Sinas Hinam, your hate for nothing, your love for free

There is this jingle that states that the destruction of the 2nd temple was because of the Sinas Hinam or worthless “free” hate. There are two problems with the statement:

1) This is a grotesque oversimplification of the global cataclysm that determined the course of the world civilization for the millennia. Certainly there were many factors that predetermined the outcome. Perhaps it was the taliban fanatics that refused to compromise with the Romans. Perhaps it was the religious strife itself. Is there a way to have a value judgment without being castigated to the category of people with the finger on the nuclear chain reaction? What did Rabbi Yohannan felt towards the zealots when he was carried from Jerusalem in a coffin, hiding in his heart the plan that mapped the future of the people? Did he hate the zealots? How does one supposed to feel towards the meshichiten lead by Rabbi Akiva that undermined forever the remnants of the Judean kingdom?

2) The second issue with the “sinas hinah” is the linguistic pare itself. Why sina is hinam “free”? I can just see a group of OU rabbis on a convention, scratching their yarmulkas, thinking how they are going to sell the hurban to Jews. Suddenly one of them has a brilliant idea to hire a Madison Ave. PR firm, the same firm that was responsible for creating the byline “just do it” for the Nike. Next thing you know a bunch of metrosexuals roll in with the laptos and pull the “sinas himan” out of the context of the Talmudic conversation. That’s it they exclaim: “Just “sinas hinam”. You kill two birds with one stone - distract Jews from the factual contemplation of the hurban but even more, in an underhanded attack of the geeks you will castigate the importance of any feelings! You will take the strongest feeling one can experience and you will declare that it is nothing, worthless, hinam. Great! Applauded the Rabbis.

But seriously there is a clean hate, the one that shoots like an arrow and there is a hate for other reasons. Often an object of hate is a convenient target for all the negative projections. How to hate and love cleanly is the greatest mystery but no, this is not why the temple was destroyed.