[Avodah] Ahavat Chinam

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 09, 2013 at 11:09:38AM -0400, cantorwolberg at cox.net wrote:
: In fact, even in instances in which it is permitted to hate another, there
: may be a level of love that must always remain...

Tosafos (Pesachim 113b "sheta'ah bo") ask about the word "sonei".
The Gemara (BM Eilu Metzi'os 32b-33a) says that if someone has to choose
between unloading a friend's donkey, or loading that of someone he hates,
one should choose helping the one he hates, because kefiyas yeitzer is
a mitzvah.

(In other cases, unloading has priority over loading, because of tzaar
baalei chaim.)

But the gemara the Tosafos are commenting on, in Pesachim, we learn that
this rule applies to unloading an enemy's donkey where the enemy is a
sinner of the sort that we're supposed to and even obligated to hate
him. So they ask, why then is there a mitzvah to overcome that hatred?

Tosafos answer that the justified enmity can cause a cycle of hatred.
As is says in Mishlei 27: "Kamayim hapanim lepanim, kein lev hadam
la'adam". And so the measure of hatred one is supposed to have can grow,
"uva'in mitokh kakh lidei sina'h gemurah".

And so, we must control the yeitzer even when hatred is appropriate,
lest it grow to sin'ah gemurah.

 ----------

Another riff on Cantor Rich's's theme:

People are capable of ambivalence. In fact, in the Alter of Slabodka's
thought, the primary effect of the fruit of the Eitz haDaas Tov vaRa
was to make it so that we are perpetually acting from a mix of motives
and feeling a mix of responses. As Chazal put it, it's not the Tree
of Knowledge, but of Knowledge of Good and Evil, tov vara beirbuvya,
as an inseperable mixture.

Thus RMMS (the last LR) explained that R' Nachman could state "mitzvah
gedolah lihyos besimchah tamid" even in these 9 Days. Because people
can feel mixed emotions, one can be besimchah about being an eved
Hashem even while feeling aveilus for the tragedy of the churbanos
(and everything that ensued from them).

And one can love another or some aspects of them while also feeling hate
for other apects.

: This reminds me of parents who will tell a child: I don't like you right now
: but I always LOVE you.

Off-topic, but better to take the stance, "I don't like what you are doing
right now, but..."

 ----------

On Tue, Jul 09, 2013 at 04:07:00PM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
: See Bein Adam Le-chavero: Ethics of Interpersonal Conduct 
: By Rav Binyamin Zimmerman 
: Shiur #19: Ahavat Chinnam -- A Communal Outlook 
: www.vbm-torah.org/archive/chavero2/19chavero.htm 
...
: His son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda [Kook] (Li-ntivot Yisrael 2, 222), explains the
: intention of the term ahavat chinnam. It is not meant to be "baseless
: love" in the negative sense, but love without any ulterior motives -- a love
: emanating from a basic understanding of the Jewish people: 
: 
: This ahava is not dependent on anything. It is like God's love for the
: Jewish people, which is an eternal covenant....

This could be why we say
    ahavta osanu
    veratzisa banu
    veromemantanu mikol halshonos
    veqidashtanu bemitzvosekha
    veqeiravtanu, Malkeinu, la'avodekha...
in that order.

The beris is a consequence of Hashem's Love, not the other way around.
Which is why that Love is not contingent on our compliance to it.


-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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