NOTES for Exo 23:1-33
Love of one’s enemies is commonly thought to be an exclusively Gospel, New Testament virtue. In reality, as we can see, the corresponding rules already exist in the legislation of the Book of Exodus, and they exist as law, not as a mere wish or piece of advice. This is not yet love as an enduring relationship; rather, it concerns actions that presuppose such a relationship. Relationships themselves, after all, cannot be prescribed by law.
The law can require a person to perform one action or another, but relationships are too subtle a matter for legislative regulation. The nature and meaning of an action do, however, point to the relationship it presupposes. Helping one’s enemy means, at the very least, the absence of hatred toward that enemy.
The absence of hatred does not in itself guarantee love, but it does at least make love possible. In practice, the absence of hatred is expressed precisely in the refusal to take revenge. The traditional rule reflected in the customary law of many peoples was that one should harm an enemy as much and in every way possible, for as long as that person remained an enemy.
Any harm was considered acceptable: all is fair in war. The Torah, by contrast, prescribes limits to hostility. Hostility must not become a war aimed at the enemy’s annihilation—this is the principal meaning of the relevant prescriptions. A situation in which an enemy has fallen into trouble, for example, should be a sign that hostilities against that enemy must be suspended.
Such a suspension means fair play: a person acknowledges the enemy as an enemy, but also acknowledges that this enemy does not deserve destruction at any price or in any possible form. This stance might be called nobility toward one’s enemy, the kind of nobility that was called chivalry in the Middle Ages. Above all, however, it is the recognition of a human being as human, the recognition that a person remains such for you even after becoming your enemy. This recognition is a necessary condition of love for one’s enemy, and the Torah seeks to guarantee it as far as legislation can.