Love For All, Hatred For None

Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D.

Romans 13:8-9 (Christianity): “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. For all the commandments…are all summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Number 13 of Imam”Al-Nawaawi’s Forty Hadiths (Islam): “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

Leviticus 19:33 (Judaism): “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself…”

Analects 12:2 (Confucianism): “Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.”

Udana-Varga 5,1 (Buddhism): “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Mahagharata 5, 1517 (Hinduism): “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you.”

Baha’u’llah (Baha’i World Faith): “Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not.”

The Great Law of Peace (Native American Spirituality): “Respect for all life is the foundation.”

The common denominator in all of these faith-based writings can simply be put into one word: Love. And yet, when we look at the history of religious fervor and instruction we also see a world of hate. It is ironic that so many people can borrow concepts of God and unity and love and not follow the dictates of what they prescribe.

The history of our world contains descriptions of wars fought because of religious passion to the extent that all of its teachings are meaningless. People are killed; nations threaten each other, all in the name of God. And it is this same God that gave us the understanding of brotherly love as well as the flames of hatred and division. How is that possible? Perhaps it is possible because in our minds, God is considered to be aloof.

Early Biblical writings describe a personal God, concerned and participating in the actions of everyday living. From Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Jesus, to Mohammed, God is directly involved in the happenings that enabled mankind to flourish and progress.

Today we seem to be all alone, drifting in an endless sea of moral decay. Wars are fought because of hate and it trickles down to our everyday existence. We find neighbor against neighbor, gays and straights fighting for individual acceptance and recognition, black verses white, religious intolerance because some consider themselves the true believers and those that differ are classified as non-believers.

The foundation for living a meaningful life was the foundation of Judaism and started over 3,000 years ago in the “Book” we refer to as the Torah, a document that was the guide for all ethics in the universe.

This text reminds us of the sameness of all human beings, and can be found in Genesis, Chapter One, “And God made humans in God’s image. And no matter what your concept of God is, it is clear that each of us, Jew and non-Jew, woman and man is created in God’s image.

In a world where basic human rights are too frequently violated, our Torah seeks to make this teaching into a sacred mandate. God is in all of us, even those who we appear to be Godless.

And Scripture continues to expand this idea as described in Leviticus commanding us to love each other as we love ourselves. Maimonides, the great physician and philosopher of the middle ages explains it as a matter of human right.

We go to our respective houses of worship expecting to hear words of encouragement and expressions of love and what we find, in some instances, are diatribes of hate and mistrust. We are told that if you don’t believe in a particular way then you cannot be accepted by God. We are led to believe that God only favors those who follow the dictates of one group over another. This certainly is not love for all and hatred for none.

Faith was designed to give us the ability to understand each other. It stands to reason that if we love God, a God whom we have never seen, then we certainly should love one another here in the flesh. To have faith is to believe completely that we were all created in the image of God and as such represent the true essence of Godliness. To have faith is to remain steadfast in our belief that God is the God of all people and that just as we are different so is God in our minds. There is no one concept that incorporates all that God is, nor can we truly comprehend the endlessness of God

Stand with a friend or relative and look in the mirror. What do you see? An individual as different from the next person looking in that same mirror. And if each of us is different, yet created in the image of God, then the answer to love can be found in our understanding of our difference and uniqueness. And then we must continue to search for God as we are forever searching for our place in the universe. And we cannot expect to find God if we can’t even find ourselves. Perhaps that is why God doesn’t seem to be part of everyday expressions.

A saintly sage once wrote that with faith there are no questions but without faith there are no answers. And as we read in Deuteronomy: “You shall find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” And finding God does not require denigrating others who believe differently but rather accepting that there are many paths to God, none more sacred than the other. And knowing that God is the ultimate provider of human existence makes it clear that He chose for us the various paths so that true understanding and belief can be shared to enhance our lives.

There is a classic Yiddish folk saying: “If God gave us teeth, He will give us bread.” Chew on that for a while and you will know that we all don’t have the same appetite or tastes or desires. God is not aloof. We just don’t seem to be able to reach out to grab His hand. Is that a reason to hate? No, it is a reason to learn from each other so that we can all appreciate the goodness of love for all and hatred for none.



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