IT ALL STARTS WITH HATING THE OTHER:

The problem here is not religion. The problem is the result of a society that has become so accustomed to hating the "other" (the Palestinians, the Arabs, the U.N., Obama) that "others" continuously need to be created in order to hate them. The Talmud teaches that one who is angry repudiates the entire Torah. Anger is a consuming fire. But it does not only consume the object of one's anger, nor does it only consume the angry subject. It consumes the entire society. Anger erases Torah and civility. Lest the righteous Israel defenders unleash their wrath on me, this is by no means exclusive to Israel. Just across the security wall, the Palestinian's anger and hatred of Israel (justified or not) consistently turns into self-hatred as Fatah and Hamas continue to consume one another. The sword has two ends, one for the enemy and one for the self. A homicidal society soon becomes a suicidal one.

Some argue that such anger toward the "other" (the Palestinian, the Arab, the U.N., Obama) is justified. Perhaps. But on that logic, haredi anger toward Women of the Wall is justified as well. In their world-view they are protecting Israel against those they consider blasphemers. But consuming anger is not placated by justification, not toward the stranger and not toward the self.

I find it odd when I hear Jews express shock that Jews use hate-speech or violence against fellow Jews but remain silent when Jews use hate-speech and violence against the "stranger" in their midst, as if to say one form of hated is not intrinsically connected to the other. Why is hatred against the "other" any more legitimate than hatred toward one's own? Is the mitzvah of "loving one's neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) intrinsically more important than "loving the stranger" (Deut. 10:19)? The Torah explicitly states, "There should be on law for the Israelite (ezrakh) and the stranger that dwells among you." (Ex. 12:49). In fact, anger and hatred toward the stranger may very well be the source of the anger and hatred toward the neighbor. Focused anger invariably becomes indiscriminate anger.

Ruth the Moabite is the heroine of Shavuot. She loved those who were not her own and was granted protection by the Israelites in return. Most strangers are not Ruth the Moabite. But the Torah commands its readers to "love the stranger" nonetheless. Not only because it is civil and just, that too, but because when anger and hatred pervades toward the stranger, it eventually turns within. An angry society will eventually consume itself.

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