In Parshas Kedoshim we read, “You shall love your fellow as you love yourself, I am Hashem”. One of the most well-known commandments in the entire Torah, this mitzvah is also one of the most difficult to observe. But aside from the difficulty involved in loving others to the same degree as one loves himself (or, in our generation, where shame and self-loathing are unfortunately so very prevalent, loving oneself to the same degree as he loves others), there seems…

“You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live: I am Hashem.” Toward the beginning of his Chassidic masterpiece, “Kedushas Levi”, the Berditchover Rav teaches that a primary catalyst for a conscious and inspired avodas Hashem is the awareness that one’s actions have an enormous effect upon all realms of creation. The Nefesh HaChaim devotes many chapters to expressing the extent to which the entirety of existence is in the hands of man.…