72. Loving Your Neighbor and Converts

Deios 6:3

Each person is commanded to love every member of the Jewish people as he does himself, as per Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Therefore, one should praise others and be careful with their money just as he seeks his own honor and watches his own money. One who acquires honor by degrading another person has no share in the Next World.

Deios 6:4

Loving a convert who has joined the Jewish people fulfills two positive mitzvos. First, he is included among our neighbors in “love your neighbor as yourself.” Second, because he is a convert and the Torah tells us “you shall love the converts” (Deuteronomy 10:19). God has commanded us to love a convert just as He has commanded us to love Him. Deuteronomy 11:1 says “you shall love Hashem, your God.” God Himself loves converts as we see in Deuteronomy 10:18, “He loves converts.”