת לרעך כמוך – אמר רבי עקיבא זה כלל גדול בתורה (רש”י, ויקרא יח:יט)

You should love your fellow as (you love) yourself – Rabbi Akiva said ‘This is the great principle of the Torah’. (Rashi, Vayikra 18:19)

This quote of R. Akiva is one of the most well-known sayings in the Talmud; however, it is merely an excerpt. It is half of a debate between R. Akiva and one of his peers. The great sage, Ben Azzai, thought a different pasuk and a different principle was of greater importance. Their full debate reads:

ואהבת לרעך כמוך. רבי עקיבה אומר זהו כלל גדול בתורה. בן עזאי אומר [בראשית ה א] זה ספר תולדות אדם זה כלל גדול מזה. (תלמוד ירושלמי, נדרים ט:ד)

‘(And) you must love your fellow as (you love) yourself’ – Rabbi Akiva said ‘This is the great principle of the Torah’. Ben Azzai said ‘This is the book of the Generations of Man…’ is a greater principle than this. (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9:4)

The passuk Ben Azzai quotes is from the end of Parshat Bereishit (5:1):

זֶ֣ה סֵ֔פֶר תּוֹלְדֹ֖ת אָדָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם בְּרֹ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אָדָ֔ם בִּדְמ֥וּת אֱלֹהִ֖ים עָשָׂ֥ה אֹתֽוֹ (ה:א)

This is the book of the Generations of Man, on the day that God made Man, in the likeness of God, He made him. (5:1)

In Ben Azzai’s opinion, the passuk which details Man being made in the image of God is of ultimate importance. It is the great principle of the Torah.

Perhaps this dispute could be read differently: R. Akiva and Ben Azzai are not debating the importance of loving others. Ben Azzai does not say that his principle is ‘The Great Principle’ of the Torah; rather, he claims his principle is greater than R. Akiva’s. The greatness of principles can be measured in two ways: The first is quite simply, which is more important. The second is which is more encompassing. A principle is a law, or a theory underlying or explaining a number of different things. The greater the principle, the more it encompasses.

Ben Azzai fully accepts that loving one’s fellow is of supreme importance in the Torah. However, his principle contains more. R. Akiva explains how one should love one’s fellow, Ben Azzai explains why one should. If one internalizes that every person is made in the image of God, one realizes that they must be loved. Without positing divine significance to each and every person, what reason is there to love them? It is a greater principle, for it contains not only the ‘how’, but the ‘why’.

There is a more elaborate account of this debate in the Midrash, which adds the following line:

שלא תאמר הואיל וניתבזיתי יתבזה חבירי, אמר ר’ תנחומא אם עשית כן דע למי אתה מבזה בדמות אלהים עשה אתו… (בראשית רבה כד:ז)

 …You should not say ‘Since I have disgraced myself, my friend can be disgraced’. Rabbi Tanchuma says: ‘If you do so, you should know who you disgraced: ‘For in the likeness of God He made him (Bereishit 5:1)’. (Bereishit Rabba 24:7)

We previously described how Ben Azzai’s principle of Man being made in the image of God explains R. Akiva’s principle. This additional statement expands it. If the commandment of loving one’s fellow was learnt from ‘ואהבת לרעך כמוך-you should love your fellow as yourself’ alone, its obvious limitation would be that someone who lacked self-respect or loathed themselves would not have to be loving to others. Unfortunately, this is often the case. People act nastily often out of a sense of insecurity and low self-worth. Ben Azzai’s maxim, that Man is made in the image of God, delegitimizes that thought. Whatever an individual may be inclined to think of themselves, they must realize that all people are made in the image of God, themselves included, and therefore they must act with dignity towards everyone. Thus, Ben Azzai’s principle also expands R. Akiva’s principle, making it greater.

We can take these ideas further through two teachings of Rambam. Rambam, in his Mishneh Torah, quotes two different commands from the Torah when he discusses the obligation to do acts of kindness. In Hilkhot Avel (14:1), he says that the mitzvot of visiting the sick, comforting mourners, burying the dead, accompanying guests and a whole host of acts of chessed are included in the mitzvah of ‘ואהבת לרעך כמוך-you must love your fellow as you love yourself”. However, in Hilkhot De’ot (1:5-6), he brings a different mitzvah: “והלכת בדרכיו-And you shall go in His (God’s) ways”. We are to be kind because God is kind.

The source for this idea is a passage in the Talmud which lists acts of kindness that are to be done since they are imitations of God’s kindness:

…להלך אחר מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, מה הוא מלביש ערומים…אף אתה הלבש ערומים; הקדוש ברוך הוא ביקר חולים… אף אתה בקר חולים… (סוטה יד.)

Go after the ways of The Holy One, Blessed be He. Just as He clothes the naked, so you should clothe the naked; The Holy One Blessed be He visits the sick, so should you visit the sick… (Sotah 14a)

We are to be kind, in imitation of God. When someone imitates someone, they do their best to be the image of them. The more kindness we do, that more like God we become.

This second mitzvah is different in nature from the first, but the two reflect each other in a striking way: We must be kind to others because they are made in the image of God. The kinder we are, the more we become the image of God. Being Godly is both the cause and consequence of kindness.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes beautifully:

Your own inner awareness tells you, and the Torah states, that man’s purpose is to be צלם אלוקים-a likeness of God…To this end, your mind is able to form the right image of all that exists; to this end, your heartstrings vibrate sympathetically with every cry of distress sounding anywhere in Creation, and with every glad sound uttered by a joyful creature; to this end, you are happy when the flower blossoms and sad when it wilts. (The Nineteen Letters, Letter 4).