#I've seen a lot of religious rhetoric used to justify hate recently (both against Jews and Muslims)
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Noteworthy in this respect is the statement of Rabbi Elijah Gaon on the verse, “But Esau I hated” – “this refers to the peripheral part of Esau, but the essential part of him, his head, was interred with the patriarchs.” It is for this reason that the man of truth and integrity, Jacob, said [on his reunion with Esau], “I have seen you, and it is like seeing the face of G-d.” (Gen. 33:10) His word shall not go down as a vain utterance. The brotherly love of Esau and Jacob, Isaac and Ishmael, will assert itself above all the confusion that the evil brought on by our bodily nature has engendered. It will overcome them and transform them into eternal light and compassion.
-Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook in a letter to Rabbi Pinchas HaKohen Lintup of Birz, 1908
Quoted by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Covenant and Conversation, 2008
#judaism#jumblr#rav kook#rabbi jonathan sacks#jews and judaism#religion#I've seen a lot of religious rhetoric used to justify hate recently (both against Jews and Muslims)#and this quote always comforts me#his word shall not go down as a vain utterance!!#Rav Kook believed that ultimately brotherly love between Jews and Christians ('Esau') and Muslims ('Ishmael') would win out#would be stronger than any of our human frailties or conflicts#and I choose to believe that too#even at the times it seems furthest away I choose to believe it all the more
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