42 | MAY 9 • 2024 
J
N

A

t the center of the 
mosaic books is 
Vayikra. At the cen-
ter of Vayikra is the “holiness 
code” (Chapter 19) with its 
momentous 
call: “You shall 
be holy because 
I, the Lord 
your God, am 
holy.” And at 
the center of 
Chapter 19 is a 
brief paragraph 
which, by its positioning, is 
the apex, the high point, of 
the Torah:
 
 “Do not hate your brother in 
your heart. 
 You must surely admonish 
your neighbor and not bear sin 
because of him. 
 Do not take revenge or bear 
a grudge against the children of 
your people. 
 Love your neighbor as 
yourself. I am God.
” (Vayikra 
19:17-18)

I want, in this study, to 
examine the second of these 
provisions: “You must surely 
admonish your neighbor and 
not bear sin because of him.”

Rambam and Ramban 
agree in seeing two quite 
different levels of meaning 
in this sentence. This is how 
Rambam puts it:
“When one person sins 
against another, the latter 
should not hate him and 
remain silent. As it is said 
about the wicked: ‘And 
Absalom spoke to Amnon 
neither good nor evil, 
although Absalom hated 
Amnon.’ Rather, he is com-
manded to speak to him and 
to say to him, ‘Why did you 
do such-and-such to me? 
Why did you sin against me 
in such-and-such a matter?’ 
As it is said, ‘You must surely 
admonish your neighbor.’ If 
he repents and requests for-
giveness from him, he must 
forgive and not be cruel, as it 
is said, ‘And Abraham prayed 
to God …’
“If someone sees his fellow 
committing a sin or embark-
ing on a path that is not good, 
it is a commandment to make 
him return to the good and to 
make known to him that he is 
sinning against himself by his 
evil actions, as it is said, ‘You 
must surely admonish your 

neighbor …’”
Likewise, Ramban:
“‘You shall surely remon-
strate with your neighbor’ 
— this is a separate com-
mand, namely that we must 
teach him the reproof of 
instruction. ‘And not bear sin 
because of him’ — for you 
will bear sin because of his 
transgression if you do not 
rebuke him.”
However, it seems to me 
that the correct interpretation 
is that the expression “you 
shall surely remonstrate” is 
to be understood in the same 
way as “And Abraham remon-
strated with Avimelech.” The 
verse is thus saying: “Do not 
hate your brother in your 
heart when he does some-
thing to you against your 
will, but instead you should 
remonstrate with him, saying, 
‘Why did you do this to me?’ 
and you will not bear sin 
because of him by covering 
up your hatred in your heart 
and not telling him, for when 
you remonstrate with him, he 
will justify himself before you 
or he will regret his action 
and admit his sin, and you 
will forgive him.”

TWO INTERPRETATIONS
The difference between the 
two interpretations is that one 
is social, the other interper-
sonal. On Rambam’s second 
and Ramban’s first reading, 
the command is about col-
lective responsibility. When 
we see a fellow Jew about to 
commit a sin, we must try 
to persuade him not to do 
so. We are not allowed to 
say, “That is a private matter 
between him and God.” 
“All Israel,” said the Sages, 
“are sureties for one another.” 
We are each responsible, not 
only for our own conduct, 
but for the behavior of others. 
That is a major chapter in 
Jewish law and thought.
However, both Rambam 
and Ramban are aware that 
this is not the plain sense of 
the text. Taken in context, 
what we have before us is a 
subtle account of the psychol-
ogy of interpersonal relations.
Judaism has sometimes 
been accused by Christianity 
of being about justice rather 
than love (“You have heard 
that it was said, ‘Love your 
neighbor and hate your 
enemy.’ But I tell you: Love 

Of Love and Hate

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

