Love of neighbor detaches single individuals from the world’s cohesive structure

Evidence

A few pages later, Rosenzweig revisits the distinction between one neighbor and the next, the possibility of which is inherent to the love of neighbor. “With apparently devastating effect, love reaches into this composite structure [of the world] and detaches now here and now there a component for a life of its own which threatens to shatter the cohesion of the whole. In reality, however, it is not up to love which member it thus seizes with its power and delivers out of the context of life into its eternity … [Man] only knows that he is to love, and to love always the nighest and the neighbor” (241/G269). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1069

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Rosenzweig’s concept of neighbor-love as an act that pulls individuals out of the world’s composite order into eternity.