Baseless Hatred: What It Is and What You Can Do about It by Rene H. Levy, PhD, Gefen Publishing House, 2011, 212 pages including bibliography, ISBN 9789652295309, price unlisted.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — An important concept in this book is that of arevut, which teaches that the responsibility that one Jew feels for another is a building block for community. Author Levy reminds us that the biblical Joseph, when occupying a powerful position in Egypt, created a test for the brothers who once sold him into slavery and subsequently did not recognize him. After secreting a goblet into Benjamin’s bag, Joseph had Benjamin arrested and threatened to make him a slave. Their older brother, Judah, stepped forward, and in a display of arevut, told Joseph that his father Jacob’s heart would be broken if Benjamin were taken from him. Accordingly, Judah offered to substitute himself for Benjamin as Joseph’s slave. At that point, Joseph’s heart softened towards his brothers, and he revealed himself as their long-lost sibling.
Levy nicknames arevut “the Judah principle,” but it refers simply to one Jew looking out for another. Baseless hatred can undermine, perhaps even destroy, arevut. When we think we are being insulted, or undercut, or not given the appreciation we believe we deserve, sometimes our brains will react with the reflex emotion we call “hatred.” When we are battling real enemies, according to Levy, hatred might serve a good purpose. But when we allow our reflexes to make enemies out of people who are not our enemies–who in fact may be people with whom we have common destinies–then this is hatred that Judaism refers to as “baseless.” It tears at the fabric of the Jewish community. According to Talmudic sources, this was the kind of hatred that led to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.
In reciting several modern-day scenarios of people hating members of their family, or people within their social group, Levy tells of a primitive part of our brain controlling our actions, not just for the immediate moment but sometimes for a lifetime. The higher functioning, cognitive parts of our brains need to be engaged to consider the causes of this hatred and to find ways of reversing it. Hatred between Jews does not only affect the individuals, it adversely impacts the whole community. Sometimes people are so focused on their hatred for other individuals that they cannot or will not cooperate in actions for the common good.
Quoting such commentators as Daniel Gordis, Natan Sharansky, Caroline Glick, and Dennis Prager, Levy goes on to suggest that the forces of Islamism and Western European anti-Semitism are growing in strength, for a variety of reasons, and now perhaps more than ever, Jews have to practice arevut. With so many external enemies, Israel and Diaspora Jews must do whatever they can to improve their relations with other Jews, so as not to have both internal and external enemies. Levy recommends a variety of common sense approaches for healing oneself of hatred and repairing relationships with fellow Jews.
The author recalls that Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, believed that once Jews had a state of their own, anti-Semitism would disappear from the face of the earth. This has been proven untrue. Hatred of Jews is today often expressed as hatred of Israel.
Levy seems to believe that once Jews stop hating each other, they will be able to somehow defeat anti-Semitism, perhaps by providing the world with a new paradigm for human behavior. There is no basis for this belief in logic, only in faith, but it is nevertheless inspirational.
Baseless Hatred is a thought-provoking, helpful book from which everyone could draw benefit — particularly if they read it before reciting the Al Heits during the High Holidays. But it leaves one very important question unaddressed. If we should substitute reason and good will for emotion in dealing with fellow Jews, should we not do likewise in our relations with all of humanity?
Is this concept of arevut only to be practiced within the Jewish tent? I think otherwise. Call me Pollyannish, but I believe that we should try to extend good will to all, whether they worship as we do or not. If they be true enemies, they will surely reveal themselves as such. But if they are not enemies, for all of our sakes, let’s not imagine them to be so.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com