Ahavat Yisrael. What the world needs now

Before 7 October the world seemed to be getting better. Especially through Jewish eyes. The Abraham Accords, a greater sensitivity to kindness and human rights, and a prosperous and proud Israel. But 7 October changed everything. We all realised antisemitism is alive and well. In London, Sydney, Toronto, all over the United States. Maybe the world gave us a break after the Holocaust, but just 80 years later and it’s back with a vengeance. 

How should we respond? 

Unity, unity, unity! It’s our secret weapon! 

To put it simply, it’s all about observing two essential mitzvot in the Torah: The mitzvah of not hating another Jew, and Ahavat Yisrael, loving your fellow Jew. 

To elaborate, it’s not just about being nice to one another, caring and sharing, or visiting the sick, which we should be doing anyway for everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike. Rather, it’s about understanding that there is something unique about Am Yisrael, the Jewish people ‒ that we are truly one, as Kabbalah explains, our bodies may be separate but spiritually we are one. 

Ever wondered why when a member of any other faith is accused of doing something wrong, their entire faith and its adherents don’t stand accused, but when a Jew is involved, the world literally places all Jews and all of Israel on trial? 

The answer is, because we are one. We know it and the whole world knows it! 

We may have disagreements and differences of opinion. We are entitled, and in fact encouraged, to disagree with each other. But hatred, hurting one another, back-stabbing or gossip, bearing grudges and the like, only tear our souls apart. 

That’s why the great sage Hillel said of the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael that it is the whole Torah and all the rest is just commentary. If we are doing every other mitzvah, but not this one, we are blemished and Hashem’s blessings cannot descend. As we say in our daily prayers, Barcheinu avinu kulanu k’echad, Hashem blesses us when we are one. 

Join the Ahavat Yisrael campaign to bring unity, to bring blessing, and to bring Moshiach immediately. 

• Rabbi David Masinter is the director of Chabad House in Johannesburg.