Does the Torah really teach people to hate their enemies?

Does the Torah really teach people to hate their enemies?                FFOZ teaching
Part 1:
Does the Torah really command us to hate our enemies? Yeshua said, “You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matt 5:43). This makes it sound as if Yeshua was replacing the Torah’s law “to hate our
enemies” with a new law of love for our enemies: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This interpretation plays well into the hands of those who believe that Yeshua came to replace the Torah with a new law.

While it certainly is true that the Torah says, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), it contains no commandment to hate your enemy. Instead Yeshua contradicted what must have been a popular adage among the Zealots: “Love your neighbour, but hate your enemy.” That is to say, “Love your fellow-Jew (your neighbour), but hate the Romans.” The Dead Sea community in Qumran went even further. They taught their followers to “love all the sons of light  and hate all the sons of darkness,” understanding the sons of light as members of their own sect and sons of darkness to be other Jews outside of their sect (Dead Sea Scrolls).

These sentiments do not derive from the Torah. Regarding the fellow-Jew, Torah explicitly says, “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart” (Leviticus 19:17). The Torah requires a man to love even the stranger: “You shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34). Instead of instructing people to hate their enemies, the Torah requires us to show kindness to enemies and assist them when they fall into difficulty (Exodus 23:5, Deuteronomy 23:7). The Proverbs say, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Proverbs 24: 17).

The Master brought a correction to those who tried to justify hatred for their enemies. He told His disciples that, if they want to enter the kingdom, they must love their enemies, bless them instead of cursing them, and do good to them instead of
evil. He told His disciples to pray for their persecutors: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Rabbi Yeshua told His disciples that if they show love to their enemies, they prove themselves to be sons of their Father in Heaven: ‘But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45)

His disciples are to show men impartiality, just as God sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous and causes the sun to rise on both the wicked and the good. As the Talmud says, “The day of rainfall comes for both the righteous and for
the wicked.” (b.Ta’anit 7a). So, too, Yeshua’s disciples must demonstrate kindness and civility to both friend and foe.

Praying for One’s Enemies
Part 2:
Yeshua told disciples that, if they want to enter the kingdom, they must love their enemies, bless them instead of cursing them, and do good to them instead of evil. He told His disciples to pray for their persecutors: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

The principle of loving one’s enemies is NOT a call to pacifism, nor does it ask us to conjure up warm feelings of affection for those who hate us and mistreat us. One is not required to like his enemy. The love we are to express toward our enemies consists of acts of kindness which accord the enemy common dignity and recognize his basic humanity. The instruction to love an enemy applies on a personal level of individual interaction. Our Master did not mean that nations and governments should appease aggressors with acts of loving kindness.

Yeshua told his disciples to pray for their enemies. A fragmentary saying of the Master discovered on papyrus in the deserts of Egypt puts it this way: “Pray for your enemies, for he who is not against you is for you. He that stands far off today will tomorrow be near you.”

The Didache takes the matter a step further and instructs the believer to go so far as fasting on behalf of one’s enemy:
Pray for your enemies; fast for those who persecute you, for what special favor do you merit if you love those who love you? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? However, you are to love those who hate you, and you will not have any enemies. (Didache 1:3)

Do not hate any human being; but some you are to rebuke, and some you are to pray for, yet some you are to love even more than your own life. (Didache 2:7)
The disciples took Yeshua’s words literally and prayed for their persecutors. Thanks to those prayers, their most fierce pursuer, Paul of Tarsus, later became a believer and a strong advocate for their faith. Years later, Paul instructed the believers in Rome to show love for their enemies:
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse … If your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. (Romans 12:14, 20)
The Talmud also relates a story which illustrates the power of prayer for those who persecute you and vex you. Once there were some bandits living near Reb Meir who were very troublesome to him. Reb Meir prayed that they should die. His wife Beruria said to him, “What makes you think a prayer like that is permissible? … Instead you should pray for them that they will repent, and then there will be no more wicked.” Meir prayed for them, and they repented. (b.Berachot 10a)