Parked in front of our Jerusalem apartment are two cars with intriguing bumper stickers. One reads “Shemor merchak — Keep your distance” while the other reads “Le’ehov kol Yehudi — Love every Jew.”

Nothing unusual there. It’s only that their close proximity to one another raises an impish question: How can I love all Jews if I have to keep my distance from them? I let the question hang in the air and go about my daily chores. In the evening when I return home the two bumper stickers are still there as if challenging me. I try to ignore them but the question will not go away. Was there any deeper meaning in this strange juxtaposition? Maybe it is just an odd coincidence and then again maybe there is something to be learned from this.

To amuse myself I try a little exegesis. The message is about distance versus closeness. Suddenly a mysterious passage in Mishlei 25:17 becomes clear to me. In it King Solomon says: “Hokar raglecha mibeis rei’echa pen yisba’acha u’snei’echa — Make your foot scarce in the house of your friend lest he have too much of you and so hate you.” This is a lesson in friendship. Be close but do not suffocate. Be supportive helpful caring but know when to pull back and give your friend a chance to be himself. Respect his privacy; give him space. There is a time to love him and a time to keep separate.

Or perhaps this is a message about the two prototypes that govern human relationships. There are those who are concerned only with themselves who want to be left alone who keep distant from everyone; and there are those who care about others and are interested in them who cherish the warmth of human companionship who gain strength from mingling with others and interacting with them. The loners say “Keep your distance.” The minglers say “Love everyone.”

On another level perhaps one bumper sticker represents bein adam laMakom which involves maintaining a certain reverential awe and distance from the Creator while the other is bein adam l’chaveiro which is characterized by attentiveness and concern and consideration and love of G-d and man.

As the evening progresses I try to probe a bit deeper. “Keep your distance” is a negative. “Love every Jew” is a positive. Perhaps these messages reflect the two types of mitzvos in the Torah the negative thou-shalt-nots and the positive thou-shalts. Thou-shalt-not is a warning to keep our distance from unholy and inappropriate behavior. Keep your distance from theft from false witness from slandering others from idolatry. The thou-shalt-nots represents yiras Hashem the fear and reverence before His Presence whereas the thou-shalts represent ahavas Hashem the love of G-d. By fulfilling His wishes and adhering to His positive commandments — such as giving tzedakah supporting the weak and the fallen and trying to love our neighbors as ourselves — we express our love for Him and connect both to Him and to our fellow man.

It is the next morning . The bumper stickers are still there. They stare at me reprovingly but I stare right back knowing that I have overcome their challenge. But I still wish that they would drive away and stop disturbing me with their presence. But as I walk past them it occurs to me that after all they are only random pieces of paper here today and gone tomorrow. Without looking for profundities the warning about keeping distance is obviously a simple safety precaution. As for loving everyone — we all need to be reminded of that particularly when driving in the maddening Israeli traffic. How absurd to search for deeper meaning within them.

Nevertheless I fervently hope that by the time I get home this evening they will have found a different parking area. Let them love every Jew somewhere else and let them keep their distance from me so that instead of thinking about transcendental bumper stickers I can turn my attention to things more mundane and temporal.