You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am Adonai. (Lev. 19:18)
You shall love the stranger that dwells with you (who will be for you like the native-born among you), as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Adonai, your God. (Lev. 19:34)
And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might ... (Deut. 6:5)
If you've paid attention to your flight attendant, you know that in the event of an emergency, you put your own oxygen mask on first. Only then do you help someone next to you, including a child. Why? Because if you don't have oxygen, you're useless to anyone else.
It's the same with love.
Start by loving and caring for yourself. It's not selfish; it's just a place to start.
Then move outward: your neighbor, your community, the strangers around you.
Then, finally, the realm of God: the spiritual love that holds all the others together.
But it all starts in your own home.
You shall love the stranger that dwells with you (who will be for you like the native-born among you), as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Adonai, your God. (Lev. 19:34)
And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might ... (Deut. 6:5)
If you've paid attention to your flight attendant, you know that in the event of an emergency, you put your own oxygen mask on first. Only then do you help someone next to you, including a child. Why? Because if you don't have oxygen, you're useless to anyone else.
It's the same with love.
Start by loving and caring for yourself. It's not selfish; it's just a place to start.
Then move outward: your neighbor, your community, the strangers around you.
Then, finally, the realm of God: the spiritual love that holds all the others together.
But it all starts in your own home.
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