We All Have Flaws
By: Rabbi Dovid Lieberman, Upper School Judaic Studies Teacher
In this week’s parsha the Torah commands us, כֽי ־תרא֞ה חמ֣ור שנאך֗ רבץ֙ ת֣חת משא֔ו וחדלת֖ מעז֣ב ל֑ו עז֥ב תעז֖ב עמֽו
If you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its load, and you want to refrain from helping him- you should surely help him.
The Gemara in Pesachim (113b) says that the pasuk above cannot be talking about someone whom you arbitrarily hate for any reason at all because it is forbidden to hate another Jew. Rather it is referring to a person that you saw violate a cardinal sin. In that case, it is a mitzvah to hate him for his immoral behavior. Still, if you now see this person’s donkey collapse under a load, the Torah commands you to overcome your feelings of hatred and help him.
The Meshech Chochma asks, why is it that in the above pasuk, it talks about helping the animal of your enemy, yet in Parshat Ki Teitzei when it talks about returning a lost animal, it refers to it as the animal of your brother, shouldn’t the pasuk be consistent and say that you have to help return the animal of that same enemy whom you are allowed to hate?
He answers that in Parshat Mishpatim, it was before the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf. At that time, the Jewish people were on a very high spiritual level. Only then was it a mitzva to hate someone for his immoral behavior. However, once the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf, the spiritual level of everyone was a lot lower. After the sin of the golden calf, if a Jew saw another Jew committing an immoral sin, before he starts to hate the sinner, he should check closely into his own actions and he will discover that he has many shortcomings as well. In that case, it is unwarranted and forbidden to hate the sinner for his immoral actions, because we all have places where we fall short and are far from perfect. The only person who can hate a sinner for his actions is someone who is a pure tzadik in his ways. But for most people it would never be okay to hate someone, even if they are committing immoral actions. (You can hate the actions themselves, but not the person.)
We see an incredible lesson from this Meshech Chochma. Before we disparage and talk negatively about other Jews while rationalizing that it’s ok for us to hate them because of their terrible actions, we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, are we so perfect? Are there different areas where we struggle? If the answer to that question is yes, then despite their sins, we are not allowed to hate anyone, rather we must treat them as our brother that has different challenges than we have.
Shabbat Shalom!