Ahavas Chinam 101

We learn from Rav Kook z”l that: 

"If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love — ahavat chinam.

So how can we overcome our hatred anyway?

 

Rabbi Chanan Morrison tells us that If we can uncover the depth of good in what we perceive as negative, we will be able to see how good will result even from actions and ideas that we oppose. We will then recognize that our reasons for hatred are unfounded, and transform our hatred into love and appreciation.

If only our collective depth of feeling could this moment even tangentially approach Rav Kook’s profound sense of connection with and love for every Jewish soul, tomorrow would be day two of Moshiach’s arrival.

What is ahavas chinam?

Rav Kook lets us hear:

Listen to me, my people! I speak to you from my soul, from within my innermost soul. I call out to you from the living connection by which I am bound to all of you, and by which all of you are bound to me. I feel this more deeply than any other feeling: that only you — all of you, all of your souls, throughout all of your generations — you alone are the meaning of my life. In you I live. In the aggregation of all of you, my life has that content that is called 'life.' Without you, I have nothing. All hopes, all aspirations, all purpose in life, all that I find inside myself — these are only when I am with you. I need to connect with all of your souls. I must love you with a boundless love....

Each one of you, each individual soul from the aggregation of all of you, is a great spark from the torch of infinite light, which enlightens my existence. You give meaning to life and work, to Torah and prayer, to song and hope. It is through the conduit of your being that I sense everything and love everything.

Ahavas chinam is our ticket to Moshiach, but it’s not going to get punched just for the wanting of it.  As we said in EmunahSpeak: A Burning Need:

 

In its terminal passivity, the wanting of Moshiach in and of itself will do nothing to bring the Geula. If he comes, he comes.  If not, we’ll keep on wanting until he does, whereas the need for Moshiach will inevitably push Klal Yisroel in innumerable directions that will create the conditions to bring the Geula ever so closer, speedily in our days.

 

And one of those directions will have to be ahavas chinam and your GPS won’t be able to track it.  It’s a very big stretch of rough road which takes us right through the very worst of sinas chinam as we detailed in EmunahSpeak: Sinas Chinam 101 in the name of the Netziv:

 

Hating someone who "wronged" us is necessarily limited. With how many people can we fight over money or honor? But if we hate those who differ with us on matters of halacha or hashkafa, the sinas chinam is unlimited. Unfortunately, Orthodox individuals and communities with different halachic practices and/or ideologies are still guilty of this type of sinas chinam, which is preventing the ge'ula.

 

As difficult as it may be for some of us not to fall into the sinas chinam trap, that battle is actually the good news. The bad news is that to reach the level of ahavas chinam that will bring Moshiach to your front door you’ll have to love without condition or restriction all those that lost their balance and fell in.

 

In other words it’s not enough simply not to hate those amongst us who vilify the State of Israel or who believe that the establishment of Medinat-Yisrael is the atchalta-degeula.

 

We also have to love them.