It’s not enough just to speak about loving your friends. There are exercises and tactics we can do to arouse our love for our fellow, that are brought down in the sefarim:
One such tactic is to love every Jewish person, because the world was created for them. The midrash says this in many places. In Vayikrah Raba, 36,4-it says, The Heavens and the earth were created in the merit of the Jewish people, as it says, Bereshit Bara Elokim/God created the world. The word reshit refers to the Jewish people, so the pasuk can be read as, “Because of the Jewish people, God created the world.” That means the world was created for them.
As we say, “Bishvili Nivrah HaOlam/The world was created for me.” Who is the me? The Midrash Hagadol says in Shemot (28,1 ) that the Egyptians originally said that the world was created for them, as did Bavel and Kush. But when Hashem revealed Himself in Mitzrayim and Har Sinai, everyone realized the world was there for the Jews. Thus, every Jewish person must say, about themselves and their fellow Jew, “God created the world for him. God loves him.” And if the world was created for him, he is an important person.
We can’t imagine the power of any single Jew. We don’t know what one Jew can do. This is a reason to love everybody, regardless of whether he rubs us the right or wrong way.
Another strategy is to realize that all Jewish people have one Father in heaven, God. As the pasuk says, “ We all have one Father.” God is the Father of all of us.
Rav Chaim Vital, in his Sefer Shaare Kedusha (section 2, 4th gate), says,”All the Jewish souls are connected to God. And they are necessary for God. That is how God glorifies Himself.” So how can you hate this Jewish person, that God needs, that God gets glorified through?“
Rabbi Pinhas MiPolezhak, a student of the Gaon of Vilna says that the pasuk says “Don’t despise someone from Edom, because he is your brother.”
Of course, Esav is not our brother, but Yaakov and Esav were brothers, so we have a certain brotherly brother love for him. And if that’s the way I have to feel towards Esav, (because he is my brother), surely I have to love my real Jewish brother who is the same religion as me
(Imagine how many righteous people can come out of him). So we have to love him, and show him our love.
This applies to every Jew, even somebody that doesn’t look like he is on the path. With a little bit of work, he can get there.
The Sefer Ruach Hachaim says, Every Jewish person has, within them, the powers of Abraham Avinu. It might be dormant, but we see that people can change on a dime. They turn around and become better people.
To recap, we discussed two tactics to increase our love for the Jewish people:
1- The world was created for the Jewish people
2- We all have one Father in heaven, and therefore we must show love to each other.