Tonight and tomorrow we are going to observe the fast day of
Tisha B’Av. It is by far the saddest day
on the Jewish calendar. It reminds us of
the destructive power of senseless hatred.
Sometimes senseless hatred is called baseless hatred, unjustified
hatred, or sinat chinam. No matter what
you call it, such hatred destroys those that harbor it in their hearts. We are reminded that when our fellow Jews living
in Temple times chose to create divisions amongst themselves based on religious
preferences and outlooks, they were vulnerable to the Roman attacks. The Roman conquest was aided because of the existence
of conflicts between Jews of varying viewpoints.
It seems to me that we are living at a time when senseless
hatred is running rampant once again, but not only in the Jewish world. One
needs only to listen to the nightly news or read social media sites to see that
the divisions in American society are running deep. Republicans and Democrats approach each other
as if they were soley the embodiment of the stereotypes depicted by the
media. While they are busy squabbling
with one another about gun control, immigration, and how to make this country
prosper, White Supremacists are emerging from the gutters and targeting
innocent individuals in terrorist attacks.
I do not believe that any decent human being whether they
are a registered Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Non-registered voter would
delight in watching large segments of our population being slaughtered by
hateful individuals. They may not be
able to agree on how to solve the violence, but I would be inclined to say that
all decent human beings recognize such slaughter as evil. By pointing fingers at one another, by
refusing to sit down and figure out how the evil that affects us all can be
combatted, we are making it possible for hate groups to wreak havoc on our
society. Individuals involved in hate groups have realized that a society at
odds with itself can be easily destroyed from the outside.
When we engage in discourse that is not civilized and enter
into arguments for the sake of power, we lay the ground for allowing others to
spew their hatred because we are not focused on our common goals nor on our
common enemy. It is almost as if white supremacists
who have been lurking behind the scenes can now emerge thinking they are merely
another facet of the treatment being displayed by groups in this country toward
one another.
As a nation, I do not believe that we are beyond hope. I saw
a statement this week written by a minister from a Church of the Disciples of Christ. He said, “We are
a violent, murderous, blood thirsty people …Hate
has become our family value. Racism is our constitution. Violence is our
religion.”
I disagree. Violence is not our religion nor is hate our family
value. We do need to figure out how to
have baseless love for each other presuming that most of us want to live in
peace and safety even if we have different visions of how to arrive on that
path. We do need to engage in civil
dialogue with one another and let it be known that we will not tolerate hate
crimes. Part of the reason I disagree
with the statement that violence is our religion is because I adhere to one of
Judaism’s core values stated by Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your
fellow man. The rest is commentary.”
A few years ago, when we had a Tifereth
Israel group tour to Israel, we visited the Burnt House, a remnant of a home
that was left after the Roman invasion of Jerusalem and the burning of the 2nd
Temple. We watched a video about the
divisions that existed between various factions of Jews living at that time
period. They were so bent upon
recognizing their differences and feeling hatred for one another that they
underestimated the dangers presented by the invading Romans. Their lack of tolerance for one another led
to their ultimate destruction. Perhaps
that is the lesson of Tisha B’Av that we need to focus upon. Perhaps we need not only focus on that lesson
as Jews witnessing an upsurge in anti-Semitism but as members of this American
society which seems to be facing so much turmoil in this day and age.
After Tisha B’Av, when we’re feeling very vulnerable, very broken, the
calendar will bring us to Tu B’Av, better known as the Jewish Day of Love, a
when healing was to be taking place once again.
We know that the Torah commands us to love G-d, love one’s neighbor as
one’s self, and to love the stranger in our midst. These three commandments
rely upon the opposite of sinat chinam, they rely on ahavat chinam, baseless
love. May experiencing Tisha B’Av lead us to be prepared for the baseless love
we so desperately need in this world.
“And so, the question for us — ….. is how do we get to that sort
of love? How do we create it, cultivate it, and offer it?” (Rabbi Sari Laufer)
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