Ahavat Chinam: Building Caring Communities

...And if we were destroyed, and the world was destroyed along with us, through sinat chinam; we will come back to be rebuilt, and the world will be rebuilt along with us, through ahavat chinam...

All love that depends on something, [when the] thing ceases, [the] love ceases; and [all love] that does not depend on anything, will never cease. What is an example of love that depended on a something? Such was the love of Amnon for Tamar. And what is an example of love that did not depend on anything? Such was the love of David and Jonathan.

Any love that is dependent on something transient: that does not last. When the thing that was the cause for that love perishes, the love will also perish. But any love that is not dependent on something transient, but rather on something lasting - for example, the love of the righteous men and the sages - never perishes. In the same way that the thing which is the cause of that love does not perish, so [too] does the love not perish.

(18) You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow [Israelite] as yourself: I am יהוה.

There was another incident involving one gentile who came before Shammai and said to Shammai: Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot. Shammai pushed him away with the builder’s cubit in his hand. This was a common measuring stick and Shammai was a builder by trade. The same gentile came before Hillel. He converted him and said to him: That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.

All the Torah’s commandments are one of two types: The first is the commandments between man and Hashem, baruch Hu and the foundation of them all is faith. The second [group of] five is the commandments between man and his fellow man, and the foundation of them all is, “You shall love your fellow as yourself."

Accordingly, the keruvim spread their wings upwards to represent the commandments between man and God, and they faced each other to represent the commandments between man and his peer.

And as [Hillel] said here on one foot the foundation for each category; therefore he told him the verse "you shall love your fellow as yourself."

On this foundation [Hillel] established for him the commandments between man and his fellow. Additionally, he taught him the end of the verse as well, “I am Adonai,” which is the foundation upon which Chabakuk stood all the Torah’s commandments, that is, faith in Hashem...