A wall
18. Therefore, the bond (Arvut) resembles two people on a boat, wherein one of them suddenly begins to drill a hole in the bottom. His friend asked: “Why are you drilling?”, and he replied, “What business is it of yours? I’m drilling under me, not under you.” So the first man told him: “You fool, we shall both drown together!”
Similarly, those people who are immersed in self-love erect a wall between themselves and the correction of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” which constitutes the ladder leading to the Creator, and all drown with them.
Rav Michael Laitman PhD
From the lecture series
It may have started with the King James Bible, the translation of the Pentateuch into English, that the phrase ‘v’ohavta l’rey’eha ca’moha’ was made to read “Love your neighbor as yourself”. The phrase ‘your neighbor’ is “sha’cheyn’ha”; so this is a mistranslation. The translation is ‘Love your friend as yourself’. Reya is friend as in ‘reyim ahuvim’ or loving friends.
Regarding your neighbor, we have in Pirke Avot the concept of being a good neighbor, “sha-cheyn tov”. However, to love your neighbor as yourself is impossible to do and the Torah does not ask one to do the impossible.
Translating this phrase as “Love your fellow as yourself” is better -the phrase for ‘your fellow’ is ‘haverecha’ or ‘zulatecha’.
Reya has the connotation of a someone with whom you share in common beliefs, ideas, values. These are spiritual attributes that you have in common with the other person that bind you to him or her as friend. And as R. Ashlag taught, what divides one from another in spirit, that cuts through spiritual material like a chisel, is a difference of spiritual attributes.
[...] Find more about it all here [...]