Simeon Maslin Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself

“Love thy neighbor as thyself”. This quote from the bible is truly what this article is all about. Simeon Maslin discusses that people should love and respect each other, as they would themselves. If people would follow his advice it seems as if the world would be a better place. Maslin is simply trying to inform people about how people do have differences but if they place their differences aside and just treat others how they’d like to be treat then the world could be a batter place.
The major theme of the article is that people should love others as they love themselves. Maslin discusses the crucial elements for dialogue. The three elements he talks about include honesty, love and understanding. “We need each other, not so that we might blend into a Jewish—Christian mishmash, but for dialogue that can simulate, enrich and deepen our respective faiths” (Maslin, Simeon). The author discusses how we all can work together to create a better place. Also how Jews and Christians need each other in order to keep their religions going strong in the 21st century. Mainly what Maslin is saying is that if we all work together and support each other and treat each other with respect the world we live in would be a better place.
The theme in this article relates directly to what we are learning in this course.
We are learning about different religions and how they all may seem different but there are also many similarities as well. For instance one of our last discussions was about the similarities and differences between Christianity and Buddhism. Before this course I always looked at just the differences between Christianity and other religions and could never seem to find a lot of similarities. Yet, now after taking this course and really diving deep into other religions I am realizing that there are many similarities between all the different
religions.
I actually really enjoyed reading this article and agreed with what Simeon Maslin had to say. “We need each other to prove to the world that, with honesty and love, two great and separate traditions can work together to fashion a nobler society” (Maslin, Simeon). This is such an awesome statement that I wish we could all just live by. The world would be a much better place if we could all just be honest with each other and love each other as we love ourselves. The strengths of this article are that he wrote it for everyone to read. His audience isn’t narrow it is very broad. I love the fact that he wrote in a way that it is for anyone at all not just Christians not just Jewish. He is incorporating information that everyone can learn from.
A weakness of this article would be that there isn’t enough figurative language for my liking. I love imagery and feeling like I am really there. So, in my opinion, I would have liked him to be more descriptive with his writing. For example when he discusses the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, I want to feel as if I am there and that I can picture it myself, and with his writing I really couldn’t do that like I would have liked.
This article was really fun to read and I agree with all that Maslin has to say. Our views on life are very similar. We all need to remember the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. If Jews and Christians would love each other and respect each other instead of fighting and hating one another the world would be a happier place to live in for everyone.