[Avodah] Sinas Hinam

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:26:03 -0700 I wrote to Areivim:
:> The Tzeduqim in the days of bayis sheini were bad. We know they sent
:> malshinim to the Romans, they sent people to lie to Sanhedrin about
:> qiddush hachodesh, they were anti-Yahadus and cost us lives. So how
:> is hating or one of the other movements "chinam"? It is because if
:> our hatred were fueled by ahavas Hashem, we would be investing more
:> effort in vilifying our own chata'im than in vilifying theirs, and
:> them for embracing those chata'im as positive values.

Sin'as chinam is usually taken to be causeless, meichinam. My post led
to a discussion here of whether sin'as chinam include sin'ah that has
a cause, but is lechinam, purposeless.

I tried to argue that the hatred today is meichinam, sin'as chinam in
the classical sense. Avoiding this whole question by saying that true
sin'ah lesheim Shamayim wouldn't be lopsidedly lechinam.

The sin'ah we have for anti-Torah movements is chin'am if it's not
really motivated by ahavas haTorah and happens to only post-facto be
covered up by claims of loftier goals.

I therefore suggested that had the sin'ah been truly based on wanting
a world more in line with the Torah and ratzon Hashem, then we would
be more vocal when coming to ourselves, who we can more readily
change, than we are when addressing others. Even if the sins are less,
they are more addressable and thus ought to be more addressed. If we
don't feel the same passion when looking at the flawed person in the
mirror, how can we claim our hatred of other ideologies is lesheim
Shamayim?

As for Yitzhak's citation of the Netziv (Meishiv Davar 1:44):
: Al kein mipnei sinas hinam she'bilibam zeh es zeh hashdu es mi sherau
: shenoheg shelo keda'atam be'yiras hashem shehu zeduki ve'apikorus

I see this as the same looking for the inferiority of yenem rather
than flaws in ones own avodah. Admittedly, the Netziv does not extend
the idea to a yenem who really is guilty, just distant from tokhachah.
But both involve wall-building motivations rather than avodas Hashem.

However, one example in the story of how sin'as chinam caused the
churban (Gitin 56a) is between the Chakhamim and the Baryanim.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter