הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי | A kavvanah to love your fellow as yourself, before prayer (ca. 1572) • the Open Siddur Project

Categories: Additional Preparatory Prayers, 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week, Davvening

Tags: 16th century C.E., 54th century A.M., fellowship, Leviticus 19, love, love your fellow as yourself, Openers, school of the ARI z"l, כוונות kavvanot

Excerpt: A crucial intention to align one's davvenen practice with the command to love one's fellow as oneself per Leviticus 19:18, as recorded in Minhagei ha-Arizal–Petura d’Abba, p.3b by Ḥayyim Vital. . . .

Content:

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
נכון לומר קודם התפלה (דשחרית):	It is proper to say before morning prayers:
הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ. (ויקרא יט:יח)	I hereby take upon myself the obligatory mitsvah, “Love your fellow as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)^[1] A plain reading of Leviticus 19:18 might suggest a more limited application of the principle, as to only refer to fellow Israelites. In Rabbinic thought, the universal expression of this teaching is attested in Bereshit Rabbah 24.7, where the statement of Rabbi Aqiva (ca. 50-135 CE) is understood in relation to the opinion of Shimon ben Azzai (fl. early 2nd c. CE). According to ben Azzai, the fundamental principle of the Torah is found in Genesis 5:1-3, “This is the book of the progeny of Adam. In the day that Elohim created Adam, bidmut Elohim — in the likeness of Elohim — he was made.” (בֶּן עֲזַאי אוֹמֵר :זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם, זֶה כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה (בראשית ה:א-ג)). This is all part of a midrash on the word מֵאָדָם (méadam) as it appears in Isaiah 44:11, concerning those craftsmen who craft idealizations of human forms for the purpose of idol worship. The midrash expands on the verse by reading mé-adam as “from Adam” haRishon, the first human. In contradistinction to such idol makers, the Divine Creator is the primary crafter of the original earthling, and to disparage his progeny is, according to the teaching of Rebbi Tanḥuma, to disgrace the divine likeness (and thereby, to insult the Creator). Also find, Sifra Qedoshim 4.12 and Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9.4.1.
לאחרי התפלה יאמר:	It is proper to say after prayer:
אַךְ צַדִּיקִים יוֹדוּ לִשְׁמֶךָ יֵשְׁבוּ יְשָׁרִים אֶת פָּנֶיךָ. (תהלים קמ:יד)	Indeed, the righteous will extol your Name; the upright will dwell in your Presence. (Psalms 140:14)

Rav Yitsḥak Luria, circa 16th century, on Leviticus 19:18, recorded in Minhagei ha-ARI z”l Petura d’Abba, p.3b by R’ Ḥayyim Vital:

קודם שהאדם יסדר תפילתו בבית הכנסת…
צריך שיקבל עליו מצוָת ואהבת לרעך כמוך
ויכוין לאהוב כל אחד מבני ישראל כנפשו.
כי על ידי זה תעלה תפילתו כלולה מכל תפילות ישראל
ותוכל לעלות למעלה ולעשות פרי
ובפרט אהבת החברים העוסקים בתורה ביחד.
צריך כל אחד ואחד לכלול עצמו כאלו הוא אבר אחד מן החברים שלו…
ואם יש איזה חבר מהם בצרה צריכים כולם לשתף עצמם בצערו
(דרושי השחר א, ע”ב)..

Before one arranges their prayers in the synagogue…
they should take upon themselves the mitsvah to love one’s neighbor as one’s self,
and direct themselves to love all of the children of Yisra’el as if each were one’s own soul.
Through this, one’s prayer is raised up to be included amongst all the prayers of Yisra’el
and [the prayer] can raise up to the heights where it can bear fruit.
And specifically [this is like] loving friends who study Torah together.
Each and every one of us needs to include ourselves as if we were but one limb from the body of friendship …
and if any of one’s friends are in trouble then we all need to share the sorrow together.

Many thanks for R’ Tyson Herberger’s help with this translation. Please comment to improve upon it.

Source

Click to access Before-and-After-Prayer-Lubavitch-Youth-Organization-ca.-1990.pdf

Notes

Notes
1	A plain reading of Leviticus 19:18 might suggest a more limited application of the principle, as to only refer to fellow Israelites. In Rabbinic thought, the universal expression of this teaching is attested in Bereshit Rabbah 24.7, where the statement of Rabbi Aqiva (ca. 50-135 CE) is understood in relation to the opinion of Shimon ben Azzai (fl. early 2nd c. CE). According to ben Azzai, the fundamental principle of the Torah is found in Genesis 5:1-3, “This is the book of the progeny of Adam. In the day that Elohim created Adam, bidmut Elohim — in the likeness of Elohim — he was made.” (בֶּן עֲזַאי אוֹמֵר :זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם, זֶה כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה (בראשית ה:א-ג)). This is all part of a midrash on the word מֵאָדָם (méadam) as it appears in Isaiah 44:11, concerning those craftsmen who craft idealizations of human forms for the purpose of idol worship. The midrash expands on the verse by reading mé-adam as “from Adam” haRishon, the first human. In contradistinction to such idol makers, the Divine Creator is the primary crafter of the original earthling, and to disparage his progeny is, according to the teaching of Rebbi Tanḥuma, to disgrace the divine likeness (and thereby, to insult the Creator). Also find, Sifra Qedoshim 4.12 and Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9.4.1.