GEN1012 Remaining different and still loving those who are different is at the heart of Judaism. Perhaps this concept was most demonstrated in the Bible by Abraham.  Abraham’s essential characteristic was Chesed-kindness.  There was one group of people whose essential characteristic was the opposite of Abraham’s, as they were mean-spirited, insensitive, and actually nasty.   Yet, when God wants to kill these Sodomites for their abominable behavior, it is the kind-hearted Abraham who fights his natural tendencies to root out such evil people, lacking any kindness, from the world. Rather, Abraham asks God to let the city’s inhabitants live.   Why? Although these people represented everything that Abraham abhorred, they were still human beings and deserved “tolerance,” even though they were so different and abhorrent to Abraham.   This is the ultimate Jewish tolerance of non-Jews.   AMJV 353