Rev shimon's shkop says that love of self is…

page 168 Rev shimon's shkop says that love of self is a natural force in every human being but the task of every person is to expand the definition of self-identity to include as many other people as possible. A lowly coarse person sees himself as only a physical body. Someone slightly more elevated includes his soul as part of himself identity. At a higher level one includes our spouse and on the next level one's children are included in the definition of self-identity and. And so it goes. The more spiritually elevated a person is the more people are included in his sense of I. A greater person will go beyond the immediate family to local members of his community. A truly great person will include all of call you through and even the entire world in the sense of I. From such a lofty perspective there's no conflict between the needs of self and those of the cloud.

— from Family & Parenting (Family/Parenting)

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A larger one still includes his close friends. And the whole task of a life, Rav Shimon taught, is to keep expanding the definition of "I" to include as many other people as you can — first your spouse, then your children, then your community, until at the highest reaches the self includes the whole world. Family is where that expansion begins. The old philosophers drew it as a set of concentric circles — self at the center, then family, then extended family, then friends, community, nation, all of humanity, and finally nature itself — and family is the first ring out from the lonely dot of the self. — Family & Parenting (Family/Parenting)

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