My liberal friend takes umbrage over the dreaded G word, the word left/liberals seem to loathe over any other, which is the word G-D. I had commented that belief in G-D is the essence of Judaism. With daggers in her eyes, she tersely pronounces that the essence of Judaism is “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Her attitude and demeanor, while intoning this, is anything but loving.
Loving thy neighbor as thyself, in the religious context, means the voluntary, and preferably anonymous activity of rendering assistance and charity to fellow citizens in need. Judaism calls this doing Mitzvahs and giving Tzadakah. Christianity calls this tithing. By assisting a fellow human being, the believing Jew and Christian is honoring the image of G-D, and, therefore, honoring G-D and his commandments. Most believing Jews and Christians hasten to perform such acts which is why religious people have done more to alleviate human suffering than any force in history.
To the left/liberal, the term “love thy neighbor as thyself” means the empowerment of a gun-backed totalitarian secular government. The government, to the left/liberal, provides “love” through the use of force. The term “love thy neighbor” means, to the left/liberal, de facto equality, which is to say that everyone is literally equal in every way. This is the ideal they strive for. To possess something more than your neighbor, to the left/liberal, would be contrary to “love.” Love, to the left/liberal, is strictly a matter of material possessions. Everything, in fact, is reduced to the material and sensate in the absence of G-D.
While it may be unkind to speculate, I doubt if my liberal/left friend has shared all that much of her more than adequate material resources with her neighbors over the years. I doubt if she would even consider re distributing her own ample wealth with anyone. She has no intention of living by her definition of loving her neighbor as herself. Such activities are for the rest of us, the unenlightened. She and her ilk intend to work hard to insure the fulfillment of their dream of “equality” on the backs of the rest of us. She will support big government, high taxes, and welfareism while carefully sheltering her assets. She will support anti business legislation that puts working people out on the street while living off investment coupons. She feels entitled to her wealth because, after all, she has spent her entire life prostelyzing for Socialism.
Love thy neighbor as thyself, to the believer, means protecting yourself and your neighbor from those who would deprive you of love. Those who would deprive you of life, liberty or property have violated G-D’s commandment to love their neighbor. The Bible speaks of tailiation, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, as a response to un neighborly acts. We set up governments to protect ourselves and our neighbors from violators of this commandment. Our system of justice is set up to enact an equivalent of the literal laws of taliation. Equality, to the believer, means equal justice under the law. All of those created in the image of G-D will be equally punished for crimes committed against his neighbor. A panel of neighbors known as a jury decides the degree of punishment, or whether a violation has occurred.
The left/liberal, when they smugly intone this biblical maxim, edit out any reference to G-D. As such, they replace G-D with themselves. They replace the G-D based government, which is set up to protect the individual and his neighbor, with a government that would enforce their personal version of “love your neighbor.” To them, man is not capable of “loving thy neighbor” but must rely upon the tender ministrations of; you guessed it, the left/liberal and his gun-backed government. What a contemptuous and hateful view of G-D’s creation.