LEV562 See [[LEV700]] Leviticus 19:18 love BLOCH 6

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LEV554 Hatred and vengeance are also very difficult to escape, since one's heart is very easily enticed [by them]. A person is very sensitive to his humiliation and feels extreme anguish. [Under these conditions] vengeance becomes as sweet as honey since it is his only respite. Therefore, if he finds the strength to flee the urgings of his nature and to override his own feelings so as not to hate the one who has evoked the hatred within him, and he neither takes revenge when the opportunity arises nor bears a grudge, but instead he disregards all this and removes it from his heart as if it had never existed, there goes a strong and courageous individual. This is something which is easy only for the ministering angels, among whom the aforementioned traits do not exist, but not for dwellers of the physical world who were formed from the earth. Nonetheless, it is the King's decree, and the verses are clearly spelled out and need no elucidation [this and following verse]: "You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must not take revenge, nor harbor a grudge against the members of your people." Concerning vengeance and bearing a grudge, we know that vengeance means refraining from acting kindly toward someone who has denied him kindness or has actually harmed him. And bearing a grudge means that while repaying a harmful deed with a good deed, one reminds the other party of the harm that he committed.

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LEV553 Do not harbor hatred towards your fellow Jew. Concealed hatred is worse than observable hatred, so the Torah particularly warns against harboring hatred in one's heart. [He who lets his hatred show does not violate this command, but he does violate the negative commands, “Do not bear a grudge” (לא תטר) and “Do not take vengeance” (לא תקם). Moreover, he also violates the positive command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”] … hatred in one's heart causes many serious problems between people. It gives rise to every type of slander, informing and talebearing, and no trait is more evil and abominable to any thinking person.

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LEV564 The charge that Judaism limits the law of love to Jewish neighbors is contradicted not only by Leviticus 19:34 and Deuteronomy 10:19 but also by the whole emphasis of Judaism on love and brotherhood as basic elements in its ethical tradition. Hillel's teaching that man must love his fellow creatures and bring them near unto the Torah clearly includes all mankind under the law of love. The charge of misanthropy which, as we noted, was refuted by Josephus, reappeared in different form in the New Testament. Matthew 5:43 ascribes these words to Jesus: "Ye have heard that it was said, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy, 'but I say unto you, Love your enemies." (Continued at [[EXOD796]] Exodus 23:4 enemy COHON 213)

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LEV565 The doctrine of the brotherhood of man carried with it the obligation of universal benevolence. The most humane legislation regarding the treatment of the indigent, the handicapped and the stranger appears in Leviticus 19. The high-minded provisions reached a climax in the great commandment: [this and next verse]. These laws not only apply to a brother Jew but also to a stranger. Going beyond Deuteronomy 10:19, Leviticus 19:34 commands [see verses]. Brotherly love must be extended to foreigners as well as to fellow Jews. The spirit underlying this legislation is strikingly expressed by the last of the canonical prophets. Malachi (2:10) pleads: "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, Profaning the covenant of our fathers? While the prophet naturally addressed himself to his Jewish contemporaries, his words assumed universal significance. Job 31, describing the ideal religious personality, speaks of the consideration which he manifests toward his servant: "Did not He that made me in the womb make him? I did not One fashion us in the womb? – Verse 15. For the masters of post-Biblical Judaism the belief in the Fatherhood of God spelt the common brotherhood of man.

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LEV558 See [[DEUT205]] Deuteronomy 6:5 heart DUTIES 13-15

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LEV566 The harm caused by rechilus [(In Hebrew, רכילות, i.e., gossipmongering. For lack of a better word, we have translated רוכל as gossipmongering. A רוכל is one who spreads information that causes ill will and hatred (See Chafetz Chaim, Hilchos Rechilus 1:2-3)] cannot be calculated – it is inestimable – for it increases hatred within the world and causes people to violate what is written in the Torah [this verse], "You must not hate your brother in your heart." The world subsists on peace, and because of hatred the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve [into nothingness][Tehillim 75:4; See also Avos 1:18], as we have already prefaced] (See paragraph 39). Often the gossipmonger places a sword in his fellowman's hand to kill another, as the pesukim state (Yechezkel 22:9), "Gossipmongering men were among you, to shed blood," and (Yirmeyahu 6:28), "They are all the greatest of rebels, gossipmongers; [like weapons of] brass and iron, they all destroy." Our sages (Yerushalmi Pe'ah 1:1) called rechilus "three-tongue," [This is what it was called in Eretz Yisrael (Arachin 15b)], since it kills three people: the speaker, the one who accepts it, and the one spoken about, as you know from the episode of Do'eg, who was cast out as a result of [speaking] it (He lost his share in the World to Come) (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:2; Tehillim 52:7); the Kohanim [of Nov] were killed; and Shaul was punished for accepting it (He died in battle (I Shmuel 31:6; see Shemiras Halashon, Sha'ar Hazechirah 4).)

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LEV571 We turn now specifically to wishing harm to one's spouse. Our masters, may their memories be a blessing, say, "It is forbidden for one to marry a woman before he sees her lest when he sees her he find something detestable in her and she be disgraced by him--for the Merciful One said, 'You should love your neighbor as yourself.'" Kiddushin 83a. This verse, a central rule in the Torah, applies also to one's husband or wife. [Its point is that you should not get yourself in a position in which you might wish harm to your spouse.] We learn the same thing from the Talmud: "One should not marry a woman with the intention of divorcing her, for it says (in Proverbs 3:29), 'Do not plot evil against your fellow who lives trustingly with you' [i.e., your spouse] ...." Yebamot 37b. It is also stated in Avot d'Rabbi Nathan (Solomon Schechter, ed. (Vienna, 1887), chap. 26), "Rabbi Akiba says, 'Anyone who marries a woman who is not suitable for him transgresses five negative commands: (1) 'Do not take vengeance (Leviticus 19:18)', (2) 'Do not bear a grudge (ibid.)', (3) 'Do not hate your neighbor in your heart (this verse)', (4) 'Love your neighbor as yourself (ibid.)', (5) 'That your brother may live with you (Leviticus 25:36).' Further, in so far as he hates her and wishes she would die, he refrains from the command 'Be fruitful and multiply.'" [All of the above speak about wishing harm to one spouse. But the law also speaks specifically about wishing for the spouse's death.] Our masters report, for example, "He used to say, 'As for one who wishes his wife to die that he may marry her sister, or anyone who wishes his brother to die that he may marry his wife, his end will be that they [i.e., the intended victims] will bury him during their lifetimes.' As regards such a person, Scripture says (Ecclesiastes 10:8), 'The one who digs the pit will fall into it; and a serpent will bite the one who breaks through the wall.'" This is to say that if one hopes his wife will die so he might marry another woman, heaven will arrange for the opposite to occur.

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LEV550 Before commanding a Jew to rebuke his neighbor for sinning, the Torah says [this verse] that one must not hate one's fellow Jew in one's heart. Therefore, one should not be admonished out of hate, only out of love. If there is any element of hate in the rebuke, it should not be given at all.... According to the Baal HaTanya (Tanya, chap. 32) one should hate the sin in the people, but love all the other parts of the person. In other words, one should hate the sin but love the sinner. There is another reason why the "tactic" of hate is less applicable, if at all, today. At the time of the Talmud and of Maimonides, all Jews lived together in a small community. Even the less observant had no "options" to leave and assimilate. Therefore, the tactic of hating created a very strong pressure to repent and return to the mores and religious values of the overwhelming majority of the community. Today, however, this "tactic" of hating cannot be as effective, since the object of this hatred can merely move away to another Jewish community or, more often, abandon the Jewish community altogether. Therefore, the goal of hatred is almost never successful today. The Mishnah (Avot 1:12) itself implies that the "tactic" of love, not hate, is the means to return a sinner to the proper path, by suggesting that Jews should follow the tradition of Aaron the High Priest, who used the tactics of peace and love to return people to Torah.

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LEV563 Spiritual welfare is a by-product of love and of consideration for all. It is born of a minimizing of the good done for another and a maximizing of the good done by another (Derekh Eretz Zuta; Abot d'R. Nathan, passim). It will express itself in altruistic friendship, ever ready to be the first to greet others (Abot iv. 20) and regarding the honor of another as equivalent to one's own (Abot 15). Rabbi Johanan b. Zakkai was always the first to greet a person, be he a non-Jew (Berachot 17a); to be polite to others is equivalent to being polite to the Shechinah (Erubin). If one has nothing to offer a poor man save courtesy and a smiling face, it is good enough; life has shown these things to be worth more than treasure (Abot d'R. Nathan). Nothing is more injurious to moral well-being then to hate another inwardly [this verse; Arakhin 16a], and to take vengeance is a boomerang; for both suffer. If we are to love another as ourselves, the logical inference is that to hurt another, is like cutting off our right-hand because it has injured our left (a striking thought of the Yerushalmi Ned. ix).

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