Tuesday, August 28, 2007

HASHEM’S HATRED FOR US

It is written: “Like a face’s reflection in the water, so is the reflection of one’s heart to another’s heart.” [Accordingly, the Rabanan felt that once one person in a relationship is deemed to hate the other, it is obvious that the other person should be considered to hate the first person, as it is only natural that people hate those who hate them. This is why they did not list these people separately in the Mishna (unlike Rabbi Yehudah in the braisa).]

Why, then, does Rabbi Yehudah list them separately? Rabbi Yehudah understood that this verse is referring to words of Torah (that the more effort you put into Torah, the more you get out, see Rashi), not people’s feelings towards each other.

The Torah writes [Devarim 1,27]: You murmured in your tents and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He took us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand[s] of the Amorites to exterminate us.”

The Sifri states on this verse: Is it possible that the Lord hates Klal Yisroel; doesn’t it say: I love you, so said Hashem? Rather, you hate Him. A common parable says: What is in your own heart about your friend, is in his heart about you.

The simple explanation in this Sifri would be according to our Gemora (the Rabbanan, not Rabbi Yehudah). In truth, Hashem loves Klal Yisroel, but since there are those that hate Him, this effects Hashem’s relationship with them and He does indeed hate them.

Alternatively, Reb Yosef Engel explains that the Sifri could be referring to what seems apparent to Klal Yisroel. It would seem that Hashem hates those who hate Him because of the common parable that what is in your own heart about your friend, is in his heart about you. However, this is not the case, and Hashem loves all of Klal Yisroel, even those who hate Him.

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