A Tale of Ahavas Chinam

Two brothers lived on two sides of a mountain. One was very wealthy but had no children, one had many children but was very poor.

The wealthy brother thought, I have so much and my brother has so little, let me secretly cross the mountain in the middle of the night and bring my brother extra crop. The poor brother said, I derive so much happiness from my children, let me secretly bring my brother some of my crop so he could have a little extra joy in this world.

Every night each of the brothers would secretly cross the mountain to bring their brother food. Every morning the brothers would inspect their stock to learn nothing was missing. Neither could explain the phenomena but they thanked the Holy One, blessed be He for His kindness and continued in their good will.

These nightly activities went on for years, until one night on top of the mountain, the brothers met. In that instant, in the dark of night, the glow of brotherly love lit up the mountain sky. They each understood what the other had been doing and fell into each other’s arms in a loving embrace. They Holy One. blessed be He looked upon this expression of brotherly love and declared, “On this spot of mutual love I wish to dwell. Here My Holy Temple will be built.”

The main message of this ancient tale is one of brotherly love and ahavas chinam. We learn in Tehillim (Psalm 133:1)  “Hinei matov u’mah naim, sheves achim gam yachad, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.” How appropriate that so many assume that the site of the Temple, which was destroyed because of sinas chinam, among other reasons, should have been chosen because of brotherly love.

A Tale of Sinas Chinam

There was a man who made a party. He instructed his servants to invite his friend Kamtza. His servants erred and invited his enemy Bar Kamtza. When Bar Kamtza arrived at the party the host was furious. He instructed his servants to throw him out.

Bar Kamtza, being very embarrassed pleaded with his host to allow him to stay and even offered to pay for his meal. The host wouldn’t hear of it, Bar Kamtza must leave. The guest begged him not to create a scene and offered to pay for half of the whole party. No way. He upped his proposition and offered to finance the entire price of the party but the host was still adamant.

Bar Kamtza was totally humiliated. He looked around and saw a room full of friends, at the head table were all the Rabbis. No one said a thing. In anger Bar Kamtza said, “Since the Rabbis were sitting there and did not stop him, this shows that they agreed with him. I will go and inform against them to the government”. One thing led to the other and Jerusalem was destroyed. (Gittin 55b-56a)

From these two stories we learn a simple lesson of history. It was love of two men which caused Jerusalem to be built and hate between men which caused it to be destroyed.

Yerushalayim means city of peace. It came about through peace, its purpose is peace and was destroyed due to the lack of it.

Because of the love of brothers Jerusalem was selected. Because of causeless hate – Jerusalem was destroyed.

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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