Q: Throughout the millennia, we have awaited the coming of Mashiach. Of late, people who are Torah observant are talking about hastening the geulah (redemption). I heard that Rav Kook zt"l wrote that this requires Ahavat Chinam (love without a specific reason) among all members of Klal Yisrael. The question I have is: how can each of us cultivate Ahavat Chinam? What will it take to love our fellow Jews? How will we learn to disagree as Hillel and Shamai did? Could you please publish your answer in your column? Perhaps it will help all of us. A: We are happy to accede to your passionate and eloquent request. We are also glad it came from you, not from us, as we usually avoid preaching in this forum, even on important issues. Our inclination is to agree with you wholeheartedly and unconditionally. However, to be intellectually honest, we can only agree whole-heartedly, not unconditionally, as we will explain. Rav Kook apparently (coined and/or) popularized the phrase, with his conviction that just as Sin'at Chinam caused destruction, Ahavat Chinam is the antidote that will cause healing and rebuilding (see Orot Hakodesh, Derech Hakodesh 10). This forecast certainly gives impetus to display Ahavat Chinam. However, we hope that love and respect for other members of Klal Yisrael also exist for their own sake, as a mitzva and the natural feeling of one with the right mind-set, as Rav Kook certainly intended. Rav Kook engendered Ahavat Yisrael, and showed much love even to his ideological opponents (to the "right" and the "left") while many of his colleagues took a more combatant approach. However, we would be doing Rav Kook and ourselves a disservice if we thought that he never had a harsh word to say about a fellow Jew. As a leader, he at times spoke out harshly in public against those who had gone "over the line," thus warranting such a response (see, for example, Otzrot Har'iya, pg. 1137). He likely retained a love even as he rebuked (see Ramban's introduction to his commentary on the Torah). The same is true of Shamai, Hillel and their academies. The mishna (Yevamot 13b) tells that despite the far-reaching disagreements regarding family status, they worked things out so that their children would be permitted to marry those not in question within the other camp. The gemara (ibid.: 14b) attributes the pasuk of "the truth and the peace you shall love" (Zecharya 8:19) to the affection between the two. However, there are sources, including Yerushalmi, Shabbat 1:4, who speak about harsh tactics that one side took against the other when they thought the consequences were pressing. How do we know which approach, the tolerant or the forceful, to employ when? We don't fully know but allow us to share some guidelines. 1) One should not hypocritically take a harsh approach when it affects a personal interest and a soft one when it affects "only" Hashem's interests or those of someone else (see the strong words of Sanhedrin 103b). 2) One should weigh the damage caused by machloket, which is usually far greater than the average person realizes. 3) One should take into consideration the possibility that his views are not always 100% correct, with the other side being 100% wrong. 4) As is attributed to Rav Kook, it is better to err on the side of Ahavat Chinam than on the side of Sin'at Chinam. 5) Exhaust other options and pray before taking steps that can cause fights. We hope that these words help (or at least not hurt) and that we will soon be able to hear Eliyahu HaNavi's answer to this dilemma of balancing the need for peace with the need to fight for ideals. Ask the Rabbi Q&A is part of Hemdat Yamim, the
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Rebbe is partially funded by the Jewish Agency for Israel Regarding Chanoch (of whom it is related in Bereshit 5:22 that he "went with God"), Midrash Talpiot says that he was a cobbler, and that "he achieved mystical unions with his Creator with every stitch." The "mystical unions" were nothing more than the concentration he lavished on each and every stitch to ensure that it would be good and strong so that the shoes would give maximum pleasure to the wearer. Chanoch thus achieved union with the attribute of his Creator who lavishes His goodness and beneficence to all. In Israel, the tiniest bit of work is a
contribution to the Land and its People. The seed of faith blossoms
dramatically here. The impossible becomes possible, the difficult, easy.
Just as the Land itself is compared to a deer's skin that stretches, one's
money stretches in miraculous ways. Once he was traveling and spent a Shabbos at an inn in a little village, where the innkeeper was known to be a God-fearing person. On Shabbos, R' Avraham saw the innkeeper do something which is forbidden by Torah law. He was astounded, "That is desecration of Shabbos!" he exclaimed. "Don't worry, sir," the innkeeper replied, "I, too, know the law. I have the Chaye Adam, and it states that what I did is permitted." He brought the Chaye Adam and showed it to the visitor. R' Avraham explained his mistake, and showed him what he had misunderstood, but the incident left him troubled. "I am afraid that I have not been careful enough
in my choice of words and did not write my book in as simple a form as is
possible," he said. We are familiar with the explanation of this reference to Shabbat as an indication that Shabbat transcends the building of the Mishkan (Rashi). It is as if to say that recognition of G-d precedes service to G-d. For the Ohr HaChaim, this particular mention of Shabbat implies that its observance, which is reckoned as equivalent to all the commandments (Sh'mot Rabba 25:12), served as an immediate counterbalance for the idol worship that constituted a repudiation of the entire Torah (Horayot 8a). Ba'al Chidushei HaRim suggests that the
association of the Mishkan with the above juxtaposition of weekday work and
Shabbat teaches us something about the nature of the mundane. Before Cheit
Ha'Eigel, weekday chores were holy in the sense that, like the six days of
Creation, they were in some way preparation for Shabbat. Now, how- ever, it
seems that we need the Shabbat to raise the commonplace activities of the
week to the level of Melacha, the creative tasks linked with Mishkan that
eventually ushered the Divine Presence into our lives. [The Parshat Vayak-hel Homepage]
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