Excerpt from a conversation I had on Facebook
MANY JO
Love yourself first, before you pretend to love others. How can you give someone what you do not have yourself? This is absurd!
He who loves, and does not love himself first, his love is not real and sincere. He waits for the other to give him in return what he cannot give himself.
We can only give to others what we have.
Yossi Patt
I totally agree with you, and I would like to add something, which is not obvious at first glance: for a long time I hesitated before loving myself because I thought that by doing this I would commit the sins of vainness and vanity. But not at all! A person can certainly love himself, and at the same time remain humble. To love yourself means to be proud of your qualities and to be aware of your defaults, as opposed to a vain person. And indeed, if we do not love ourselves, I mean if we do not value ourselves and we do not forgive ourselves sometimes, how can we be tolerant to others?
MANY JO
I agree.