We continue with the negativity of Sinat Hinam/Baseless Hatred and why it’s worse than the three cardinal sins.
The Chafetz Chaim, in his sefer Ahavat Yisrael (chapter 2), says that it’s rare to have sin that a person transgresses consistently. If a person eats a ham sandwich, he’s not getting a constant intravenous ham drip. He may eat it from time to time. But the person that does the sin of Sinat Hinam is doing it constantly. Hatred is aroused in his heart every second. Sometimes his hatred can last a month, a year, or longer. It’s like an old pinball machine with a ball that bounces back-and-forth. It hits one thing and suddenly, boom- 10,000 points. Sina is one of those things that just racks up negative points. He says that a disease is easier to get out if it hasn’t been in the body that long, There is more hope. But if it is there for a very long time, it is harder to get out.
So too with the soul- if the sin is there for a long time, and it is deeply entrenched, it’s very, very hard to get it out.
Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein, in his volume on Emunah, explains that most sins are one time events, they are just details, so it’s easy to do Teshuva for them. But Sinat Hinam comes from from Middot Raot/Bad character traits. These become the nature of a person. Wearing shaatnez is not a person’s nature. It’s a detail. But a bad middah like Sina reflects your whole outlook on life. It becomes your essence, and to undo an essence is extremely difficult.
That’s why this is the kind of sin becomes entrenched. It becomes the person’s being. It’s not just an action, it’s a feeling and emotion. It’s a thought. It’s very hard to change that.
But, B’ezrat Hashem, tomorrow, we will try to get some hope for how to change it.
Have a wonderful day.