It’s easy to love the neighbor when they are not around. It’s a lot harder when they are there, their dog is barking, or the fence is shot, or you have to listen to their idea of music pounding away.
Neighbors keep us real.
Besides, in the desert culture (Semitic: both Jewish and Arab), strangers were not the problem. Strangers could be taken home and feasted, and then they would vanish back to the incomprehensible places they came from.
A neighbor, on the other hand, is someone who will drink your wells dry and use the forage to feed his flocks. A neighbor is someone you can feud with for generations. A neighbor is someone worthy of being hated as an enemy. That’s why it’s so hard to love a neighbor.
It’s easy to love the neighbor when they are not around. It’s a lot harder when they are there, their dog is barking, or the fence is shot, or you have to listen to their idea of music pounding away.
Neighbors keep us real.
Besides, in the desert culture (Semitic: both Jewish and Arab), strangers were not the problem. Strangers could be taken home and feasted, and then they would vanish back to the incomprehensible places they came from. A neighbor, on the other hand, is someone who will drink your wells dry and use the forage to feed his flocks. A neighbor is someone you can feud with for generations. A neighbor is someone worthy of being hated as an enemy. That’s why it’s so hard to love a neighbor.