Divrei Simcha on Parshas Mishpatim 5767

Since when were Jews allowed to have enemies? What happened to “Love your neighbor as yourself?”

This week’s parsha has a very strange verse. It says in 23:5, “If you see the donkey of your enemy under its burden, and even though you don’t want to help him, you shall surely help him.” Again I ask, since when are we allowed to have enemies?

Rav Frand from Baltimore says one of my favorite d’var torahs that I would like to share with you. The Gemara talks about two donkeys: one needs help being loaded because all of the packages fell off of it and the other is in pain from too many packages on its back and needs help unloading. Which do you help first? The answer is unloading the one with too many packages because there is pain involved that you can relieve.

The Gemara continues and asks the following: who do you help first, your friend or your enemy? The answer is your enemy. The reason for this is because when you help your enemy, you overcome your yetzer hara (evil urge). Furthermore, as my son pointed out to me, if you are nice to your enemy, he may become your friend.

The next question is who do you help first: unloading the donkey of your friend or loading the donkey of your enemy? The answer is loading your enemy’s donkey comes first. This shows us how important it is to help your enemy. But again I ask, since when are we allowed to have enemies? Aren’t we taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself?”

So now, let me finally answer the question: yes, we are allowed to have to have an enemy. If one person sees another person do a terrible crime, you are not only allowed to have hatred, but you are supposed to. The reason is because you cannot bring the person to court to be punished. A person can only be convicted if there are two witnesses. If there is only one witness and that witness brings the person to court, then that witness has actually committed a sin. But this witness did see something bad. Therefore, he is required to have hatred so the crime does not become small in his eyes. He must have hatred so he remembers that what he saw the other person do was wrong and should not be done. Although he cannot punish the person, he should not like what the person did.

But if the Torah tells us we are allowed to have an enemy, why does it tell us to go so far to say to help him. Why is it more important to help him more than to care for a suffering animal? It is to teach us a great lesson. We must learn to hate the act but not the person. The person might have done something bad, but the person is not a bad person. It was the act that was terrible, not the person. People sometimes do bad things and we should not like those bad acts. But we should never hate a person. We are still required to “Love our Neighbor as Ourselves.”

Good Shabbos!
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Any questions, comments, or good poetry should be sent to [email protected].

By Rabbi Yaacov Seltzer
[email protected]
(305) 652-0186