Rashi and Peshat on Loving One's Fellow

Nechama Leibowitz's understanding, like many interpreters of Rashi before her, was that Rashi only ever comes to solve pshat questions, as Rashi himself stated. Even when he states a gematria, or a wild medrash, its to solve for pshat, and the job of the reader is to figure out what was bothering Rashi.

Rav Moshe Lichtman once asked her how Rashi's comment on Leviticus 19:18 "You shall love your fellow as yourself..." is to solve for pshat. Rashi states simply, "Said Rabbi Akiva, zeh klal gadol batorah - This is a great principle of the Torah." (And many a song have used those lyrics). What was the pshat problem?

Her answer? "I don't know." (Which is such a Rashi answer, isn't it?)

Well, Rav Yisrael Herczeg is of a similar philosophy of Rashi, and he was sitting at the lunch table with us when we were discussing this, so he asked for a Chumash. When he looked at the verse, he almost immediately had an answer.

You see, "love your fellow as yourself" is put in a verse that starts off with "Don't take revenge, don't bear a grudge..." You might think that the meaning of the full verse is that the reason you cannot take revenge or bear a grudge is because you must love your fellow as yourself, and that is the extent that the commandment to love your fellow goes. However, one is hit with the problem of why the phrase is "AND you shall love your fellow..." instead of "BECAUSE you should love your fellow..." The vav is out of place. So Rashi, through Rabbi Akiva's statement, shows that it is standalone. You cannot take revenge, etc, and ALSO you must love your fellow as yourself, a principle that applies at all times and in all situations.

Shadal gets both pshats in: "All other transgressions against one's fellow man are objectively immoral, except for revenge, which seems like justice. Therefore, 'love your fellow as yourself.' Just like you don't want others to take revenge on you, so you should not take revenge on your fellow, even though you are in the right to take revenge. And so too in all other ways you should love your fellow as you love yourself."

I want to suggest a different answer that is kind of the opposite, in a way. Christian scripture, Mark 12:31, declares that there is no greater commandments than loving God and loving your fellow as yourself. Galatians 5:14 declares that one need only keep "Love your fellow as yourself." Romans 13:8 similarly. So Rashi, engaging in direct pshat polemic, brought Rabbi Akiva to show that it is not separate from the Torah. It's a great principle OF THE TORAH. The rest is relevant as well, it follows after other commandments. You might think it is separate from the rest, but it is not.