Why Does the Bible Say “Love Your Neighbour” Using an Indirect Object?

The Hebrew verse reads ve’ahavta le’re’acha kamokha “‘ואהבת לרעך כמוך”— usually translated as “love your Neighbour as yourself.” But look at the grammar. The text does not say ve’ahavta et re’acha ואהבת את רעך כמוך (love your neighbor as a direct object). It uses the preposition lamed — love to your neighbor, love toward your neighbor.

When love takes a direct object, it creates a subject-object relationship. The lover acts; the beloved is acted upon. One person holds the other as a thing to be loved. The indirect construction changes the relationship. Love flows toward someone, not onto them. It is directional rather than possessive.

There is a further layer. The letter lamed carries the numerical value of 30, but the letter Lamed can be valued of 26, when we write it as a composition of two letters: Caf – כ as 20 -and Vav – ו as 6. As such they carry the divine name (י=10, ה=5, ו=6, ה=5). The lamed, in other words, holds the name of God inside it.

Love is possible only when it passes through the divine presence. The lamed makes the infinite or being as the medium of the love. That is why no other grammatical construction works. Direct-object love collapses into possession. Only love toward — mediated, open, not grasping — can actually reach another person.

And to Shlomo we say: read the whole verse until the end. It says “ואהבת לרעך כמוך, אני יהוה” — “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself, (for I am Being).” The only love possible is through Being.