How Can the Heart Be Commanded to Love Another Person?
How can love be a commandment if feelings do not seem to respond to commands?
This Hagut Yosef essay begins with “Love your fellow as yourself” and asks how the Torah can command an emotion. The source points to the two-way relationship between actions and feelings: doing good for another person can help cultivate affection, while a shared spiritual bond can deepen genuine love. This teaching does not remove appropriate boundaries with a dangerous or abusive person.