Baseless Hate

 Earlier I came across something that surprised me. First of all I need to give some background,  as some of you may be aware, in addition to my interest in matters of my Christian faith, I am also interested in other religions, but very much, Judaism. 

Judaism has its own calendar. We are in a part of that Calendar which is a period of mourning from 17 Tammuz to 9th of Av.  The 9th of Av is designated a fasting day. 9th of Av in Hebrew is Tisha B'Av. It is believed both the First Temple (That Solomon built) and the second Temple build after the exile with Nehemiah and Ezra were destroyed on 9th of Av. There were many other things that coincided with these dates but these are the most significant I understand.  The First Temple was destroyed about 586 BCE (BC) and the second was 70 CE (AD) . 

Without getting to involved with the details of of these dates and practices I want to get into what I learnt today . It is from part of the Talmud called Yoma 9b It asks why the First Temple was destroyed and the reply is because of idol worship,  forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed. After a discussion of what was meant by these three things it then goes on to say:

However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was wanton hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the three severe transgressions: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed.

It was not this that caught my attention butan email from Chabad.com called daily dose which quoted this piece of the Talmud that did.  

It translated the Talmud like this: Because there were those who were intolerant of others without cause. Which teaches us that senseless intolerance is equal to idolatry, murder and adultery combined. (Talmud Yoma 9b.)

It was that word intolerance that made me sit up and pay attention. Basically, from reading further and seeing the same word translated as "hatred" was eye opening to me.  

I read this from some Sabbath notes for a synagogue  - story not sure where I will try and find it, but it states this: 

Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz Rabbi of Prague from 1604 – 1619:

It's known that in the first Temple there was fighting and baseless hatred between the rulers of Israel, and that the Temple was destroyed in part because of the fighting between the kings of Israel and Judah. In the second Temple, there was baseless hatred among all of the Jewish people, because they had been afflicted with it to the point that there was no cure...

This is the difference between the first and second Temples: in the first, the hatred was between the leaders about running the kingdom, because the kingdom was divided (between Israel in the North and Judah in the South), and they were fighting about borders...In the second Temple, however, there was hatred about pointless matters, because even the lowest people hated each other for no reason. For this reason, it is called “baseless hatred” (sinat chinam) because they did not actually have anything to fight about.

It started me thinking,  do we allow pointless unimportant issues to cause division among us. Is Sinat Chinam causing us to burn our bridges with people. 

I  must admit when I read "intolerance" my mind went straight to the intolerance of homosexuality by many religious leaders and adherents of different faiths, but being Christian I think of Christian pastors and people.  Could this attitude of intolerance to what they perceive as sin, to the extent that they would refuse communion, expel from the Church and force family members to turn their backs on their own kith and kin, and even their own children., can that be worse than idolatry, sexual immorality  and murder together. The Conservative Christian pastor may say: That's the Talmud, it's not the "inspired Word of God", and will reason that the second Temple was destroyed because the Sacrificial system was replaced by Christ's death on the Cross.  Since we know that Jesus said no-one takes my life, but I lay it down, and yet we know that it was Roman nails that held Jesus on the Ctoss that he died, and it is interesting that Jesus likened His own body to a Temple, when He said "Destroy this Temple and I shall rebuild it in three days. I  think that it is entirely possible that the rabbis are right that the baseless hatred between them was a destructive force that became physically evident in the destruction of the Second Temple. 

I believe Jesus spoke repeatedly about having a judgmental attitude.  Jesus pointed out and rebuked the superior attitudes of the religious leaders of his time.  Baseless hatred often tries to claim a basis or justification- race, social status, residency status (citizen, immigrant, "undocumrnted" , "illegal alien") religion  - where people don't only feel superior to people of other faiths but people who understand and practice the same faith in different ways. 

For the Christian, all hatred is Sinat Chinam, pointless, because we are called to love our neighbours as ourselves. 

In addition to the 10 Comnandments we got through Moses Jesus gave us ONE - I believe that His ONE commandment is as important as all the ten together - namely Love ONE another as I have loved you. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,  that you love one another.  

In the Talmud - the expectation to love every other Jew as their own flesh. We know that in Judaism there have arisen different groups, Orthodox,  Reformed, Liberal and there are Jews who are not religious. But they say a Jew is a Jew, and it doesn't matter whether they are pious attenders of shul, or atheists,  they are Jewish and the call is to love and accept. 

If Judaism has its different groups, Christianity has splintered into myriad groups. And sadly the animosity between these groups called denominations is horrendous and I am convinced it grieves the Holy Spirit. The fact that there have been wars between Protestant and Roman Catholics, with the most recent bring troubles in Northern Ireland. We worship the Same God and Saviour even if what we think about our God and Saviour is different.  I know many Roman Catholics think they are the only Christians and I know many protestants think Catholics are are not Christian at all. Some Protestants go so far as to describe Catholics in diabolical term. It is ridiculous and it is Sinat Chinam. If there is no room, for some, for diversity within religious faith, then the notion of diversity in terms of sexual orientation of gender identity is totally anathema. But I believe that there too, the judgmental superior attitude is "baseless hatred".  

It is baseless because prejudice is not a valid reason to bully or exclude. Our bodies are called temples, but collectively as a Church we are a Temple, and yet our differences (not our diversity) and divisions are destructive to the Temple. 

If baseless hatred caused the downfall of our Temple, then baseless or unconditional love can rebuild. 

So whether you are fasting for Tisha B'av or not I pray that we may be united