Today is Tisha Bav, the Jewish day of mourning the destruction of the Temple (and by extension, many of the other catastrophes in Jewish history). The day, which began yesterday, at sundown, is spent fasting (no food or water) and mourning, reading Lamentations, kinnot (dirges and elegies), and reflecting on the causes of these catastrophes. As many of you know, I assign, in my teaching and writings on the Bible and Jewish history, a great deal of significance to defeat and the commemoration of defeat. Here is a reflection I found some time ago and saved to share today. Its on on baseless hatred (sinat chinam) and baseless love (ahavat chinam) in the thought of Rav Kook. There are many more aspects of this teaching that I could include, but it would be too lengthy. ******* Why was the Second Temple destroyed? The Sages in Yoma 9b noted that the people at that time studied Torah, observed the commandments and performed good deeds. Their great failure was in sinat chinam - baseless hatred. It was internal strife and conflict that ultimately brought about the Temples destruction. How may we rectify this sin of sinat chinam? Rav Kook wrote, in one of his most oft-quoted statements: If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love — ahavat chinam. (Orot HaKodesh vol. III, p. 324) This call for baseless love could be interpreted as following Maimonides advice on how to correct bad character traits. Maimonides taught that negative traits are corrected by temporarily overcompensating and practicing the opposite extreme. For example, one who is naturally stingy should balance this trait by acting overly generous, until he succeeds in uprooting his miserliness. Similarly, by going to the extreme of ahavat chinam, we repair the trait of sinat chinam. This interpretation, however, is not Rav Kooks line of thought. Ahavat chinam is not a temporary remedy, but an ideal, the result of our perception of the worlds underlying unity and goodness. Why do we hate others? We may think of many reasons why, but these explanations are not the real source for our hatred of other people. They are merely signs and indications of our hatred. It is a lack of clarity of thought that misleads us into believing that these are the true causes of hatred. The true source of hate comes from our otzar hachaim, our inner resource of life. This fundamental life-force pushes us to live and thrive, and opposes all that it views as different and threatening. Ultimately, our hate is rooted in sinat chinam - groundless and irrational animosity, just because something is different. Yet even in hatred lies a hidden measure of love. Baseless love and baseless hatred share a common source, a love of life and the world. This common source hates that which is evil and destructive, and loves that which is good and productive. How can we overcome our hatred? If we can uncover the depth of good in what we perceive as negative, we will be able to see how good will result even from actions and ideas that we oppose. We will then recognize that our reasons for hatred are unfounded, and transform our hatred into love and appreciation.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 16:21:15 +0000
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