Pirkei Avot has plenty to say about love, respect and kindness to others. In contrast, through the entire tractate, the word sina, “hate”, is mentioned only once when Shamayah says (at 1:10):
אֱהוֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל
תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת
“Love work, hate mastery over others, and avoid
intimacy with the government”.
What does
the verb sina mean? English translations offer us several synonyms:
·
Abhor (R’
Eliyahu Touger);
·
Despise
(ArtScroll Publications; R’ Yaakov Hillel; R’ Avie Gold and R’ Nahun Spirn).
·
Hate (Hirsch
Pirkei Avos; Lehmann-Prins Pirkei Avoth; R’ Lord Jonathan Sacks; R’ Chanoch
Levi; R. Travers Herford).
·
Loathe (chabad.org;
Me’am Lo’ez).
Commentators
are unanimous in their conclusion that this sinah is to be directed at
the holding of office as such, not at those people who hold it. There are other
mishnayot that deal with them: in short, we should pray for the welfare of the government
(3:2) but should remain cautious when it comes to dealing with those who hold
the reins of power (2:3).
R’ Manning bases
his case on the mitzvah of lo tisna (Leviticus 91:17). Usually rendered
“You must not hate your brother in your heart”, it really means that you must
not reject him. In Tanach it is not sinah that means hate but sitmah.
On this basis, we understand that God did not view Leah as being “hated” as
much as rejected—Jacob’s second-best option (Genesis 29:31).
If sina
in Shamayah’s mishnah means “reject”, we see that his teaching dovetails neatly
with that of R’ Nechunya ben Hakanah at Avot 3:6. There he explains that there
is a negative correlation between taking up civic and governmental
responsibilities and learning Torah, the implication being that one should
reject positions of authority if one wishes to enhance one’s Torah commitment.
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