יום שימת אהבה ורעות – How is Achdus Possible?

It's always inspiring and overwhelming to be able to welcome a rebbe to our kehilla. Chazal tell us, asei lecha rav. The responsibility in life to find for ourselves a rebbe. Find for ourselves somebody from whom we first of all learn Torah. Somebody who is the source, the wellspring of so much of the Torah that we have. I find myself, I sat in Rav Twersky's shiur for six years. We learned together b'chavrusa. He tolerated me, I sat there and he learned for several years. I find myself in the course of shiurim, drashos, etcetera, ideas coming back to me that I hadn't remembered and hadn't recalled in so long because I was able to absorb the Torah. It helps us in guiding our decisions. There is not any consequential decision in my life over the past twenty-five years that I have not consulted with Rav Twersky. Michal and I, whenever any decision has come up, I've called rebbe to figure out what to do. In only one circumstance did he tell me what to do. Every other circumstance he helped formulate, he helped guide how it is that we should look at it. The one circumstance in which he told me what to do was when I was trying to figure out what to do when Rav Twersky was leaving the shul and he told me, 'You are not to leave yeshiva.' And I thank him dearly for that. It was a zechus every day to be able to teach Torah in yeshiva. But there's another aspect as well that I don't think I quite understood as well until more recently. This past year I was involved in a delicate community matter and felt very strongly that I was trying to be mekadesh shem shamayim and trying to work in order to do what was right. And so my rebbe called me and explained to me the mistakes that I was making. It was an extraordinarily difficult conversation and I am so, so appreciative to have had somebody with the clarity and the willingness to call and to have that difficult conversation. I really want to take the opportunity publicly to thank my rebbe, to thank Rav Twersky, ask mechila for some of the angst that I caused along the way, but really to try and give everybody else the bracha of asei lecha rav. They do what they were talking about, they always knew what they were talking about. But it's something that as we're taking the cheshbon, the introspection of what these days are about is to make sure we have that person. We have somebody from whom we learn Torah, we have somebody from whom we can seek eitza and guidance, and we have somebody who is going to be willing to have difficult conversations with us even when we're not prepared to have them. And if we can live our lives through that framework then b'ezras Hashem the days ahead will be days of clarity, will be days of closeness in which we will achieve a deeper connection with Ribbono Shel Olam. And it's with that that it's a kavod gadol to introduce mori v'rabbi Rav Mayer Twersky. Thank you very much. Rosh Yeshiva, mori v'rabbosai. I think the Mashgiach, the legendary Mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva in Europe, held himself to the standard that he never gave a shmuess on a midda unless he felt that he had first cultivated that midda himself. If I were to hold myself to that standard I would be unemployed. So instead I give shmuessen on middos that I'm looking to acquire and I'm looking to cultivate. Kadosh Baruch Hu gave us the blessing of Yom HaKippurim among other things as we recount in Musaf after the Seder Avodah as a יום שימת אהבה ורעות. I think probably usually translated a day to foster, to propagate love and fellowship. In pondering that mandate we confront, without engaging in hyperbole, an existential question. How can Klal Yisrael possibly fulfill this noble mandate when especially in Eretz Yisrael some of the issues that separate us are literally issues of life and death and the respective positions are polar opposites. Not to ignore the elephant in the room. One case in point, not the only case in point, is the issue of the Chareidi draft. Now the stakes of simas ahava v'reius whether we succeed, p'sach peh l'satan, so I won't articulate the other possibility. The stakes couldn't be greater. Rashi quotes the Sifrei in Parshas Vezos Habracha on the pasuk ויהי בישורון מלך בהתאסף ראשי עם יחד שבטי ישראל. So Rashi quotes most of the sources that we'll mention you have in front of you. Rashi quotes דבר אחר בהתאספם יחד באגודה אחת when they gather together as one cohesive unit v'shalom beineihem and there's peace between them Hu malkam. Then Kadosh Baruch Hu reveals himself as their melech, v'lo, and not Rachmana litzlan sheyeish machlokes beineihem. If we needed this ma'amar chazal to be concretized, so it was, and we're approaching the second yahrtzeit, the second anniversary of that concretization. On Shmini Atzeres two years ago Kadosh Baruch Hu on that terrible day Kadosh Baruch Hu wasn't revealing himself as Melech Yisrael. It was a day that was preceded by terrible sinas chinam. So the stakes couldn't be greater. Now the twin topics of the mitzvah of ahavas yisrael and the issur of sinas chinam of לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך is too big to be treated in a single shiur so bli neder b'siyata d'shmaya tonight we're going to focus primarily, maybe even exclusively, on the mitzvah of ahavas yisrael and the issur sinah between different groups of shomrei Torah umitzvos and on some other occasion maybe we'll speak bli neder more fully of mitzvas ahavas yisrael towards our not yet religious brethren. But two other programmatic notes. In attempting to construct a framework for dealing with the challenge of simas ahava v'reius in the face of such vital divisive issues hopefully we'll cover many but not all relevant aspects and facets. Additionally the presentation will be somewhat patchwork, and that's for two reasons: the first is my own inadequacy, and the second is that the approach to this issue is really multifactorial and thus it does need a combination of perspectives. Let's begin with the most basic question: Is there indeed a mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael even in the face of the most divisive life-and-death issues? Maybe when one side, when each side thinks that the other is just wrong. It's not an Elu v'Elu dispute. Each side thinks of the other is simply wrong and acting shelo k'din, and it's so divisive. Maybe there isn't a mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael in that situation. So the Rambam writes in Hilchos De'os Perek Vav:

מצוה על כל אדם לאהוב את כל אחד ואחד מישראל כגופו שנאמר ואהבת לרעך כמוך.

In the Peirush Hamishnayos, after the what's the full import of כל אחד ואחד מישראל, the Rambam has already elaborated and already spelled out in his Peirush Hamishnayos, in the Hakdama to Perek Chelek, where the Rambam famously enumerates the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim. So after presenting the thirteen fundamental principles of faith, the Rambam writes:

וכאשר יהיו קיימים לאדם כל היסודות הללו ואמונתו בהם אמיתית.

When a person genuinely believes, subscribes to these Ikkarim, to these fundamental principles of belief, הרי הוא נכנס בכלל ישראל, which means that in Hilchos De'os, the halacha we just looked at before, כל אחד ואחד מישראל, that's who's being described. That was supposed to be a drumroll during that, but I don't know, I guess the Bnei Yeshiva tech staff isn't really up to muster on that.

וחובה לאהבו וכל מה שצוה השם אותנו על זה מן האהבה והאחוה ואפילו עשה מה שיכול להיות מן העבירות.

So the Rambam says that if a person is a believing Jew, sincerely, regardless of whatever aveiros he may be guilty of, for which Hakadosh Baruch Hu will hold that individual accountable, but nevertheless we all have an obligation of mitzvah la'ahavo. So it's clear that even in the presence of such divisive life-and-death issues, disagreements, there is a mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael. The chiyuv simas ahavah v're'us, the mandate of simas ahavah v're'us, is operational. The modifier that the Rambam has in Hilchos De'os, there isn't time to talk about that, is relevant to the added... activities that he catalogs there in Hilchos Aveil. Now in addition to the mitzvah, the mitzvas assay of ahavas Yisrael, v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, there is of course a lo sa'asei, a prohibition not to hate another Jew, not to inwardly harbor hatred for another Jew. The Rambam codifies this in Hilchos De'os as well. כל השונא אחד מישראל בלבו, if one again harbors inwardly hatred again for echad mi-Yisrael. It can be someone from whom we are set apart by profound disagreements on very repercussive issues. Over the lo sa'asei she-ne'emar לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך. Now seemingly there is an exception to both of these mitzvos, both the mitzvas assay and the mitzvas lo sa'asei. The Gemara in Psachim speaking of someone who observes a fellow Jew commit an aveira, the Gemara initially says mutar lisno'o, that there's a dispensation that it's permissible to hate. But ultimately the Gemara progresses and concludes that not only is it mutar, but רב נחמן בר יצחק amar mitzvah lisno'o. There's a mitzvah to hate such an individual, she-ne'emar יראת ה' שנאת רע. One expression of yiras Hashem is a rejection and a hatred of evil. The Rambam in fact codifies this. You have it right after the Gemara in front of you at the end of הלכות רוצח ושמירת נפש. The pasuk on which the Gemara is commenting, that elicits the comment of mutar and ultimately mitzvah lisno'o, is the pasuk in the context of the parsha of periko u-te'ina, the mitzvah of if one sees a fellow Jew and the animal is staggering with its load, to either help load or unload. So the Torah in that context speaks of כי תראה חמור שנאך. You'll see the donkey of someone whom you hate. So the Rambam codifies this Gemara:

השונא שנאמר בתורה הוא מישראל לא מאומות העולם והיך יהיה לישראל שונא מישראל והכתוב אומר לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך?

So what is the Torah describing? Amru chachamim says the Rambam, which is again the Gemara in Psachim,

כגון שראהו לבדו שעבר עבירה והתרה בו ולא חזר הרי זה מצוה לשנאו עד שיעשה תשובה ויחזור מרשעו.

It's a mitzvah to hate such an individual. But what's very interesting and this incisive insight I owe to my son is that the Rambam doesn't mention this in Hilchos De'os. We would have expected that when the Rambam tells us that there's a mitzvah of לאהוב כל אחד ואחד מישראל and on the other hand there's a mitzvas lo sa'asei of כל השונא אחד מישראל, there should have been a qualifier. The Rambam should have said there is an exception to that rule. There is an exception that if you see that the person is brazenly committing an aveira, brazenly because he gives him hasra'ah, he admonishes the person before the fact and the person contemptuously ignores that warning, so then mitzvah lisno'o, and yet the Rambam doesn't mention it as an exception. So the Baal HaTanya isn't relating to this question in the Rambam, but he is, but he does famously deal with this halacha, and the question is really a double question in terms of that the Rambam should have listed an exception to both mitzvos: A, to מצווה לאהוב כל אחד מישראל and B, the issur, the prohibition of כל השונא אחד מישראל, and yet the Rambam presents both of those categorically. So it's really a double question. The Baal HaTanya deals with one of those two questions. Why this mitzvah lisnoso isn't listed, doesn't constitute an exception to the mitzvah le'ehov. And it's the third line from the end of the excerpt that you have in front of you:

וגם המקורבים אליו והוכיחן ולא שבו מעונותיהם שמצווה לשנאתם מצווה לאהבם גם כן.

Baal HaTanya says there's a mitzvah to simultaneously love and hate. Those two attitudes, the Baal HaTanya says, can harmoniously coexist.

מצווה לאהבם גם כן ושניהם הן אמת שנאה מצד הרע שבהם ואהבה מצד בחינת הטוב הגנוז שבהם.

One hates the evil in the person and one loves that inner core spark of good. So that's one resolution of the problem as to why the mitzvah lisnoso case is not listed as an exception to mitzvas ahavas Yisrael, says the Baal HaTanya, because it isn't. The two should coexist. Be'ezras Hashem, we'll try to develop a slight but significant variation on that answer and as perspective and background on that answer, just mention an insight of the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim writes in his introduction to the sefer with which he's forever identified, Sefer Chofetz Chaim, he writes that one of the ploys of the yetzer hara is to make a mitzvah seem impossible to fulfill. If the mitzvah seems to us to make unrealistic demands, to set the bar too high, so then our natural, if you're going to flunk the test, there's no reason to bother studying. If the mitzvah seems to be making unrealistic demands, so then we don't even attempt to fulfill the mitzvah. Chofetz Chaim says that's one of the reasons that there was such widespread neglect of issur lashon hara because of an exaggerated sense of what constitutes lashon hara, that people felt that it was too onerous, too difficult, unrealistic. So let's just have that perspective in the back of our mind as we try to develop, again, a variation on what the Baal HaTanya says but with a difference. To do that, let's for a moment leave aside this sugya and talk about the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem. So the Mishnah in Avos with which you're all familiar:

אנטיגנוס איש סוכו קיבל משמעון הצדיק הוא היה אומר אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס אלא היו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס.

One should serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu altruistically, without taking into account sechar va'onesh. One should serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu purely lishmah. But then Antignos Ish Socho says: ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. But don't think that even if If one attains that exalted level of being oved me'ahava, that yiras Hashem becomes dispensable. No, ויהי מורא שמים עליכם, a person has to maintain yiras shamayim even even Avraham Avinu, the paradigm of an oved me'ahava, even Avraham Avinu has to continue to to maintain and to cultivate his yiras shamayim. ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. The Rambam explains why that is. Ve'amar line three in the excerpt you have in front of you: ואם היותכם עובדים מאהבה אל תניחו היראה לגמרי. Don't don't neglect yirah. Yirah is not simply a stepping stone to ahava and then you know once you get to love you you want you can you can take away the the ladder if you if you if you're interested in staying on that level. No, yirah is not simply a stepping stone to ahava.

כי כבר בא גם כן בתורה המצוה ביראה והוא אמר את ה' אלהיך תירא.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu presents yiras shamayim as a mitzvah. If it's a mitzvah, it means a person doesn't outgrow it. You don't outgrow a mitzvah. If it was intended as a as a stepping stool, as a stage, then then it couldn't be it couldn't be presented as a mitzvah. A mitzvah is ledoros. ואמרו חכמים עבוד מאהבה עבוד מיראה. They're complementary modalities.

ואמרו האוהב לא יחמיץ מצוה והירא לא יעבור על הלא תעשה.

So here this is very very significant. The Rambam says that ahavas Hashem will only inspire a person to fulfill mitzvos asei. Yirah is necessary to ensure his compliance with mitzvos lo sasei. Again, ahava inspires fulfillment of mitzvos asei but yirah is necessary to ensure compliance with mitzvos lo sasei. When we look carefully in Hilchos Teshuva, so the Rambam has presents this idea there as well. If you take a look in

פרק י' הלכה א': אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצות התורה.

It's somewhat subtle but but if we pick up on the subtlety it's explicit.

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל כל הברכות הכתובות בה כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא.

A person should not incentivize himself to say I'm going to do the mitzvos hatora so that I'll receive reward ve'efrosh min ha'aveiros and I will abstain from aveiros, again so that I'll avoid punishment. So notice how the Rambam is using the term mitzvos, he's not using it as sometimes is done as a term that encompasses both asei and lo sasei, right? He's clearly using mitzvos only for mitzvos asei. אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצות התורה, I will actively fulfill the mitzvos asei, ve'efrosh min ha'aveiros and I will abstain from aveiros. No, a person shouldn't incentivize himself that way because that's oved meyira. The Rambam continues in Halacha Beis. So what should a person do? Ha'oved me'ahava, the Rambam continues and says,

עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם ולא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה אמת מפני שהוא אמת.

A person who's oved me'ahava, he'll be osek bemitzvah again, not for any self-interest but purely altruistically. But the Rambam said osek batora u'vemitzvah, he didn't say anything about being poresh min ha'aveiros. Here too, it's clear for the Rambam ahavas Hashem inspires fulfillment of mitzvos asei and it's yirah that ensures compliance with mitzvos lo sasei. But how do you understand that? If if if a son loves his father and the father wants a cup of tea... So the son will run to bring the father a cup of tea. If a son loves his father and the father is taking a nap on Shabbos, so then the son is going to keep quiet and is not going to do anything to disturb that nap. Ahava, why doesn't love express itself? I don't know, everyone can go home and tell their spouse, you know, I don't have to avoid doing things that irritate you. It's a meforash Rambam, you know? I have to do make positive gestures but it's going to open the floodgates. I don't know, maybe we should stop here and not give attack to the... we should call it a night, no? The Rambam right beneath this in halacha gimmel in perek yud describes what ahavas Hashem looks like.

כיצד היא האהבה הראויה הוא שיאהב את השם אהבה גדולה יתירה עזה מאוד.

This intense, passionate ahava. עד שתהא נפשו קשורה באהבת השם. His soul is bound up with ahavas Hashem. ונמצא שוגה בה תמיד. He's constantly, forever immersed in it ke'ilei cholei ha'ahava like those who are lovesick שאין דעתו פנויה מאהבת אותה אשה that his mind is never free from his ahava, again describing it from a man's vantage point, that his mind is never free from the ahava that he has for a particular woman. והוא שוגה בה תמיד. He's again constantly, constantly enveloped, immersed בין בשבתו ובין בקומו בין בשעה שהוא אוכל ושותה every waking moment regardless of what he's doing. יתירה מזו תהא אהבת השם בלב אוהביו. So I don't know, I think if we'll conduct a survey and the only people who will be eligible to respond to the survey are those who are very, very happily married and we'll ask them to describe their experiences and to describe what marital bliss looks like, I don't think they'll tell us halacha gimmel. For a couple to enjoy a wonderful marriage, it means that the husband can never think of anything other than his wife and the wife can never think of anything other than the husband. Ahavas Hashem for the Rambam means that a person is just so totally captivated by, mesmerized by, again if you strip it of its negative associations, so totally obsessed with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that that dominates his consciousness at all moments. Ahava doesn't always mean, doesn't exclusively mean love. It often means love, but it doesn't exclusively connote love. Which is why ahavas Hashem, ahavas Hashem translated as love shouldn't discriminate between mitzvas aseih and mitzvas lo sa'aseh. But ahavas Hashem as this magnetic pull, this irresistible pull, attraction to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then mitzvas aseih, something that propels a person forward, so that will be inspired by ahavas Hashem. A little bit of linen in the collar of my woolen suit, it's not propelling me forward, it's not satisfying that insatiable hunger for coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And we find albeit in a very, very different type of context, that we find in Tanach also that ahava doesn't mean exclusively love. So in Sefer Shmuel when the navi recounts how Amnon violates Tamar. Vay'hi acharei chen ul'Avshalom ben David, excuse me,

ולאבשלום בן דוד אחות יפה ושמה תמר ויאהבה אמנון בן דוד.

Now, we know from what ensues that he doesn't love her. He doesn't love her. But it's clear already even if we don't, we don't have to wait many psukim for the navi to clarify that that's not what vay'eheveha means. Vayetzeir l'Amnon l'hischalos. He was so distressed that he became sick.

בעבור תמר אחותו כי בתולה היא וייפלא בעיני אמנון לעשות לה מאומה.

But he didn't, but he couldn't figure out how to successfully implement his designs. He had lust, he didn't have love. Again, it's, it's the common denominator again lehavdil further than mizrach mimarav, but no further distance than mizrach mimarav, but, but the common denominator in terms of how ahava was used in the sense of ahavas Hashem, it, it means this, this preoccupation with. Then when the navi describes how Amnon violates Tamar, so the pasuk concludes that

וישנאה אמנון שנאה גדולה מאוד כי גדולה השנאה אשר שנאה מאהבה אשר אהבה.

That after he violates her, he despises her. And, and the, and the feelings of sina he has are, are surpass the feelings of ahava that, that he previously entertained. So clearly, clearly ahava has meanings other than love. Love is not the exclusive meaning of ahava. And the Rambam himself besides be'ahavas Hashem, when, when the Rambam drawing upon the Gemara in Yoma gives us a snapshot of teshuva gemura, again you have it in front of you. Gives us a snapshot of teshuva gemura. So the Rambam describes how teshuva gemura is when all the circumstances of chet in theory would be replicated—a person isn't supposed to replicate them if the circumstances themselves involve other issurim—but as a, as a theoretical construct, when all the circumstances of chet are replicated and the person's at the same stage of life, it's a scientific experiment. There's only one variable here. The variable is how will he react? And he reacts differently mipnei hateshuva. That's a, that, that's an example of teshuva gemura. So the way the Rambam describes it is as follows: Keitzad? Line two. הרי שבא על אשה בעבירה. He had illicit relations.

ולאחר זמן נתייחד עמה והוא עומד באהבתו בה ובכח גופו ובמדינה שעבר בה.

He loves her? He doesn't love her. The, the only thing, the only history here is that they've violated an issur together. It, it means that same, that same lust. He has the same lust that he had when he previously sinned, but this time he doesn't succumb. That's the snapshot of teshuva gemura. If you go back to when the Rambam in, in on the first page, when the Rambam introduced the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael, so

מצוה על כל אדם לאהוב כל אחד ואחד מישראל כגופו שנאמר ואהבת לרעך כמוך. לפיכך צריך לספר בשבחו ולחוס על ממונו כאשר הוא חס על ממון עצמו ורוצה בכבוד עצמו.

The Rambam here, and again, we alluded before to Hilchos Aveil, but the Rambam here in Hilchos Deios only gives two manifestations of ahava. One is to be considerate of the other person's mamon, money, and the other is to be considerate of the other person's dignity. And therefore the Rambam says the way ahavas Yisrael expresses itself is you praise the person and you're... You're careful that his money shouldn't be squandered. That's love? That's concern and consideration. It's ahava, not בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך because those adjectives are not added on to v'ahavta l'rei-acha kamocha. Again, ahava בכל לב בכל נפש בכל מאד translates into this, again, without its negative associations, into this mindfulness to the point of obsession. Ahava without those, without the בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך, be mindful of, be considerate of, be concerned with. The most basic level of ahavas Yisroel doesn't require that we love every other Jew. The most basic level of ahavas Yisroel requires that we have a genuine care and concern, that there's consideration for a fellow Jew. The Rambam, that's all the Rambam translates based on the two Mishnayos in Avos, יהי ממון חברך חביב עליך כשלך and יהי כבוד חברך חביב עליך כשלך, as the Kesef Mishneh cites. So we should know that it is important to recognize it's a klal that the Rishonim present, the Achronim perhaps say more explicitly, often mitzvos have many levels. There's a basic level, there's the minimal requirement, and then there are higher levels. So for instance, if you took a look, it's towards the end of the sources, commenting on the pasuk at the end of Parshas Eikev where the Torah speaks of u'l'davka bo where the Torah speaks of d'veikus, so the Ramban initially says that what d'veikus means is

ונאמר ביהושע ובשם אלהיהם לא תזכירו ולא תשביעו ולא תעבדום ולא תשתחוו להם כי אם בה' אלהיכם תדבקו כאשר עשיתם עד היום הזה.

So d'veikus is mentioned in context of avoda zara. It's to the exclusion of avoda zara. So the Ramban says what u'l'davka bo means to cling to Hashem means that only look to Hashem, don't look to avoda zara. Don't think that there's anything to be gained by association with avoda zara

שלא יחשוב שיהיה בעבודה זרה שום עיקר אלא הכל אפס ואין. והכוונה להזהיר שלא יעבוד השם זולתו.

So what does it mean to be d'veik ba'Hashem? That you worship Hakadosh Baruch Hu exclusively. Then the Ramban says v'yitachein shetichlol ha'dveika, tichlol means it includes, meaning he's not offering an alternative to his first understanding of d'veikus, but he's saying that there's a higher level to the mitzva also. The basic level of the mitzva is, again, cling to Hashem in that He's the one you turn to, not to avoda zara. And the higher level is

שתהיה זוכר השם ואהבתו תמיד לא תפרד מחשבתך ממנו בלכתך בדרך ובשכבך ובקומך.

The higher level of d'veikus is that one's thoughts are always, always focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, עד שיהיו דברי בני אדם בפיו ובלשונו even when a person is interacting with other people and conducting a conversation but at that same moment his mind is with Hashem, אבל הוא לפני השם. The Meshech Chochma also speaks of that. אמנם לדעתי היא מצוה פרטית כוללת כל אנשי האומה, the mitzva of u'l'davka bo for the Meshech Chochma is to have bitachon. On the one hand it encompasses everyone, כל אחד לפי ערכו, but the way everyone fulfills it on different levels. So does ahavas Yisroel also evoke the image of Rav Kook? Absolutely. But that's the higher level of Ahavat Yisrael. The most basic level of Ahavat Yisrael is de'agah, hitchashevut, concern, care for one's fellow Jew. Sometimes we're not all Rav Kook. Maybe there's a little bit of an understatement in that. Sometimes when there are really divisive issues, it requires a tremendous greatness of spirit to transcend and to love. But even when we don't find ourselves able to do that, even if we don't find that within ourselves, there is, we do find, we do have the capacity, the divisive issues notwithstanding, to have the most basic care and concern for a fellow Jew. We do have that even in the presence of the most divisive of issues. Let's just a few more minutes of us. What about in terms of how do Ahava and Sin'ah coexist as the Baal HaTanya says? So to say it a little bit differently, it's easier, relatively speaking, for Ahava and Sin'ah to coexist because one can, if one thinks that the way someone is acting or the way a group of people is acting is 100% shelo k'din, you can hate that. You can hate that. Mitzvah lisnoto. You can hate that. But that hatred can't preclude a basic sense of consideration and concern for the other person. You can hate, you can hate that position that people espouse. You can hate the fact that they adopt that position if again, in one's estimation, as validated by rabbonim and an understanding of Torah sources, if it's not an eilu v'eilu dispute. So yes, mitzvah lisnoto, but that can coexist. If you have a relative and the relative is an addict, you hate what that relative is doing and you have a profound concern and consideration for that relative. Even if, even if the love isn't there, even when love isn't there, it's easier to have that concern and consideration. What about the fact that the Rambam doesn't mention in Hilchos Deos the mitzvah lisnoto instance as an exception to the prohibition of כל השונא אחד מישראל? So apparently it doesn't need to be mentioned because it's not an exception. Rather, it's simply beyond the purview of the mitzvah. If something qualifies, if something seemingly falls within the purview of a mitzvah, then it's an exception and the Rambam needs to carve out that exception in Hilchos Deos. If something isn't an exception, it simply lies beyond the purview of the mitzvah. It's not an exception, so he doesn't need to mention it here. The issur of לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך is that a person shouldn't have his own personal hatred for another Jew. הרואה בחברו דבר ערוה, when a person witnesses a dvar erva, so then that's not his personal hatred. That's יראת השם שנאת רע. The issur, the issur of kol hasoneh echad and v'yitachen that that's part of what's intended bilvavecha means that it's your sina. It's not the Torah's sina, it's your sina. But if it's not your sina, now I have—it's not—it's not about me, it's not about my feelings, it's not about my distaste or disgust. It's יראת השם שנאת רע, that's not what לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך covers. And it's not an exception; it's simply beyond the purview. If we monitor our sina when it's mutar and even mitzvah lisno, so if we monitor that sina that the sina isn't my personal sina for that individual or for that behavior. It's not my personal sina. We cleanse it of that dimension. But rather it's again, what I'm feeling is יראת השם שנאת רע. If we monitor the sina, it in no way will preclude the care, concern, and consideration which ahavas Yisrael mandates. Somewhat of a paradigm for this conception in terms of sina you find the Sforno has in Parshas Re'eh in the context of the meisis u'meidiach, the false prophet who tries to lure someone into being oveid avodah zarah. So as the Torah sort of narrates the scene and then presents the relevant mitzvos, so all of a sudden in the middle in pasuk hey, you have it here on top of page four, the Torah seemingly interrupts that flow with general, universal principles:

אחרי ה' אלהיכם תלכו ואתו תיראו ואת מצותיו תשמרו ובקלו תשמעו ואתו תעבדו ובו תדבקון.

So the Sforno understands that each of these phrases resonates specifically in this situation. How does u'vo sidbakun—you should be davik in Hashem, you should be clinging to Hashem in your response to this, to this navi sheker who's trying to—trying to induce you to be oveid avodah zarah? How does it resonate in this context? Says the Sforno:

שיהא תכלית כל פעולתכם לעשות רצונו ולא תהיה שנאתכם על זה מסובבת מאיבה קודמת.

You should hate that person. The person who's trying to lure you into avodah zarah, you should hate him, but you should ensure that it's not your personal hatred. It's not because in the past you've had your run-ins with him and now מצא בו חוב מקום לגבות החוב, now you have an opportunity to, "Ah, I never liked him anyway, so now's my chance to have the unbridled sina." No. When there is sina, it's not one's personal sina. ולא תהיה שנאתכם על זה מסובבת מאיבה קודמת. You know even the phrase that we began with, where in the Seder Hatfillah we describe Yom Kippur as יום שימת אהבה ורעות, it seems to be going downhill. Ahavah, love, and re'iyus, fellowship? We're going מן החמור אל הקל? But according to what we're suggesting in terms of what Ahava means, no, at the most basic level of Ahava, no, it's similar to Reyus. So halevai, halevai that we should all be zoche to fulfill the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael as Rav Kook did where ahava take does mean love on the highest level of the mitzvah. But if that seems unrealistic, so then we have to be mindful of what the Chofetz Chaim says, that when we erroneously, when we exaggerate the demands of a mitzvah, so that will undermine us in fulfilling the basic level of the mitzvah, which is always, by definition, realistic. Sinah, as long as it's monitored, that it's not my personal sinah. It's יראת השם שנאת רע allows for Ahavas Yisrael, certainly on its most basic level of concern and consideration, and halevai we should all be zoche someday to Ahavas Yisrael on its highest level of love. A gut yohr, g'mar chasima tova.