Editing Golden Rule (section)

====Judaism====
{{See also|Judaism|Jewish ethics}}
A rule of reciprocal [[altruism]] was stated positively in a well-known Torah verse (Hebrew: {{Script/Hebrew|ואהבת לרעך כמוך}}):

{{blockquote|You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the {{LORD}}.|Leviticus 19:18<ref>''Bible'', {{bibleverse||Leviticus|19:18|JPS}}</ref>}}

According to [[John J. Collins]] of [[Yale Divinity School]], most modern scholars, with [[Richard Elliott Friedman]] as a prominent exception, view the command as applicable to fellow Israelites.<ref>{{cite web |last= Collins |first= John |author-link= John J. Collins |title= Love Your Neighbor: How It Became the Golden Rule |url= https://www.thetorah.com/article/love-your-neighbor-how-it-became-the-golden-rule |website= TheTorah.com |date= April 27, 2020}}</ref>

[[Rashi]] commented what constitutes revenge and grudge, using the example of two men. One man would not lend the other his ax, then the next day, the same man asks the other for his ax. If the second man should say, {{"'}}I will not lend it to you, just as you did not lend to me,' it constitutes revenge; if 'Here it is for you; I am not like you, who did not lend me,' it constitutes a grudge. Rashi concludes his commentary by quoting [[Rabbi Akiva]] on love of neighbor: 'This is a fundamental [all-inclusive] principle of the Torah.{{'"}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9920/showrashi/true/jewish/Chapter-19.htm#lt=primary |title=Chabad: Leviticus 19:18 |access-date=24 March 2023 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324060635/https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9920/showrashi/true/jewish/Chapter-19.htm#lt=primary |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Hillel the Elder]] ({{circa|110 BCE}} – 10 CE)<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=730&letter=H "Hillel"]. ''Jewish Encyclopedia''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017170233/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=730&letter=H |date=17 October 2011 }}. "His activity of forty years is perhaps historical; and since it began, according to a trustworthy tradition (Shab. 15a), one hundred years before the destruction of Jerusalem, it must have covered the period 30 BCE – 10 CE."</ref> used this verse as a most important message of the [[Torah]] for his teachings. Once, he was challenged by a gentile who asked to be converted under the condition that the Torah be explained to him while he stood on one foot. Hillel accepted him as a candidate for [[conversion to Judaism]] but, drawing on Leviticus 19:18, briefed the man:
{{blockquote|What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.|[[Babylonian Talmud]]<ref>{{sourcetext|source=Babylonian Talmud|book=Shabbath|chapter=folio|verse=31a}}</ref>}}

Hillel recognized brotherly love as the fundamental principle of Jewish ethics. [[Rabbi Akiva]] agreed, while [[Simeon ben Azzai]] suggested that the principle of love must have its foundation in Genesis chapter 1, which teaches that all men are the offspring of Adam, who was made in the image of God.<ref>([[Sifra]], Ḳedoshim, iv.; Yer. Ned. ix. 41c; [[Genesis Rabba]] 24</ref><ref name="a" /> According to [[Adam in rabbinic literature|Jewish rabbinic literature]], the first man [[Adam]] represents the ''unity of mankind''. This is echoed in the modern preamble of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights#Preamble|Universal Declaration of Human Rights]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.4?lang=en|title=Mishnah Seder Nezikin Sanhedrin 4.5|publisher=sefaria.org|access-date=17 July 2016|archive-date=21 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821043839/http://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.4?lang=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toseftaonline.org/Tractate-Sanhedrin-chapter-8-tosefta-4|title=Tosefta on Mishnah Seder Nezikin Sanhedrin 8.4–9 (Erfurt Manuscript)|publisher=toseftaonline.org|date=2012-08-21|access-date=17 July 2016|archive-date=17 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817092522/http://www.toseftaonline.org/tractate-Sanhedrin-chapter-8-tosefta-4/|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is also taught that [[Adam]] is last in order according to the evolutionary character of God's creation:<ref name="a">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=758&letter=A&search=adam#1 |title=ADAM |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-date=6 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606164249/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=758&letter=A&search=adam#1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{quote|Why was only a single specimen of man created first? To teach us that he who destroys a single soul destroys a whole world and that he who saves a single soul saves a whole world; furthermore, so no race or class may claim a nobler ancestry, saying, "Our father was born first"; and, finally, to give testimony to the greatness of the Lord, who caused the wonderful diversity of mankind to emanate from one type. And why was Adam created last of all beings? To teach him humility; for if he be overbearing, let him remember that the little fly preceded him in the order of creation.<ref name="a" />}}

The Jewish Publication Society's edition of [[Book of Leviticus|Leviticus]] states:

{{quote|Thou shalt not hate thy brother, in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the {{LORD}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Torah|publisher=Jewish Publication Society|page=19:17|chapter-url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/lev019.htm|chapter=Leviticus|access-date=27 March 2013|archive-date=7 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007203032/http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/lev019.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

This Torah verse represents one of several versions of the ''Golden Rule'', which itself appears in various forms, positive and negative. It is the earliest written version of that concept in a positive form.<ref name="Plaut p. 892">[[Gunther Plaut|Plaut]], ''The Torah&nbsp;– A Modern Commentary''; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York 1981; p. 892.</ref>

At the turn of the era, the Jewish rabbis were discussing the scope of the meaning of Leviticus 19:18 and 19:34 extensively:

{{blockquote|The [[Ger toshav|stranger who resides with you]] shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the {{LORD}} am your God.|Leviticus 19:34<ref>''Bible'', {{bibleverse||Leviticus|19:34|JPS}}</ref>}}

Commentators interpret that this applies to foreigners (e.g. [[Samaritans]]), proselytes ('strangers who reside with you')<ref>Rabbi Akiva, bQuid 75b</ref> and Jews.<ref>Rabbi Gamaliel, yKet 3, 1; 27a</ref>

On the verse, "Love your fellow as yourself", the classic commentator [[Rashi]] quotes from [[Torat Kohanim]], an early Midrashic text regarding the famous dictum of Rabbi Akiva: "Love your fellow as yourself&nbsp;– Rabbi Akiva says this is a great principle of the Torah."<ref>Kedoshim 19:18, Toras Kohanim, ibid. See also [[Talmud Yerushalmi]], Nedarim 9:4; Bereishis Rabbah 24:7.</ref>

In 1935, Rabbi [[Eliezer Berkovits]] explained in his work "What is the Talmud?" that Leviticus 19:34 disallowed [[xenophobia]] by Jews.<ref>Eliezer Berkovits (1935). ''What is the Talmud''. VIII What is not written in the Talmud? Jew and Gentile, 4 Xenophobia?, 3</ref>

[[Postage stamps and postal history of Israel|Israel's postal service]] quoted from the previous Leviticus verse when it commemorated the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] on a 1958 [[postage stamp]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://marbl.library.emory.edu/DigitalExhibits/stamps/015.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080407164111/http://marbl.library.emory.edu/DigitalExhibits/stamps/015.html |archive-date=7 April 2008 |title=Sol Singer Collection of Philatelic Judaica |publisher= [[Emory University]]}}</ref>