As we get to the last hundred days before the U.S. Presidential election, I am seeing a disturbing, familiar pattern playing out on the Jewish corners of the internet. It’s a bi-partisan phenomenon. What is it?
Judging candidates by the Jews in their lives. Are they the “right” kind of Jew? Is Doug Emhoff kosher enough? What did Jared Kushner get on his BJEs (Board of Jewish Ed, a Jewish HS Entry exam)? Are we accepting Ivanka’s conversion? And so on. It’s not at all a new phenomenon. We put Chelsea Clinton’s husband under a microscope, and we submit advisors and surrogates to the same thing (What shul did Jack Lew go to?).
It’s even older than that though. Let me illustrate by way of a derasha.
We are currently in the part of the Jewish year known as the Three Weeks. This period of mourning culminates in Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is a date where numerous tragedies befell our people, including the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.
There is an opinion in the Talmud that we knew how long the First Temple Exile would take place, because we knew the reasons the First Temple was destroyed (specifically: violating the prohibitions against murder, idol worship, and adultery). However, the end of the Second Temple Exile (which we are in now) is unknown for we do not know the reason for it.
Wait. Hold on. Almost any Jewish Day School student can tell you why the Second Temple was destroyed – sinat chinam (baseless hatred). It’s not at all a secret. Why would the Gemara say “the reason is unknown?”
Rav Shlomo Breuer says no, you’re being too literal. What the saying means is thus: The first set of reasons are active violations of law. When you’re murdering someone, worshiping a false deity, committing adultery with your neighbor’s wife, you are actively doing and doing so with awareness. Hate, however? Hate though? That is passive and insidious and we justify it.
“I don’t hate him, I hate what he does.”
“It’s OK to hate her, because she’s not really Jewish.”
“It’s not hate! It’s rebuke! It’s important s/he knows s/he’s doing it wrong!”
“I have no hate in my heart, I just want to show them the right path.”
Justified hate, even hate we hide from ourselves, is still hate. It’s still an act of destruction, one that at the very least is damaging to our souls if not others.
Growing up, I heard my father speak about this every year. And it seeped into my brain. In a culture where people throw around terms like “off the derech” for people who change their Jewish traditions, it’s hard not to hear it as “unworthy,” “untouchable.” Except… they’re just off your path. And maybe that’s ok.
According to the Talmud, every Tisha B’Av a bas kol cries out, “If only you would leave Me alone and keep My Torah.” The meaning? That the L-rd doesn’t need us to be the Jewish police, making sure everyone is Jewing It Right. It’s not our job, it’s not why we are here.
There are a thousand reasons to vote for a candidate. There are a thousand reasons to not. But let’s leave how they or their loved ones approach their Judaism off the table please.
And may we see a rebuilt Third Temple in our lifetimes.
