Love and Hatred on Purim
So, this post is more of a question. Given recent events in Bat Ayin (where I live), specifically the brutal murder of Erez Levanon (HY"D), I have been struggling with the issue of hate. We are clearly not supposed to love everybody. We are, in fact, enjoined to hate enemies of the Jewish people in general, and Amalek in particular. Nonetheless, where is the line? Are we capable of deciding who is worthy of hatred these days? If not, is it possible to love those who wish to annihilate you? Those who take pleasure in killing a Jew just for being a Jew living in Eretz Yisrael? Even if it is possible, is it desirable? Is it right to love them? My personal answers, at least at the moment, would lean in the negative.
Twice over my two day Purim (first day in Bat Ayin, second day in Jerusalem), there were hippy-love-fest style toasts made to the effect of 'loving everybody, [pointedly] including Arabs.' Both times I made it clear that I would not drink to that. With this sort of universalist 'love' what does the term even mean? I certainly don't love them in any emotional sense, even those who are perfectly wonderful people who have no problem with me or Am Yisrael, I am, at best, indifferent to them as individuals. As a group, they are an enemy nation of sorts, a group of people bent on the destruction of Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. Should I make a point of mentioning how I have nothing against individuals just because there are individuals worthy of not-being-hated even though I hold a bitter hatred in my heart for the group more generally and what they represent in the world?
Waddaya say people? If this post doesn't wake up the peanut gallery, nothing will.
Twice over my two day Purim (first day in Bat Ayin, second day in Jerusalem), there were hippy-love-fest style toasts made to the effect of 'loving everybody, [pointedly] including Arabs.' Both times I made it clear that I would not drink to that. With this sort of universalist 'love' what does the term even mean? I certainly don't love them in any emotional sense, even those who are perfectly wonderful people who have no problem with me or Am Yisrael, I am, at best, indifferent to them as individuals. As a group, they are an enemy nation of sorts, a group of people bent on the destruction of Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. Should I make a point of mentioning how I have nothing against individuals just because there are individuals worthy of not-being-hated even though I hold a bitter hatred in my heart for the group more generally and what they represent in the world?
Waddaya say people? If this post doesn't wake up the peanut gallery, nothing will.
posted by Eitan at 21:20
4 Comments:
השכם להרגו
loving people who are trying to kill you is patently stupid.
hating on a particular individual arab even though he is a decent individual doesn't seem like derech eretz. (derech eretz kadma l'torah)
as a principle hating a group of people makes sense, but feels like wasted energy.
I say pray. But if you ask me about any difficult situation, my answer is almost always, pray.
For your own personal growth, you need to actually see everything you are experiencing as things God is showing you about yourself.
Yitz, well let's take these one at a time. You said,
"loving people who are trying to kill you is patently stupid."
-I completely agree.
"hating on a particular individual arab even though he is a decent individual doesn't seem like derech eretz. (derech eretz kadma l'torah)"
-I also agree.
"as a principle hating a group of people makes sense, but feels like wasted energy."
-If people are deserving of hatred, then I think I should hate them. How I feel towards an individual, or group, has nafkah minahs in the world. For instance, if I hate them, I will pray for their destruction, go to rallies supporting things against them, etc. If I am apathetic toward them I won't do those things.
"I say pray. But if you ask me about any difficult situation, my answer is almost always, pray."
-This I have covered, but I need to think too.
"For your own personal growth, you need to actually see everything you are experiencing as things God is showing you about yourself."
-I'm not sure what you mean by this. Or, rather, what you mean I should do to accomplish this in addition to what I am already doing.
Yitz, well let's take these one at a time. You said,
"loving people who are trying to kill you is patently stupid."
-I completely agree.
"hating on a particular individual arab even though he is a decent individual doesn't seem like derech eretz. (derech eretz kadma l'torah)"
-I also agree.
"as a principle hating a group of people makes sense, but feels like wasted energy."
-If people are deserving of hatred, then I think I should hate them. How I feel towards an individual, or group, has nafkah minahs in the world. For instance, if I hate them, I will pray for their destruction, go to rallies supporting things against them, etc. If I am apathetic toward them I won't do those things.
"I say pray. But if you ask me about any difficult situation, my answer is almost always, pray."
-This I have covered, but I need to think too.
"For your own personal growth, you need to actually see everything you are experiencing as things God is showing you about yourself."
-I'm not sure what you mean by this. Or, rather, what you mean I should do to accomplish this in addition to what I am already doing.
Now for a very belated comment...
I don't really understand hatred as a good thing, and something G-d would enjoin us to do. Certainly at face value that is there in the Torah, but forgive me, I must approach this from a Christian perspective. Still let us discuss it from the common ground of theism.
I think we can agree that G-d is all perfect and all good and birthed the universe in an act of creation that was done out of sheer love. (Am I assuming too much? This is roughly the Christian idea behind why the universe exists... man was created to share in G-d's goodness and glory.)
G-d's love extends to all creation and love, to use the definition of Aquinas, is basically to will the good of another. Hatred then, I would guess, is to wish ill upon another. It is to curse someone in your heart and delight in their suffering.
I certainly respect your choice to decline "hippy-love-fest" toasts made to your enemies. Such actions are generally meaningless anyways. But the deeper question of the appropriateness of hatred is certainly intriguing. Israel has very real enemies, as you pointed out, enemies bent on Israel's destruction. I have not known what it is like to be on the receiving end of such hatred, except perhaps when my home-city was attacked September 11, 2001. But when events like that happen, my first reaction is not anger, but grief.
I cannot hate or wish ill upon those who hate and wish ill upon me for the simple reason that I believe G-d loves all mankind. What I wish is not destruction of my enemies, but their conversion. Admittedly this leaves me in a predicament because I am cynical and believe that conversions of this nature are rare. Still I hope and pray that those corrupted by Evil come to know the love of G-d, because ultimately that is what I believe what G-d wants.
No, I would not toast my enemies, nor work for their destruction, rather I would pray that G-d's mercy and justice be manifested on earth, and pray for my enemies in the abstract sense that G-d's will be done with them.
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