THE ROOT OF JUSTICE IS LOVE
“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” – Cornel West
Although both love and justice are basic Jewish ideals, I have always considered them diametrical. Rabbinic tradition presents two aspects of God in tension with one another. Chesed, the boundless energy of divine love, is balanced by the restraining force of gevurah, “judgment,” that limits it.
Thinking of it in more human terms, when you love someone—a child, a spouse, a dear friend—you naturally treat him or her in a distinctive manner, separate from how you interact with the masses of humanity. You may act courteously toward a stranger you just met, but you will shower your loved one with special attention. Love necessarily entails favoritism, and favoritism is anathema to justice, which requires treating everybody equally.
Love is a feeling, but justice is a principle. Rabbi Art Green observes: “Some people are easier to love, some are harder. Some days you can love them, some days you can’t. But you still have to recognize and treat them all as the image of God. Love is too shaky a pedestal on which to stand the entire Torah.”
However, after my recent encounters with Beth Shalom member Austin Spier, renowned Jewish psychologist Erich Fromm, and Mayor John Hamilton of Bloomington, I’m not sure that I still view love and justice as antithetical. Perhaps it’s better to conceptualize love and justice as linked qualities, allies in the never-ending struggle to improve our personal relationships, communities and the world.
Austin’s Bar Mitzvah focused on the notorious “eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth” passage. Surely, punishment that strictly matches the crime demonstrates justice in its purest form; so why is that we recoil at “an eye for an eye?” Because it lacks any whiff of compassion. It seems that justice entirely lacking in love is not justice at all. (“Besides,” adds Austin, “if everyone decided to be a little nicer to one another, maybe the Torah’s harshest forms of punishment would not be necessary to begin with.”)
Under the influence of Erich Fromm, presented in last week’s “Finding God” discussion group, I also question whether love is a feeling after all. For Fromm, love is a discipline. In The Art of Loving, he writes: “Love is not primarily a relationship toward one object of love; it is an attitude, an orientation toward the entire world as a whole.” Fromm’s conception hearkens back to the Biblical word for love, ahavah. In the Torah, ahavah had a formal, legal connotation obligating two parties to a mutually binding covenant. Commandments such as you shall love Adonai your God and you shall love your neighbor as yourself imposed loyalty, respect, obedience (in the case of God), and justice (in the case of other human beings).
Likewise, we must not confuse love with passion, infatuation, or maudlin display. At last week’s Bloomington United rally in response to the threat of white supremacy in our community, Mayor John Hamilton reminded us of Martin Luther King’s famous words: “hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Then the mayor added: “This kind of love is not the Hallmark variety. Only love born of strength and conviction can stand up to racists and bigots.”
So, yes, in the end, love is indeed the foundation upon which the principle of justice rests, along with the entire corpus of Jewish law. All the commandments that legislate fairness, preserve human dignity and uphold basic rights are rooted in compassion and empathy. Love and justice are not opposites; rather, love comprises justice.
We each build circles of concern around ourselves. Our circles include those who are near and dear to us—spouses, parents, children, family and close friends. Some of our circles extend to our work associates, this congregation, the local community, or the Jewish people. Our primary religious obligation, it seems to me, is to constantly strive to widen the circle to encompass ever larger populations: people of color, LGBT people, people with mental illness, the incarcerated, immigrants, people holding political views contrary to ours…
When all classes of people are brought inside the circle of our love, then justice will roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.