On Motzaei Tisha B’Av, I saw a picture circulating online. Jews of every imaginable background – religious and secular, from different communities and with different hashkafot – standing together at the Kotel, singing and dancing in a circle.

After a day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, after mourning the sinat chinam that our Sages teach contributed to the Churban, seeing Jews embrace one another felt deeply moving. It reminded us that beneath our disagreements, beneath the labels we use to define ourselves, we remain one people.

But as I looked at that picture, I found myself asking:

What exactly were we witnessing?

Or was it something else?

Perhaps it was ahavat Yisrael – the love and concern that every Jew should have for another Jew.

Perhaps it was shalom – the ability to stand together peacefully despite profound differences.

But perhaps achdut demands something even deeper.

Because achdut is not simply standing beside one another during a meaningful moment. It means building together. It means sharing institutions, communities, and a collective future even when we disagree about fundamental questions.

And that is much harder.

We often use the words ahavat Yisrael, shalom, and achdut interchangeably.

But they represent three different levels of Jewish connection.

Ahavat Yisrael: Loving Every Jew

Ahavat Yisrael means loving every Jew.

The Rambam writes that one is obligated to love another Jew as oneself. This includes speaking positively about others, protecting their dignity, caring for their welfare, and seeking their good. The Ramban explains that we should genuinely desire blessing for another Jew just as we desire blessing for ourselves.

That obligation does not disappear because someone has a different hashkafah or because we believe he is mistaken.

Indeed, although Chazal discuss circumstances in which one may distance oneself from someone who rejects Torah, those categories are far more limited than we sometimes assume. The Torah still commands us to help such a person. The Gemara teaches that God desires repentance, not destruction. The Tanya teaches that even when we reject someone’s actions, we must recognize the Divine spark within him. And the Chafetz Chaim and Chazon Ish argue that in our generation, when many Jews are distant from Torah because of circumstance, upbringing, or lack of exposure rather than deliberate rejection, we must be extremely cautious before applying categories that would separate us from them.

Ahavat Yisrael therefore begins with........

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