QUESTION
If someone was harmed by a fellow Jew in some way, how much of a chiyuv is there to love him?
ANSWER
If someone was harmed by a fellow Jew, their love for him has to continue undiminished. Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s love for him is our yardstick for loving — not our subjective emotions.
You have a right to call him to din Torah. You have a right even to tell him what wrong he did but lo sisna es achicha bilvavecha. You must continue to love him as before. And therefore, the fact that somebody wronged you does not make him possul and unworthy of the mitzvah of loving your fellow Jew.
Now I understand that these are not easy things to do, but that’s the chok haTorah! And it’s expected of us al pi din Torah.
Only when someone is no longer re’acha b’mitzvos, then there’s no mitzvah of loving him anymore. But if it is a person who believes in Hashem and he keeps the Torah in general, then it makes no difference what he did to you. You are mechuyev to love him.
Q: But what about someone who doesn’t keep the Torah because he’s a tinok shenishba?
A: Now that’s a question I don’t want to discuss because tinok shenishba is not a clear cut concept. There are many people who could have become loyal Jews, but they chose not to. But to know exactly who yes and who not, I’m not capable of telling you.
We know the general rule however. If a person is a tinok shenishba and he is an apikores, so we follow Reb Chaim Brisker, zichrono livracha, and he says, “Nebach an apikores is fort an apikores.” If he doesn’t believe in Hashem, then he doesn’t belong to us at all.
If he believes in Hashem only he doesn’t know exactly what to do, that’s something else.
August 1993
