In the first of this week’s parshiyot, B’har, God commands the children of Israel not to take advantage of each other in business. “You shall not wrong one another; you shall revere your God. . .” In other words, reverence for God will keep us honest in our dealings with each other. If we respect God, then we will treat God’s creatures with respect as well.

But the author of Sha’ar Ha-Hasidut turned the logic of the sentence around.  He read it according to the actual order of the words, in which respect for people comes first and reverence for God follows it. The Torah’s point, as he understood it, is that honoring one another leads us to revere God. If we are having trouble finding God in the world, if our spiritual life feels empty, then we should start by treating other human beings with the honor that they deserve as images of God. If we make the choice to see a spark of the divine  in every human being, we will feel warmed by the greater fire that generates those sparks.