Amongst the myriad laws which our parsha discusses, one is mentioned which R Akiva calls the cardinal principal of the Torah, ואהבת לרעך כמוך, you shall love your fellow as yourself. Shlomo Hamelech gives advice how to attain this goal: כמים פנים לפנים כן לב האדם לאדם, as your face reflects in the water, so too, the heart reflects man to man. Meaning, just as you see your reflection in the water, so too the way you love someone, reflects back how they love you.
The Otzros Hatorah asks why is it that when Shlomo Hamelech, who was the wisest of all men, wants to give an example of how one can see himself, thereby learning how to love his fellow Jew, he uses the example of water which flows causing the reflection to be distorted. He could have used an example of a mirror that has a clear reflection? Shlomo Hamelech was telling us something profound about attaining love for one another. One must yield and humble himself to one another to be able to love his friend, for if one thinks he's better than the other one, it will be very difficult to have true love for him. When one humbles oneself to his friend, he can truly love him.
When one stands in front of a mirror, he can stand up tall and look at himself. However, when one looks at his reflection in the water, the only way to see one’s reflection is to bend over the water. It's that bending, that humbling, that Shlomo Hamelech is teaching us that needs to be done to attain true love.
There's a story told about two great friends who lived in different towns. One day a false case was presented against one of them and he was sentenced to death. On the day that he was to be killed, the town officials made everyone who was in town come witness so that they would be afraid to commit any crime. His friend happened to be in town that day and went with everyone else to watch. When he saw that the person being put to death was his close friend, he started screaming, "leave him alone, leave him alone! He didn't do it; he's innocent; I did it; put me to death instead!" When his friend saw what the commotion was about, that his friend was asking to be put to death instead of him, he also started screaming and saying, "No, I did it; put me to death; leave my friend out of this!" They kept screaming until the king heard what was going on and asked them both to come to him so he could determine who was really the guilty one, as it could not be both.
The friend said to the king, " I know that my friend, whom you sentenced to death, is innocent, for I know that there is no way he could have done something like this. But if, nevertheless, you sentenced him to death and I was here to witness it, I must deserve death if I must watch my friend die, so it's better that I die instead. Whereas the original guilty friend said, "No, I would rather die than let you die." When the king saw how earnest they were and the great love they had for each other, he said, “both of you go home in peace. However, I want to ask you for one thing, include me, too, in your friendship; I, too, want a bond like this.
Therefore הרה”ק מרוזין says the posuk ends with אני ה for Hashem is saying if you love your fellow as yourself then Hashem too wants to join the friendship. Let's take this opportunity to humble ourselves to seek true friendship, to look up to one another, so that Hashem Himself will want to join our group!
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