Medved: A thoughtful response to Tisha b'Av (and this progressive is not being facetious)

Replacing Causeless Hatred with Causeless Love
Posted by: Michael Medved at 3:03 AM, 8/12/2008

Each year in late summer (August 9th this year), religious Jews observe a full 24 hourday of mourning and fasting to recall the destruction of both ancient Temples in Jerusalem – both destroyed on that same calendar day (the Ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar). Tradition explains that the second Temple fell to the Romans in 70 A.D. because of the sin of causeless hatred (sinat chimam in Hebrew)—groundless animosity among people of faith who should have been knit together in fellowship and their shared covenant. How can we make up for this grievous failing? A recent sage—the founding chief Rabbi of modern Israel, Abraham Isaac Kook ---said that the Temple can only be rebuilt when we replace causeless hatred with causeless love. We must learn to love our fellow human beings for no reason at all – and only then can we fully repent for the habit of feeling hostile for no reason at all. In Judaism, as in Christianity, learning the ability to feel love just as instinctively and automatically as we sometimes feel anger or envy or annoyance is associated with the Messianic age, and ultimate redemption.

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In this post, the conservative Michael Medved presents a truly inspiring message for his readers (the Jewish ones in particular). This entry on his blog demonstrates a meaningful, intelligent, and appropriate way to make connections between Judaism and Christianity.

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