A Message From Our Editor August 2022
Written by Penina Taylor
As we are preparing to publish our next edition of UNORTHOBOXED, it is the first week of the Hebrew month of Av. The month of Av is known for an astonishing number of bad things befalling the Jewish people, including the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. Customarily from the 1st of Av until the 9th (Tisha B’Av) is a time of intense national mourning and is supposed to also be a time of intense introspection.
It is said that the first Temple was destroyed because of idolatry, and the second because of sinat chinam (baseless hatred). That in the time of the Second Temple, the Jewish people didn’t worship other gods – in fact it is said that they studied Torah and fulfilled the mitzvot fastidiously. Well, most of the mitzvot. There is one mitzvah that in all their holy accomplishments they seemed to overlook (or chose to disregard) – the mitzvah to love one’s neighbor. But, we are taught that we must not judge the generation of Jews who caused the destruction of the second Temple – since we have not yet merited to see it rebuilt we are as guilty as they were of this sin. Baseless Hatred.
We are currently at what many experts believe to be the tail end of the COVID Pandemic (thank God), but the Jewish community is experiencing a different sort of pandemic – a sinat chinam pandemic. What’s worse is that we justify our hatred by explaining that it’s not baseless. Since there’s a (good) reason for the hatred, it’s somehow ok. The symptoms of this insidious virus are primarily characterized by an intense hatred of anyone who disagrees with our interpretation of what Torah observance is supposed to look like. It includes name calling, character defamation, declaring the other as not “Orthodox” or in some cases, even not Jewish. The laws against lashon hara (negative speech which is true – gossip) and motzei shem ra (negative speech which is false – slander) are regularly thrown aside when it is against someone with whom we disagree.
The truth is that we live in a world of concealment – things are not clear and for the Jewish people they’ve not been clear for at least the past two thousand years as evidenced by the discussions in the Gemara.
But it’s human nature to hate ambiguity. We want surety. We want a set of rules with clear boundaries – this is right, and this is wrong. The irony of this is that it is not a traditionally “Hebraic” way of thinking – it’s what is often referred to as a Greek or Hellenistic way of thinking – black and white with very little nuance and no room for gray. And so, we push away those who do not fit into the box we have created and labeled “Orthodox” or “Torah Observant”. And anything that falls anywhere outside that box is deemed treif (unkosher).
We judge that a person who went to this yeshiva or wears that style of clothing or lives in this particular community cannot be Orthodox, and therefore should be called names, declared unfit, and regarded as having nothing of value to offer us (or God-forbid, teach us). We declare that what they are doing is tantamount to idolatry, a false form of worship. And yet, we were only without a Temple for 70 years for the transgression of idolatry, but for sinat chinam we have been without one for 2000 years and counting.
Clearly the way we treat each other is far more serious.
