The Bible Says to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. But What Does Neighbor Mean?

Robert Silverman writes:

To whom does the biblical commandment v’ahavta l’rey’akha kamokha, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” apply? Who exactly is rey’akha?

Generally translated as “your neighbor,” the Hebrew word rey’akha in Leviticus 19:18 comprises the noun rey’a and the second-person singular possessive suffix -kha, and Mr. Silverman is not the first to ask this question. The earliest inquirer on record is mentioned in the Gospel according to Luke, composed about 100 CE and one of the New Testament’s four accounts of Jesus’ life. There we read that a Jew “learned in the Law” (nomikós, in the Greek of the New Testament) approaches Jesus and asks: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (This is obviously a translation of the Hebrew idiom “to have a portion in the world-to-come.”) Jesus replies with the question, “What is written in the Law?,” and the nomikós answers: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered right,” says Jesus. “Do that and you shall live.”