Hatred
- When a one Jew – man or woman – hates another, he violates the prohibition
“Do not hate your brother in your heart” (Vayikra 19:17) and the
positive commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18)
every moment. When a Jew shows his hatred, he does not violate that
prohibition, but another: “Your shall not avenge or bear any grudge
against the children of my people” (Vayikra 19:18). Nevertheless,
concealed hatred is more destructive than hatred that is expressed because
it is the source of many evils, so that people are constantly in conflict
with each other. Any sensible person regards such hatred as the lowest and
most despicable of qualities. - If a person sins against you and you can’t help but hate him for it, it
is a mitzvah to confront him and ask him why he did what he did etc., as it
is written, “You shall certainly rebuke your neighbor” (Ibid). But you
should speak to him gently, not harshly and in private. Midas Chassidus is
to forgive him without confronting him. Chazal emphasized the evil of hatred
that has no cause. It is more severe than hatred which is caused by some
injury, but it, too, is also forbidden. It is obvious that whenever a person
shuts out his feelings of hatred for a fellow Jew, he fulfils the mitzvos of
“love your neighbor” and “Do not hate your brother in your heart.” - There are averos for which Chazal said it is permitted to hate a
person, But Sifrei Hakodesh teach us that such hatred is permitted
only when a person has actually seen the averah performed and warned
the person not to do it to no avail. And even then, a person should hate the
averah—not the person who did it. - Wanton, baseless hatred (sinas chinam) is the cause of all kinds of
crimes, moral corruption and even murder. It can cause a person to violate
all the mitvos in the Torah. It is comparable in its severity to murder,
sexual crimes and idolatry—the three most severe sins in the Torah. That
is why Chazal say that sinas chinam can cause a person’s wife to
miscarry and his young children to die.- Sinas chinam
can be corrected by ahavas chinam—by loving
other Jews, if for no other reason than that they are G-d’s creatures.
When, in Pirkei Avos (1:12) Hillel admonishes us to love others, he refers
to them as brios—creatures—to suggest this idea. “G-d said to
Israel, my beloved children …what do I want from you but that you love,
honor and respect each other.” (Tana d’Bei Eliyahu Rabbah 28 )