We keep quoting ‘baseless love’ as the cure for baseless hatred. But the Torah inserts a step in between that we’ve quietly stopped practicing.

We have more ways to communicate than any generation in history. We can respond instantly to almost anyone, anywhere.

Yet we seem to have forgotten how to disagree without destroying the relationship.

Public life rewards certainty over curiosity. Social media rewards performance over persuasion. We have become skilled at broadcasting our convictions and unpracticed at creating the conditions in which another human being might actually change.

That may be why the message of the Three Weeks feels so urgent.

Every year we repeat the same lesson: the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred. The obvious conclusion follows: the cure must be ahavat chinam, baseless love.

It’s a beautiful slogan. I’m just not convinced it’s the first step.

No one decides over breakfast to love the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)