It’s Either Faith or Hatred

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

Alarm Clock 

I am full of hope that you will be reading the following lines amid the great joy of the coming of the Mashiach, the building of the Beit Mikdash and the complete Geula. But if, chalila, this year, too, we will have to fast and sit on the floor and say Kinot (lamentations) – we should be thinking over our actions: Why did Hashem do this? And, as is written in the haftara for Tisha B’Av: “For what purpose do we sit?”¹ 

Despite our weeping and mourning for 1,955 years already, we must not get used to this state of exile and ruination. Chazal emphasize that the destruction of the Beit Mikdash is not history; rather, it is an event that repeats itself every generation, for “every generation in which the Beit Mikdash is not built, it is as if it has destroyed it.”² Only slightly less than two years ago we experienced a tremendous shock of destruction and killing, ruin, captivity, and looting – here in the Land of Israel. Imagine that this is just a little taste of the huge shock that hit the Jewish nation at the time of the destruction of the Temple; imagine this huge shock repeating itself every year anew. The shock should become more and more intense. How could it be that we accept this situation? How could it be that we are still in exile? Where are we going wrong? 

The main thing is not mourning but rather thinking about what we can do and change, starting today, even if it is a small change; for every small change on the way to the great goal that we are yearning for is very significant. But we must change, because if we were okay, the Geula would have come already. Here the annual “clock” is once again announcing that it is Tisha B’Av and calling out to all of us: What you have done so far is not enough; now is the time to repent, to do teshuva! 

The Rambam, in Hilchot Ta’aniyot rules that Tisha B’Av is one of the days when all Jews mourn because of the troubles that befell them. What is the aim? “To arouse the hearts to open the paths of teshuva, and it will remind us of our bad deeds and the deeds of our forefathers that were like our deeds now, until it caused the same troubles for them and for us, for in remembering these things we will once again do good.”³ 

The Root of Hatred 

If so, what were those sins of our forefathers that we continue to commit and because of which we are still in exile? The Gemara says that the destruction of the Second Temple and all this long galut (exile) are due to the sin of sinat chinam (baseless hatred). If you look in the book Likutei Moharan by Rabbeinu Hakadosh Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, you will see that Rabbeinu writes unequivocally that most of the galut is due to lack of emuna (faith), and therefore the question arises: It is unthinkable that Rabbeinu wasn’t familiar with the Gemara’s statement. Why, then, does he give a different explanation? 

Rabbeinu Hakadosh fills in the Gemara’s explanation. At the end of the Second Temple period, the Jewish People was being eaten up by sinat chinam, and it brought the destruction upon them. Now, too, that hatred is raging and the proof of that is that the Beit Mikdash has not yet been rebuilt. The big question is: what should we do? Is it possible to simply stop hating? Is there a button that we can press and turn off the hatred, once and for all? Anyone can understand that it doesn’t work that way. Hatred doesn’t go away with words, explanations, or decisions. 

We have seen clearly in the past two years that when a significant event shakes the people up, or when war breaks out – everyone pulls together and unites; but within weeks or days or even hours the people return to those old internecine wars. The hatred changes form, and when we close the door to it, it comes in through the window. 

Rabbeinu Hakadosh is not coming to teach us history; rather, he is coming to point out the root of the hatred to teach us the secret of its tikkun (rectification) and the way that will lead us to fix all our forefathers’ sins – and ours as well – from the root. Rabbeinu reveals to us that the root of all sinat chinam is lack of emuna! Without emuna – you will never stop hating! 

Why Is There Hatred When There Is No Emuna? 

First of all, on the most basic level: If you have no emuna, you are in constant existential competition with the entire world – for money, honor, status etc. etc., and so all are your enemies, and how can you not hate your enemies?! But when you have emuna, you know that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, provides a living for every creature and no one can touch whatever is intended for his fellow. So, you’re not threatened by anyone. Even more so – you are wholeheartedly happy when you hear of another Jew’s success. Hashem yitbarach can allow everyone to be successful and no success takes anything away from another Jew. 

Beyond that, if you believe that Hashem does everything, and there is nothing except Him, and everything, everything is for your good – it means that no one is touching you or harming you, as David Hamelech said about Shimi ben Gera, who cursed him and belittled him: “Hashem told him: Curse David.”⁴  And so, when a person has complete emuna, he doesn’t hate even someone who is causing him damage and heartache, and really does bad things to him, because he knows that everything is from Him, yitbarach, and everything is for the good. 

On top of that, one understands that all the bad middot (character traits) – anger, contentiousness, factionalism, disagreements, cruelty, scorning others, pride – deep, deep down, “sit” on lack of emuna, with you thinking that someone else can touch something that is yours, cause you damage or harm. So, whenever someone hates his fellow Jew for any reason, it is always baseless hatred.  

And how much more so, when you remember what we have been explaining this past year that the main point of emuna is to believe that Hashem loves me because Hashem loves every Jew – so certainly there is no room for sinat chinam. Because if you believe that Hashem loves every Jew, how can you hate him?! Whoever loves Hashem, loves His children too.  

Let’s Believe That This Is the End of Our Mourning 

And therefore, if we want this Tisha B’Av to be the last time we will be fasting on it, let’s begin to learn emuna and acquire it. And the main thing is to live emuna. There is only one way to live emuna practically and that is hitbodedut. If you have a meeting with Hashem every day and speak to Him every day – you bring Hashem into your life – not by way of speech or vague thoughts, but with actual action. Your talking to Hashem is what builds emuna. 

And building emuna is the way to achieve baseless love – ahavat chinam, to have peace among Jews, peace in the world in general, and see the building of Beit Hamikdash. 

That is why parashat Devarim is always read before Tisha B’Av, because it is the beginning of Moshe Rabbeinu’s rebuke of the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu is about to take leave of the Jewish people after forty years. The previous generation had all died off. Moshe stood there and reminded their children of the sins of their fathers and rebuked them.  

“These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Yisrael”.⁵ Rashi comments: “Since they are words of rebuke and he listed here all the places in which they angered Him.” You would think that they are not the same people – “Our fathers sinned and are no longer” – what does Moshe want from the current generation? But Moshe Rabbeinu is telling them: The root of your fathers’ sins still exists in you, and the root of your fathers’ sins is lack of emuna. 

That is why it is customary in the Ashkenazi congregations to read the pasuk “Eicha… But how can I bear alone all your problems, your burdens, your disputes?”⁶ to the tune of Megillat Eicha, because Moshe Rabbeinu’s eicha predicts the destruction that begins with the prophecy “Eicha… how is she now…”⁷ that we will read in the haftara of Shabbat Chazon⁸, and in Megillat Eicha, which is the book of lamentations written by Yirmiyahu Hanavi.  

And this is not just a play on words. This pasuk itself hints to the sin of lack of emuna, as Rashi says: “masa’achem (your problems) – that teaches us that they were unbelievers”. Right at the beginning, Moshe Rabbeinu reveals to them the root of their forefathers’ sin and the root of all the destructions they will experience if they don’t rectify this sin properly. 

And now we want Hashem to say, “Enough!” to all our troubles and exile. And the way to do so is for us to say “Enough!” and have total and absolute belief in Hashem, which is the foundation for the entire Torah, as the Gemara says that the entire Torah stands on the pasuk, “the righteous man lives on by his faith”. 

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 8:14 

² Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) Tractate Yoma 5a 

³ Hilchot Ta’aniyot (Laws of Fasting) Chapter 5, Halacha A 

⁴ Shmuel II (Second book of Samuel) 16:10 

⁵ Devarim (Deuteronomy) 1:1 

⁶ Devarim 1:12 

⁷ Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 1:21 

⁸ Yeshayahu 1:1-27