B"H

It Is Permitted

There are those who would teach that "love conquers all" and that one
must love even the vilest of people.

Does not one naturally turn away in utter disgust by food that has
become thoroughly rotten? Who can bear the smell and sight of a
corpse at it rots?

It is permitted, then, to be utterly disgusted by that which is
morally vile.

It is not *our* love which causes another to repent. It is their own
desire to return which arises from their own Selves alone which
causes repentance. To think that we can love someone enough to make
them return to God is to be deluded and on an "ego trip".

We may certainly feel compassion for the misguided, pray for them,
want with all our hearts that they will return to the good and true
way, yet with all that we must keep ourselves at a distance from them
until they remove their stinking garments, cleanse themselves, dress
in clean garments and perfume themselves with good deeds so that they
may approach that which is holy.

When a person returns from spiritual disgrace their return is more
welcomed by God than is the service of those who are "good by nature".
That notwithstanding, so long as someone makes themselves vile with
sin and deception, we are permitted, in fact enjoined, to remove
ourselves from them in disgust as is the natural reaction to any dead
and rotting carcass.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat