For The Sin Of Baseless Hate

For The Sin Of Baseless Hate

This week, the Jewish community will read a portion of Torah that speaks to the building of the Mishkan. There is a telling comment in the Talmud (Yoma9b) that tells us that the Second Temple was destroyed because of the sin of “sin’at chinnam”, or baseless hatred. The theme of that comment is that the Temple was destroyed due to the internal decay of the leadership class.

It is always a wonder how often the reading of Torah can reflect the world in which we live. In recent travels for my work and recordings for our Seekers of Meaning podcasts, this theme of internal decay and baseless hate has been all too present. We are seeing the blatent focus on what many are seeing as the “other”, individuals and groups being singled out as different, as the “other” to be excluded, expelled, targeted. As Jews, we need to be mindlful of this as we have been the “other” for centuries and, given the rise on antisemitism in the USA, it seems we still fill that role for many.

What is even more challenging is the lack of an organized response to these moves. It is not like we have not seen this before. Many of us, of a certain age, lament that too many now do not read or study history and thus, we may be doomed to repeat it. Where is the organized Jewish world’s voices of protest? Where are the demonstrations against the institutionalizing of bias? Where is the vision of a country that sees diversity as a plus and inclusion of all peoples as means by which we weave a stronger country.

Where are they? Before it is too late!