אנשי אמנה

Regarding the verse (in Vayikra 19:18) "and you shall love your fellow as yourself: I am Hashem," Rabbi Akiva (Talmud Yerushalmi, Nedarim 9:4) said that is a great principle of Torah. The Hebrew original of the verse is: וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ: אֲנִי, יְהוָה Rabbi Akiva was following Hillel, who taught: {Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 31a} What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the entire Torah. The rest is Perush. Go and learn it. This is a rather famous dictum, expounding on the above verse in a negative way to make it more practical. Hillel has a point, the verse is asking for a modification. The following is mine: וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹ שאהבתי ךָ, אֲנִי, יְהוָה In translation: And you shall love your fellow as I have loved you, I am Hashem! In other words, we read כָּמוֹךָ {as yourself} as shorthand for כָּמו שאהבתיךָֹ {as I have loved you}. After all, the verse starts with וְאָהַבְתָּ, and ends with אֲנִי, יְהוָה. Who, then, is רֵעֲ...

Here is another step in the construction of Sefer Devarim, this time it is a step within Devarim. The expression לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל-דְּרָכָיו occurs, in several variations, seven times in Devarim, and does not occur in the rest of Torah, and every occurrence seems to be a 'recent' addition. They are in Devarim 8:6, 10:12, 11:22, 19:9, 26:17, 28:9, 30:16, the last of which is in Parshat Nitzavim: וְשָׁמַרְתָּ, אֶת-מִצְו‍ֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לָלֶכֶת בִּדְרָכָיו, וּלְיִרְאָה אֹתוֹ. וְעַתָּה, יִשְׂרָאֵל--מָה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ: כִּי אִם-לְיִרְאָה אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל-דְּרָכָיו, וּלְאַהֲבָה אֹתוֹ, וְלַעֲבֹד אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשֶׁךָ. כִּי אִם-שָׁמֹר תִּשְׁמְרוּן אֶת-כָּל-הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת, אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם--לַעֲשֹׂתָהּ: לְאַהֲבָה אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל-דְּרָכָיו-- וּלְדָבְקָה-בוֹ. כִּי-תִשְׁמֹר אֶת-כָּל-הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת לַעֲשֹׂתָהּ, אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם, לְא...