Love everybody like you love yourself

Today in class we learned a very nice idea. Included in pasuk yud zayin and yud chet, we learned that we must not hate our brothers in our hearts, we must rebuke our friends and keep them from sinning, we must not take revenge, and we must love everybody like we love ourselves. This concept is very important. We learned that at the end, it says "Ani Hashem," showing that we are not only focusing on the moral and ethical aspects here. We are also focusing on the fact that Hashem wants us to go above and beyond what we are NOT supposed to do. For example, it is not enough just to NOT be a tale bearer, we must take it a step further and go out of our way to create positive relationships with others. This is an important idea for everybody to recognize. If we were moral people and did not speak badly about people or take revenge, we would would still be considered "good" people. However, if we take it a step further and try to form relationships with people, and treat them properly, (because we know we do not appreciate it when others treat us badly) society in general will be a lot better. Especially as a Jewish nation, it is crucial to stay united as a nation and stick together, and creating these positive relationships will help us accomplish this.