We continue with the words of the Bet HaLevi, in his MaAmar Ahavat Yisrael:
דִּכְמוֹ דְּאַהֲבָה הָוֵי כְּלַל כָּל הַתּוֹרָה כְּמוֹ כֵן גַּם הַשִּׂנְאָה הוּא מָבוֹא וְשַׁעַר לְכָל הָעֲבֵרוֹת הַחֲמוּרוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה
Just like loving your friend is the klal of the whole Torah ( as it says V’Ahavta L’Re’echa Kamocha, ze Klal Gadol b’Torah- if you wanted to teach a convert the whole Torah on one foot it would be Love your friend like you love yourself) , so too is the opposite/
Sina, hating your friend is the path and the gate to all the very severe sins in the Torah.
In other words, everything has a flip side.
The is a Klal Gadol for the good and a Klal Gadol for the bad.
If you had to take all the sins of the Torah and teach them on one foot, it would be that hating will bring one to all sins.
In his sefer Ahavat Yisrael (chapter 2), the Chafetz Chaim says that the reason Sinat Hinam/ baseless hatred is so stringent is because it’s the cause for so many other sins. It causes machloket/arguments, lashon hara, gossip, teasing, embarrassment, slander and even murder.
He quotes the Sifri that says that the rule that one sin causes another, and cites a pasuk in Devarim which introduces murder with hate, where the Midrash explains that the murder doesn’t just happen by itself though natural events. Rather, the sin of hate creates a tumah, a negative energy, or a contamination, due to that sin, and that, in turn, causes the next sin.
It’s not just on a natural level, but on a super natural level.
We saw this with Kayin and Hevel. It started with hatred and it came to murder.
The final words here by the Chafetz Chaim are: This is the rule-
All the difficulties that we are going through in the world, their beginning and their root, is Sinat Hinam.
It might not be It, but it caused every thing.
It’s the underlying cause, which is why it’s so severe.