Why the Plague?

It's the 38th day of the Omer, and the plague that killed 24,000 of R'Akiba's students ended 5 days ago.

I was discussing the whole situation with my roommate, because it's very perplexing that Rabbi Akiba's students would treat each other so poorly when their Rebbe was the vanguard of preaching Ahavas Chinam. How was this possible?

So, he told me that the Lubavitcher Rebbe once said that each of Rabbi Akiba's students interpreted their Rebbe's teachings the way they saw fit. Meaning, Yankel treated Moshe the way he THOUGHT he should treat him, and Yaakov treated Simcha in accordance to what he thought was appropriate.

When we interact with another human being in such a way that we THINK we know what's best for him, we will usually end up causing more harm than good . We are merely looking into this person's life from the outside without having a single clue as to what is really best for him.

So, I said that it only makes sense that the famous adage of "love your neighbor as yourself" was stated as the NEW standard once the plague was over. I don't know if this is written somewhere, and if it is tell me please.

Now, when we understand that we must love another human being as we love ourselves we relate to that person on a totally different level. Before we behave or say something to another human being we must first pause and consider whether or not we would be offended if such things were said to us. When we consider Rabbi Akiba's adage we no longer stand on the outside and assume what's best for another, but rather we stand in the shoes of our neighbor and know what will insult or harm him, because we are positive that it will insult us!

We should all have the zchus to speak to others in a way that serves only to teach and encourage shmiras HaTorah and the adherence to derech eretz-a lashon that's free from lashon hara. This will certainly encourage Ahavas Chinam and expedite Mashiach's arrival.