“Unnecessary” Hate: Is Hate Ever “Necessary”?
“Intolerance of groups is often, strangely enough, exhibited more strongly against small differences than against fundamental ones.”
–Moses and Monotheism, Sigmund Freud (1938)
Our temple was destroyed because of “Unnecessary” hatred. Is hatred ever “Necessary”?
Attending Muslim, Hindu, Catholic weddings, or funerals, you’re struck by the many rituals identical to Jewish ones
What we call Kiddushin, Ketubah, Tahara and Mikveh, Muslims term Nikah, Mahr and Ghusl. They similarly require witnesses and that religious marriage certificates be publicly read at the wedding. Israel and Muslim countries cleanse their dead, bury them in shrouds, forbidding autopsies. If Halal and kosher food restrictions aren’t precisely identical, they are certainly kissing cousins.
Couples marry in sacred spaces Jews call Chupas, Hindus call Mandaps, Catholics term Altars. Our marital Hakafot are Hindu Septipadi, including seven blessings and breaking glasses. Catholic and Jewish brides and grooms are escorted down the aisle by their parents to be blessed by their clergy.
With such striking similarities, why, for God’s sake, don’t we focus on them, instead of the small differences?
Even within ethnicities, we microscopically find justifications to hate each other.
Britain’s longest continuous military campaign was not against France or Spain, but its Commonwealth neighbor, Northern Ireland. Intra-Muslim Shite -Sunni war-casualties dwarf Muslim-Israel ones.
Not only do secular and Haredi Jews curse each other, but Chabad and Satmar don’t consider each other kosher, (literally and figuratively.) Within Satmar, “Aronies” and “Zalmanies” wage violent “Holy Wars” (the ultimate oxymoron.)
Countries whether ethnically identical (North / South Korea, Taiwan / China) or only closely related (India / Pakistan, Russia / Ukraine) are eternal archenemies, as well.
Within countries, political parties demonize their opponents so much, it often leads to assassination attempts
The transience of the latter categories is the Rosetta Stone to answer our question.
“The Japs”, post-Pearl Harbor, were our sworn lifelong enemy. Until they weren’t. The best player in American baseball is Japanese. Yankee Stadium sells Sumo and Godzilla hot dogs, the all-American dish. Lexus sells five times as many cars in the US as in Japan.
George Washington’s farewell address: “Tis our true policy to steer clear of all permanent alliances.” Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural address: “Friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”
In the Founding Fathers’ words, nations are never really friends, only allies, when it is to their mutual benefit.
President Trump was originally a confirmed Democrat, Hillary a Republican. As a rural Representative, Gillibrand earned an A rating from the National Rifle Association. Running for the Senate in the liberal state, she changed her position 180°, then proudly advertised they now rated her F.
Every politician, in every country, in truth, belongs to the same party, WWWW – Whatever Way Will Win. They have no loyalty to meaningless amalgams we call political parties.
In whose interest is it to focus on the small differences rather than the many similarities? Any and all of our current our potential leaders.
H.L. Mencken: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed.”
The unfortunate atavistic reality is our most effective motivations are fear and anger. You can’t run for office saying things are fine. No, things are terrible and, moreover, they’re getting worse. Similarly, the best way to stay in office is to emphasize the danger if you are no longer there. Only our fearless leader (See Bullwinkle) can save us from destruction.
The second-best way to elicit campaign contributions is to vilify your opponent. (The best way is to make promises that only come to pass if you win, that rarely are kept even then.)
We demonize any country our current enemy; every political opponent is the antichrist.
Roman sundials were inscribed: “Ab hoc momento pendit aeternitas.” [“On this moment hangs eternity.”]
Notice that every single election, in every country, is “The most important one in our lifetime.” If the antonym of “Politic” is “Genuine”, it’s our magical thinking to imagine any politician is genuine. They all resemble the 2001: Space Odyssey computer HAL who, once in power, will do absolutely anything to avoid losing power. (If you wonder who HAL represents, progress to the next of the three letters, i.e., H + 1 = I, etc.)
Demagogues know unhappy voters are looking for malefactors, not wanting to blame themselves. Pointing out others’ differences, no matter how small, makes it easier to scapegoat them.
No one should know this better than Jews who, because of our minute numbers, disproportionate prominence and success, have been and continue to be the world’s primary scapegoat.
This is not a screed against war. Sadly, many wars are necessary.
Israel’s wars were needed to survive. If not for the Revolutionary War, America would have remained a British colony another century, the Civil War, slavery would have remained extant another century. If not for WWII, my children and grandchildren would not exist.
This is a plea to not hate our enemy.
A peace treaty can be signed in a minute. The hostilities immediately cease; the hostility does not. The animus cannot be erased.
Sitting Shiva for my father, my friend paid his respects to my mother. Noticing his German accent, she asked me “Is he nice?”, code for “Is he Jewish?” I assured her with the truth, he was “Nice”, (though he wasn’t Jewish.)
My parents hated Germans; I don’t, though I was raised to do so. Thank God, my children don’t and their children won’t.
Even if they don’t utilize the divine “We” like the Pope, every leader invokes God being on our side.
We are all created in the image of God. How can we believe God really wants us to hate each other?
