What Is Sinat Chinam, or Baseless Hatred?

For Tisha B'Av, a look at the common explanation for the Temple's demise.

On Tisha B’Av, Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple. The rabbis of the Talmud blamed the demise of the Temples (both the first and second ones) and other Jewish tragedies on sinat chinam, Hebrew for baseless hatred. Watch the video below to learn more about what this concept really means.

 

This video was created by AlephBeta.org. In it, Rabbi David Fohrman explores the fascinating Talmudic allegorical narrative of the characters Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, looking carefully at the connection between the different episodes of the story as a window into our own tendencies to anger. You can watch part 2 by clicking here.

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