Does God Hate? - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

she asked me a question uh in the fellowship connection which and it caused me pause and it demanded reflection and she wanted to know why in light of my teaching about unconditional love that Hashem she wants to know why hasem declared in the first three verses of the book of Mali what appeared to be a declaration that he hated Esau says a pronouncement the word of God to Israel through I have shown you love said God but you asked how have you shown us love after all declares God Esau is Jacob's brother yet I have accepted Jacob and have hated Esau I have made his Hills of desolation his territory a home for Beasts of the desert and so she wanted to know such a thing as possible considering my teaching about how hasem loves us unconditionally do and so I had an answer that I was going to give that I wanted to give but I wanted to wait wait a second because you know you're asked a question and your ego wants to give an answer but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just that that's what was happening because the answer that was on the tip of my tongue that I was going to give didn't feel like the deepest answer of my the answer to April's question comes down to an issue of the translation of the words the word in that verse in Mali in Hebrew that asav that asav so from the word from the word which usually does mean hated usually would you read and as I hated usually other than in the case when that word is used in contrast with the word love when the word sin which usually means hate is used in immediate contrast with the word a love it actually does not mean hate but rather it means loved less intensely less intimately now if this sounds like Acro acrobatics or apologetics to you you don't have to take my word for it you just look in the text itself the simple meaning of the text which testifies to this truth in any Bible it doesn't even need to be a Jewish translation of the Bible any Bible the first verse which I believe best demonstrates this is in Genesis describing the contrasting emotions that Jacob had for Rachel and so let's look inside seeing that Leia was unloved this is the translation from the in in a Jewish T is translated here as unloved or less loved so seeing the Leia was unloved hasem opened her womb but Rachel was bar notice the word SN right is used there but clearly it does not mean hated if you buy a Jewish tanak like JPS or art scroll I believe that they would all translate the words SN in this context not as hated but rather as unloved or less loved which we can also see just from the simple text of the preceding verse right it says and Jacob also cohabited with Rachel indeed he also loved Rachel more than Leia and he served him another seven years so did you get that so you can see from the simple translation of the clear text of the verse that he did love Leia the simple translation of the text itself says it there Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leia meaning he did love Leia but it says snah because when used in contrast to a greater love sua means a lesser love not a hatred here's one more verse um and and there's more we could really get into this but um it's from Deuteronomy chapter 21 if a householder has two wives one loved and the other snua which means hated usually but unloved because it's being contrasted with the previous word as loved and both the loved and the unloved have born Sons to him but the firstborn is the son of the unloved one here too the word snua clearly does not mean hated but less loved and so too when you look at the verse right before the verse that April so beautifully quoted in Mali chapter 1 verse3 we see that the worda describing God's feelings towards Esau was indeed expressed in contrast to the verse right before it it says I have shown you love said God but you asked how have you shown us love after all declares God Esau is Jacob's brother yet I have accepted Jacob clearly hasm is contrasting his feelings for as with those of yob with the word a with the words of Jacob with as he used the word love a and so I would say that it's even irrefutably clear that the word snua in this context does not mean hate I'm not aware that there's even actually any argument at least on our side of things about this just to go a little bit further here the words of Rabbi cook you know this question from April like all the heavy weights weigh in on this it was a good question here are the words of Rabbi cook discussing exactly this issue he says noteworthy in this respect is the statement of Rabbi Elijah gaon the villon on the verse but Esau I hated this refers to the peripheral part of Esau but the essential part of him his head was in interred with the Patriarchs meaning there's a teaching that when asau went to contest Jacob's burial that that kushim the son of Don cut off his head and it rolled into the cave and it was buried there that is a very well-founded belief and understanding from the sages anyways it is for this reason that the man of Truth and integrity Jacob said on his reunion with Esau I have seen you and it is like seeing the face of God his word shall not go down as a vain utterance the Brotherly Love of Esau and Jacob Isaac and Ishmael will assert itself above all the conclusion that the evil brought on by our bodily nature as in gendered it will overcome them and transform them into eternal light and compassion now keep in mind this is the same rough cook that that they say died from the pain of the massacres in 1929 that the children of Ishmael did yet he was able to still see all the way he could see their essence that that Essence that that part deep in their soul from Abraham that that in the end of days would be transformed into great light into eternal light and compassion and so verbatim this is how Rabbi saaks brings it together he says Rook believed that just is in the Torah Jacob and Esau Isaac and Ishmael were eventually reconciled so will Judaism Christianity and Islam be in the future they will not cease to be different but they would learn to respect one another the point touches upon a fundamental of Judaism what does it mean when we call Jews the chosen people does it mean that in choosing Jacob God rejected Esau or that in choosing Abraham God rejected Humanity God forbid in the Torah God Appears to several non-jews among them Abraham's contemporary maled maled described in the Torah as a priest of the god most high one of the great heroins of the Bible by the woman who saved Moses's life was an Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter and so on we have so many We Believe As a matter of principle that the righteous of the Nations have a share in the world to come so when when Jacob was chosen Esau was not rejected God does not reject that's what Rabbi saxs says