There is a site called 21 days of Ahavas Yisroel which is a great idea for this time of year.
Here is the description (with permission) from their home page:
This time of year is traditionally one of mourning for the Jewish people. Starting on 17th of Tammuz (July 19) and culminating on the 9th of Av (August 9), this period commemorates the destruction of the second Temple and the end of the Jewish sovereignty some 2000 years ago.
Since that time we have lived in exile, moving from one country to another, often being openly despised and hated by our host nations. What was it that brought the nation of Israel to such a lowly state for so many centuries? Our sages tell us it was ‘Sinas Chinam,’ or senseless hatred, of one another.
What better reaction can we have than to make these days a time when we focus on acts of senseless love of all Jews, regardless of any difference we may have.
Each day during the Three Weeks we will post a different story of Ahavas Yisroel. The hope is that these stories will inspire us to to strengthen our own efforts in this area.
Send us your stories! Tell us any incident of how you succeeded in the mitzvah (good deed) of Ahavas Yisroel (loving Jews), no matter how small. Together, one small step at a time, we can change the world
Two wildly disparate rabbonim, perhaps united only by their overwhelming love for Klal Yisroel wrote on the subject of Ahavas Yisroel: Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim zatzal; and Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League and the Kach party, HY”D.
The Chofetz Chaim’s sefer, available in clear plain readable English, discusses Ahavas Yisroel in the practical form of starting a free loan society. Mostly what we would today refer to as “microloans,” the amounts lent out could be small, but necessary, for the participants.
Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D talked about Ahavat Chinam, as opposed to Sinat Chinam, in his classic book, Never Again. Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred, was supposedly the reason why the Bayit Sheni was destroyed. Rabbi Kahane advocated Ahavat Chinam, unconditional love, for all Jews. (As for non-Jews, well, Rabbi Kahane said, “Behind every Jew a .22” This was in the brutal nineteen-seventies when elderly Jews were fair game for muggers.
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin also has a sefer on Ahavas Yisroel, Love Thy Neighbor, showing various forms of practical chesed both in the Chumash and in narratives from real life.
Maybe R. Eisenmann should try Eichler’s or Z. Berman’s. I believe that there are quite a few other works that discuss Ahavas Yisroel and practical ways of showing kindness to others (maybe ask for works on Chesed as well).
R Eisenmann from Passaic recently wrote that when he was in Biegeleisen’s and looked and/or asked for Seforim on Ahavas Yisarel, he was shown two pamphlets, as opposed to a stack of seforim which are available on any other topic in that wonderful store. Perhaps, if Ahavas Yisrael was viewed as a mitzvah with Chumros and Hidurim in the same manner as Shabbos and Tefilah, etc, we would all pay a lot more attention to such a fundanmental Mitzvah.
Sometimes I refrained from hitting the “Submit” button in the comments on Beyond BT.