Free Hate

Welcome to the month of Av, please reduce your happiness.

The month of Av on the Jewish calendar holds a day of deep despair -- the ninth of Av, on which we commemorate the destructions of the two temples in Jerusalem. It is a day marked by fasting, mourning practices and prayer which highlights loss and suffering. The lesson we try to impart is often rooted in a talmudic teaching (in Tractate Yoma, 9b) that the second temple was destroyed because of Sin'at Chinam. This is commonly translated as "baseless hatred."

This leaves a gaping logical hole or two:

1. Do I really have baseless hatred for anyone? Am I apologizing for a mode of human behavior that really is never present?

2. Am I saying that hatred that has a basis in reality is acceptable?

In my searches I have found that many rabbinic and lay voices have wrestled with this idea of baseless hatred. Some have called it "causeless" while others have explained it as disproportionate. I would like to advance a slightly different take on the phrase and the concept. The Hebrew word is "chinam". It doesn't mean "baseless" at least not generally; it means "free." There are uses of it pointing to "for no reason" or even "without a connection to truth" such as in Proverbs 24, but it also means "no strings attached" as one would free a slave (Ex. 21:2), and I like to think of it the way it is used in the Oral Law, as a reference to a guard who is not paid for his service. He gets nothing from or for what he does.

Chinam, it seems, points to not gaining an advantage. I am unpaid. I receive no benefits beyond that moment's label. When I hate, what do I really gain other than a fleeting second of righteous indignation and smug superiority? The kind of hate that got people in trouble was the kind that, ultimately, served no purpose. 

You took my parking space so I hate you. 

Does that hate get me a parking space? 

No. 

Does it help me in my day-to-day life in any way? 

No. 

But is it baseless? 

No -- I wanted and even needed a parking space. 

Is it "free"? Yes. I get nothing from the feeling. Neither I nor my situation is bettered. I am not paid in any sense by this feeling. No gain, no gain.

Are there other kinds of hatred? Sure -- ones that can produce a positive result for me. We emulate Hashem and he hates certain behaviors (Deut 12 and 16). By hating them, exercising justice against them and avoiding performing those behaviors, we can gain a benefit of spiritual improvement. This is not baseless or free hate. Even in the Ethics of the Fathers (1:10), we are advised to "hate" the idleness that rulership brings -- we are supposed to hate gaining advantage through the work of others or at the expense of others as this is not a true advantage. So we hate sin, or we hate the idea of gaining nothing through our actions (in a circular sense, we hate the kind of hate that is for free).

If we want to bring about the third temple -- if we want truly to improve ourselves, then we should be focusing on removing all the hatreds we feel even if we think we have just cause for them, as hatred of people and hatred of situations and things gets us nothing other than more hatred. We can identify specific actions and hate them so that we can do better, but if there is no real benefit, and our hatred is truly "free" then it can't be part of how we see the world.