While we should not have baseless hatred towards one another, we should stand up for what is right and hate evil and evil doers.
As we welcome Rosh Chodesh Av, we also begin Parashat Devarim. The Book of Deuteronomy opens with Moses reviewing the Jewish people’s forty years in the wilderness. He is not recounting their failures to embarrass or shame them. Rather, he is teaching an essential lesson: we grow by learning from our mistakes.
That is precisely why Parashat Devarim is always read before Tisha B’Av. As we enter the Nine Days, we are called not only to remember the destruction of the Temple but also to examine our own behavior as individuals and as a community.
The Talmud teaches that the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam—baseless hatred between Jews. That does not mean we ignore wrongdoing or pretend that every action is acceptable. Judaism teaches both compassion and moral responsibility.
We must care for one another. We should ask how we can help our fellow Jew succeed, grow, and live a better life. At the same time, the Torah also teaches that there are actions that cannot simply be overlooked. Murder, idolatry, and behavior that destroys society are not matters of personal preference. They are genuine moral evils that must be confronted.
My mother, of blessed memory, once gave me advice I have never forgotten. She said, “If you’re going to hate, use your hate wisely. Hate a Hitler or a Stalin. They were evil. Don’t waste your hatred on someone who is merely a schlemiel—someone who is simply imperfect.”
That captures an important Torah principle. Baseless hatred means despising people for trivial reasons—for political disagreements, for differences in custom, or because they practice Judaism differently than we do. One person may wear tefillin according to Sephardic custom, another according to Ashkenazic custom. Those differences should never divide us.
But neither should we confuse unity with moral indifference. We are commanded to love our fellow Jew, yet we are also commanded to stand for what is right and to resist genuine evil.
As we begin these Nine Days, let us remember both lessons. Let us reject baseless hatred and strengthen our love for one another. At the same time, let us have the courage to uphold truth and justice, refusing to surrender to whatever ideas or fashions happen to be popular at the moment.
Those are the lessons of Parashat Devarim, and they are just as important today as they were when Moses first spoke them on the banks of the Jordan.
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