This session explores the concept of "Love of Neighbor" as a fundamental ethical and spiritual principle across religious traditions. Through a comparative analysis, panelists will examine how this idea(l) is articulated in the sacred texts of their respective traditions and the specific practices that exemplify and embody it. Questions to be addressed include: Who is considered a "neighbor"? What obligations does this love entail? And what historical, cultural, and social contexts influence the interpretations and practices of this ideal.
This paper explores Pāli and Jewish exegetical traditions and compares their specific methods of extracting and extending the meanings and import of religious texts. The study sheds light on how religious communities understand and engage language as a dynamic space for imagination and innovation. The paper examines key exegetical methods found in the Aṭṭhakathā, the Theravāda commentaries on the Pāli canon, alongside interpretative techniques employed in Midrash literature, a corpus of Jewish rabbinical texts commenting on the Hebrew Bible. Examining these traditions side by side, this paper explores how religious commentaries embrace linguistic creativity, challenge conventional readings, and shape cultural imagination. By adopting a comparative framework, this study enriches the field of Buddhist textual analysis while also contributing to a broader understanding of the role of commentaries in religious and textual traditions.
Embodiments of Love of Neighbor in the Jewish Tradition
The embodiments of love as portrayed in the Bible are contextualized in the lived experiences of individuals whose encounters with others (including the deity) provide the prism through which to conceptualize love primarily as a concrete "act," and not only as a sensation or as spiritual inclination. In this paper, I will provide examples of the “duty” to love other humans, animals, and nature and the specific contexts for embodying love including observing the Sabbath day, its fundamental appreciation of creation, the emphasis on family, community, and hospitality towards “strangers,” its liturgy, feasts, rest, and love it engenders.
This paper reimagines love of neighbor by exploring how Rabbinic Judaism and Classical Confucianism extend this ethical principle beyond human relationships through ritual partnerships with nature. Employing textual analysis through an ecological lens, I examine the descriptions of rituals, such as Leviticus 25 (shemitah), Deuteronomy 12:21 (shechita) in Judaism, and the suburban sacrifices (Liji "Jiao Te Sheng") and Mengzi 7A:45 in Confucianism. I argue that these texts portray the natural world not as a reciprocal "neighbor" but as a vital, asymmetrical partner in sacred alliances. Shaped by covenantal theology and agrarian contexts in Judaism, and an anthropocosmic vision in Confucianism, rituals like shechita and suburban sacrifices suggest an ethic of co-responsibility, challenging anthropocentric norms. This comparative analysis reframes "love of neighbor" as a multispecies ethic, offering a dialogical model for interreligious ethics amid ecological crises.
| David Schones | dschones@austincollege… | View |